How to price your coaching services and push money mindset blocks away

Limiting beliefs and money mindset blocks

1- “I can’t afford x”

If you’ve had this thought in your head before, today I want you to stop and reboot this mindset block. The most important limiting belief that can block your business abundance is thinking that every investment is directly an expense you can’t afford. 

I can’t tell you how many times someone has said to me: “I can’t afford a website right now”, or “I don’t have the budget for hiring a team”, etc. 

Let me paint a picture for you. What would happen if you saved up for 2-3 years until your cash flow allows you to have a proper marketing budget so that you can finally hire a team that can help you scale your business? Or if you speed up the process, if you asked for a loan and planned out your first year of operations? I bet that with more people wearing a hat under your brand name, your business would grow. 

And this limiting belief is also present in lifestyle choices. I used to feel bad about craving a brand new iPhone or wanting to spend “x” amount of money on clothes. And don’t get me wrong, I’m a conscious consumer that pursues minimalism, but I do like to give myself treats every once in a while and I don’t feel bad about spending a dime on me! That means vacations, spa days, clothes etc. 

You need to feel like you deserve to thrive in order to manifest abundance in your life. And I’m not talking about just the money aspect of things, it’s OK to allow yourself to enjoy and deserve whatever you want.

2- “I’ll never be as good as x”

Oh this is another one that always gets me rolling my eyes! When someone says they’ll never be as good as [whatever successful person in this world that they compare themselves to], what they really are saying is “I don’t want to try to be good enough”.

And you know what? If you struggle with this mindset block, what you can do is think about every single fear that makes you feel insecure and turn each fear into an action plan:

• I’m not experienced in sales or marketing → then take a course
• I don’t think my service is as good as “x”→ then what can you do to make it better?
• I think that until I have “x” amount of success, I could charge more → don’t let success determine your value, releasing your “job title” from your life can help

3- “I don’t think anyone will pay for my product or service”

This one is classic. I can’t tell you how many people have come to me saying that they’re afraid that their product or service is priced “too high”. This ties in with the previous limiting money mindset belief because it means that you alone don’t value enough whatever you have to offer.

Okay, so now that I got that off my shoulders, let’s cleanse your mind for a second so that you can put those money mindset blocks in a little briefcase with a lock inside your head. And do me a favor, lock them with a key and throw that key away! 

Are you ready to learn how to price your services in a way that brings you confidence and courage? 

How to value a service business

First and foremost, you need to understand the skills and assets that you bring to the table of any potential client. Ask yourself these questions:

• How many years of experience do I have in this service?
• What makes me different from the hundreds of other service providers in my niche?
• How do I make my client process valuable?
• How many steps are in my service?
• How many hours do I take to provide a full service
• And most importantly and my favorite: what is the energy exchange I’ll have for each service/project?

Understanding this will allow you to set a clear starting point such as: “I’ll never take on a project for less than “x” amount per hour”.

How to price your services

In order to create a comfortable pricing strategy that will allow you to build a marketing team and delegate certain tasks or areas of your business, you’ll need to pick a pricing strategy that works for your service based business. Here are some examples of what I mean.

8 pricing strategies for service based businesses

1- Establish an hourly rate

This one is pretty straightforward, but learning how to price your services starts with this basic strategy. Your hourly rate should be the minimum that you’d be willing to get paid for a valuable hour of your time, energy and expertise.

2- A fixed cost and markup

I use this strategy for web design projects where I calculated my hourly rate considering team members as well and outlined the list of standard activities a web design project has. This way I have a fixed cost of business expenses for each project and additionally I have a strategic markup that allows me to have a comfortable profit. 

3- By service buckets or packages

When you break up your services into packages it gives you so much clarity as to what you can include or sell separately for different scenarios or needs a client may have. For example, if you have a beauty spa, your basic package could be a standard facial, but you could bundle an experience of a full day-mani-pedi spa day and this way, create higher-ticket offers.

4- Charge a retainer 

Another way to learn how to price your services is to charge a certain amount upfront before a project and then break up a project into payment plans.

5- Collaborate with other service providers and establish commissions

This pricing strategy is very fun, because a lot of solopreneurs just stick to what they do best, but if you partner with other people in your niche, you could solve a larger part of a potential client’s problem and provide an all in one solution. Collaborating and establishing commissions is a great way to resell someone else’s services to your client with a markup, and this way it’s a win win for all!

6- Charge by the perceived value of the service in your niche

Some services don’t need a complex pricing strategy, and they just need to be in the perceived value of the niche. For example wedding or event planners typically charge very similar to what others charge in their niche.

7- Creating a custom quote based on the company size

I can’t tell you how much I regret not doing this from the very beginning when I started my business. Big projects have big budgets, and if you don’t take advantage of that you can definitely be undercharging and someone smarter will take that bigger piece of the pie. 

8- Charge with a gut feeling of the energy exchange of a project

Last but not least, this one is my favorite strategy for learning how to price your services. Because in the end, you should love what you do, and you should enjoy charging every penny. If you have a gut feeling that a client may not be the best fit for you, or that the energy exchange of a project is way over what you’re willing to do, it’s ok to politely decline projects or refer potential clients to someone else who may be a better fit. 

Getting a fair pay starts with valuing your own work and learning to charge with confidence

If there’s something I’ve learned in my humble entrepreneurial journey that I’ve been sharing on my slice of the Internet for a while now, it's that confidence and mindset are the secret magic ingredients that will allow your business to thrive. 

Remember that you can actually change the lives of those around you with how you make your service unique. And there’s no price tag on value. 

I’ve written about why dressing up is important for self love and empowerment and how to overcome the fear of starting a business, but if you want to get thoughtful advice about knowing your worth and elevating your storytelling join the mindful marketing newsletter, it’ll be here for you in the ups and downs as you scale to success!

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