Hey , CPA and profit strategist of own, your money and she helps female entrepreneurs manage and plan their business, so they can take control of their profits, we’re here to talk about freelancer pricing strategies and money mindset, let’s Dive In. I said not all revenue was created equal. What did you really mean by that? What that means is like? I think that sometimes particularly as we’re getting to our first, like five thousand dollars a month, we just say yes to everything right, we just say yes to all the work, we’re like a yes from yeah.
I can do that I’ll figure out how to do that. Yes I’ll do that right, even if sometimes it takes us a lot more hours to do the thing that we’re getting paid for right, we’re just saying: yes, we’re trying to get there, but now what happens? Is that, as you want to continue to grow, we need to start to create more leveraged work, where we are more based on value and we’re getting out of that time for dollars. I think, first and foremost, I want to see you create the value like get clear on the value in your ability to articulate the value, because what doesn’t work is, if you don’t have the expertise yet and you’re trying to charge really high prices. The last piece I’ll say to that too, is that oftentimes, the who helps determine the price, because I absolutely believe that there is a price for every buyer and a buyer for every price. As you do specialize, you will be able to more easily put out a different work.
Product right and you’ll be able to charge more for it, so I think, sometimes we’re afraid to Niche. But I actually feel like there’s so much power in niching down, because it just makes you so much easier to refer that I actually wanted to bring up another story. Somebody from our work group was talking about. Oh I’ve been with this client. We all know she has lots of money ready to like to increase my rates and then you know I’ve been with her just because I’ve been with a certain amount of time, it’s time to increase my rates and I’m like.
But what have you done? I’M like? Are you doing this? Are you tracking retention? Are you reporting this she’s like? No? No, no and I’m like. Well, I wouldn’t pay any more. I feel, like you kind of reached the cap for the service you’re, giving if you want to get to the next level like you need to be doing better, and I I don’t know if everyone gets that, because we just hear like charge what you’re worth or Increase your rates every six months every one year but like there’s, got to be the results behind it to get to that High Caliber client that you’re talking about in that Niche service. You know it’s not like. Oh excellent amount of time has passed. I mean if it’s like two years, we probably need to raise your rates, but it’s not something like three months or six months right.
It’s really looking at what you’re doing versus what you’re helping the person create, what you’re helping them deliver right and sometimes too, if you’re niching down then, like. Let’S say you Niche to coaches that have a high ticket program, and you know that what you’re doing is directly helping them create more applications and more sales for their business. Then you can kind of get really good at that and you can be like okay. What am I doing to be able to drive applications, whereas if you get really good at something, that’s driving to a lead, magnet, that’s a little bit different. It’S recognizing that you have the ability to get good at things, and then that can create more and more value, and then you can be charging more for certain skills that you have, that others don’t have. I was not even aware of money stories until I started this entrepreneurial journey and then I’m hearing my friends, talk about money blocks and I’m reading the book.
So, I’m like, oh God, this is real, and I didn’t I was like blissfully unaware, and I know you shared yours, but what are some other ones that are common, especially with Freelancers, if you’ve seen it. I think that some of the core ones are often about on the pricing side.
Let’s say like: can I charge that? Will people pay that am I worth that often it’s that we let our fear and our tendency to scarcity like to want to pull back. Instead of lean forward, a lot of it is just is to look at what you are telling yourself right in those moments when you have to say the price, when you see somebody else’s price, when you are working on a proposal when you’re working on something for A client like what just keep a little log in your journal in an Evernote, whatever you want, but just start to write down like what are the exact things that you are telling yourself to recognize like what is it and then, at the end of the week, Be like, where did I teach that to myself or who did I see that embodied that that thanks a lot of times, it’s our parents, it’s our grandparents right that say like you know, who am I to go that big? Who are you to charge that who are you to ask somebody for that right, yeah or like there’s, often the work harder like?
If I raise my prices, I have to put more in oh, I do that one, I’m goon and raise my hand for that. One – and I was totally guilty of this myself too, until I kind of realized like wait. A second. This isn’t really serving me is that element of I need to do more, because I’m charging more, and actually it gets back to that value. Conversation that I had to say actually how do I make what I’m charging more relative to the value that I’m creating instead of a level of effort and we think oftentimes, I just need to build my list. I just need to do more right and then I’ll make more and I’m like. No time out, you have resources at your fingertips in terms of being able to manage the money you’re making to be able to price yourself better, which is actually a faster path to more profits than potentially going out and getting more and more clients.
A lot of possibility in the money that you’re making and the clients that you have and where could you potentially there’s a gold mine in your current and your past client? My unicorns are in this spot, where they’re afraid to take that next step and start charging more and leaning into the value, leaning more into the strategy of what they’re providing and less of the implementation work. So, what’s really going on here I mean, I think you and I talked about this money mindset, question of like scarcity, right yeah. I mean I think that there’s this element of like no one is going to come in and give you permission to do your profit plan to figure out how many clients do I want at what price will that get me to the goal that I want?
I have a gift that we’ll give everybody today is my pay yourself, calculator right and so use that to figure out. What do I want to make and what are your business expenses and then do you have any debt to pay off or other savings that you want to grow and then it will figure out at a minimum? You need to be making this, and so once you have that information, you’re like okay, I need to be making six thousand dollars.
Let’s just say a month, then you can say: okay. Well, what are all the different ways that I can make that and then you, you literally just run very basic math right and you start to like reverse engineer it in a way that pays you what you want and provides the value that you want externally I’ll Say it right here, anytime, you get more involved with connecting to driving more leads and more sales. You can charge more, you help be the path to cash for your clients right, and so, if you can help them see. Okay, if we lean into this, if I put in more time, if I put in more time with engagement or if I have someone on my team – do more with engagement, then let’s start to set some goals right, because then what you can do is you can Take things that feel qualitative and make them quantitative we’re training to be this employee, and I think that we’re often treating our businesses like we are the overworked employee in the business, and I want this to be your wake-up call to say.
Actually, you are the CEO of a business, and I know you don’t want to be in it for the money, but your business needs money to survive. You know it’s not. You can’t just like pay your mortgage with. That was really great and thank yous. You know, like you, need real cash to pay your mortgage and to buy groceries right and so use this as that wake-up call to be like right. I need to be the CEO of my business. What I call the cash flow CEO, because you are aware of your numbers, your prioritizing profit, you’re, creating the leverage right and you are giving yourself freedom and profit in your business, this cost of inaction. Can we just unpack this for a hot? Second? What is that?
Like how we face these numbers, because that is always what I see what I could be earning and what I’m leaving on the table and how this is taking away from my family. It always Spurs me yeah, and I think that’s actually a really good point too, that you need to know why you want to make more money, and I think that sometimes is a little bit of a disconnect in that, in that it just feels like this intangible Out there money thing right and it’s like money is actually the thing: that’s paying the mortgage, that’s paying the groceries, it’s helping! You take the vacations it’s paying for the kids activities and for you to get clear on okay, how much more money do I want to make and why right so once you can start to realize that then maybe you can let that help drive you to work Through the fears – because you may have some fears when you’re raising your rates when you’re putting yourself out there in this bigger way, so the cost of an action essentially has you think about.
Okay, if I keep charging this rate right, then what am I going to be earning, whereas if I actually go out more boldly and charge this rate and do this higher value service? What could I make? It’S really helpful to say: okay, if I keep going at this rate, this is what I’ll be making. If I raise it, this is what I’ll be making, and this is what happens if I wait, and I don’t raise it for three months or 12 months and then you start to see and you’re like holy cow.
That’s like ten thousand dollars that I’m not making because I’m still charging this lower rate, and you actually start to see that every day every week, every month that you’re under charging. Not only are you resenting clients right and feeling less than because you know that you’re under charging, like it’s absolutely taking you down rungs on that self-worth chart, but, moreover you’re not making the money that you could be making because you’re not acting and asking I mean I just have to say that client resentment, that’s real, that’s real! At the end of the day, when you’re not happy about your work, when you just resent that the time you’ve like given to this client like that’s, not why we’re freelancing – and you talked about your – why but there’s this oh there, part of us is freelancing because We want freedom and we do want fun.
That’s probably why we went into business right was to have the ability to do the things that are fun for us right to be able to enjoy our roles, and the overarching message here right is to get that, like you, are in control of your business and that you are the cause here, so let’s create the effect that we want right.
It’s not that your business is happening to you right you and or that life is happening to you. It’S that life is happening for you. Life is happening because of you. So, how can you look at your business and say what is the business that I actually want? How much do you want to get paid? What are the hours that you want to work right? What are the types of things you want to be doing? Who are the clients that you want to work with and declare that get clear on that vision, and then we will move mountains to help you get there. Oh, my gosh, you dropped so much good gold here and I mean my big takeaway here and this isn’t new too, but we have to stop letting fear, hold us back and put ourselves first right.
You can grab Belinda’s pay yourself calculator in the link below and go listen to. The full episode over on unicorns unite on your favorite podcast listening.
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