When Charging More Leaves Some People Out|

Business and Marketing for Massage and Bodywork Therapists

Episode 38.

MINDY TOTTEN:

Hey, Hey there. Welcome back to the Do It With Intention podcast. I'm your host Mindy Totten,

We have been talking inside The Bodywork Project about today's topic a great deal in the past couple of weeks. What do you do when charging more for your services leaves some people out. How do you deal with that? It is so, so hard, but I want to share today a couple of things that I've learned in my 16 years of having my own practice.

[00:02:03] I hope that these ideas will give you some food for thought and we'll perhaps give you permission to charge premium prices for your premium services. So let's jump right in. First of all, pricing depends on so, so many things, both personally and professionally. How many people you see, if you have other streams of income, what your living expenses are, you may not need to raise your rates.

[00:02:31] You might be perfectly fine charging what you're charging right now, but if you're not coming from a full cup, you cannot truly be of service to others. I remember back when I probably had been in business like four or five years at that point, and I wanted to raise my prices, but I had this very strong conviction that it was wrong to charge more for my services.

[00:03:00] I didn't think, maybe there was some part of me that didn't think I deserved it. I don't, I don't know if that's so much, but I just didn't think that it was fair somehow that, you know, I'm a. A huge believer in helping other people. I care very much about social justice. I care about other people in the world.

[00:03:21] And so the idea of me charging premium prices for premium services just didn't go down very well with me. But I remember. As I said, about four or five years into it, I was sitting there one day I was working on somebody and I was doing fine work. I thought that everything was okay and people were getting good results, but after this particular client left, I noticed that there was a bit of heaviness on my chest and I was having a little bit of difficulty breathing, and what was happening was that I was suffering from some anxiety.

[00:03:56] And when I was really honest with myself, I recognize that that anxiety was around not being able to pay my bills, not being able to be financially stable, and looking back on it now, I realize I 100% recognized that I could not do my very best work at that point because I was not coming from a full cup.

[00:04:22] Because I was nervous and having anxiety about paying my bills, even though most of the time it was on a non-conscious level. I didn't go around and say, no, I can't pay my bills, but there was some part of me that felt financially insecure. I wasn't able to be fully present for my clients. There was some part of me that was worrying about, you know.

[00:04:45] Paying the credit card bill or paying the mortgage that month or whatever it was, and I couldn't be 100% present. I couldn't be a hundred percent neutral for my clients. If that sounds familiar to you, I want you to think about this idea that. If you are not coming from a full cup, you are not being of service as much as you could be to the people who need your work.

[00:05:11] So that's point number one. No matter what you charge, you need to make sure that you can cover your finances, you can cover your bills so that you can come from a full cup and be fully present for your clients. The second thing is there is no perfect price for your offerings. No price is right for everyone.

[00:05:33] Think about that. Even if you decided you were going to offer your services free of charge, you know, maybe you just had a, you know. A huge trust fund or something and finances weren't an issue for you at all. You just wanted to do this work and you wanted to do it free of charge. There would still be people who would not want to work with you because of the pricing of your services.

[00:05:58] Money psychology tells us that. Often people think that if something is free or very low cost, that it's not the same value as something that is more expensive. We see that all the time with, for example, cars. You know, some people just want to buy the best top of the line car rather than just something that will get them around because they think they're getting better quality.

[00:06:22] Whether that's true or not. If the price is higher, and that's the same with bodywork. So even if you charged, you know, free, like I said, or maybe $5 per session, there will be people who will not come to you because that price is not right for them. Just like if you charge a higher rate. You will be leaving some people out.

[00:06:43] There will be people who won't come to you because they cannot afford, or they, it's generally not that they cannot afford. It's often that they will not or choose not to make body work a priority, so they're not willing to put that money toward their body work and their health, and that's an absolutely valid thing.

[00:07:01] There's no judgment there. They choose to put their money elsewhere. That's completely fine. Just like if you charge less, there are going to be people who churches to put their money elsewhere. So think about that moving forward. There is no perfect price going too low or too hot. There's no perfect price.

[00:07:19] You've got to use a price that resonates with you. And we do. We go into this and the bodywork project, as I said, but there's also a master class that I have called how to raise your rates. You know, raising your rates with intention and integrity. And we'll link to that in the show notes and there's an exercise that will tell you just how you can come to a price that resonates with you, that feels good to you and will resonate with your clients as well.

[00:07:54] The next thing I want to share with you today is something that a mentor of mine shared with me years ago, and this was so hard for me to wrap my head around. I hope that it's not quite as hard for you to wrap your head around, but here it is. People with means need your services to people who might have a lot of money.

[00:08:15] They are in just as much need of your services. As anyone else. And that was really difficult for me to recognize and to come to terms with. I think that I had this kind of block that people who had a lot of money just didn't have any problems, didn't have any worries, didn't have any concerns, didn't have really even any need for the bodywork that I offered.

[00:08:37] And that is just not true no matter where people are in their income and their finances. Everybody needs bodywork. Everyone needs touch. So just because someone has a lot of money doesn't mean that they can't get results and benefit from your work. So think about that moving forward as well. A practical approach that you can use from my own experience is, okay, so you're getting ready to raise your rates, or you're a little bit nervous that you're going to leave some people out.

[00:09:08] Choose three slots in your schedule for people who you really want to work with at a reduced rate. So one of those slots for me, I tell the story all the time and Barbara has given me her permission to do so. One of my sites is for a client, she's 91 years old right now, Barbara Vandine, who has been coming to me for over a decade for hands on work, and she was one of my very first clients.

[00:09:37] I love working with her. She gets a lot out of our work together and I decided that when I raised my rates that I was not going to raise them for Barbara. And 16 years later, she's still paying the same rate, $50 an hour that I was charging back in 2004 this makes me feel so good. It's something that I know she appreciates and I know I appreciate working with her so much.

[00:10:05] It's one of three slots that I have that are available for people who do not pay full price. Now. I don't advertise these slots. I don't tell everybody about them, but in my mind, in my practice, I've got these three openings so that I can charge a little bit less if I'm really intrigued by someone who has some kind of condition that I would really like to work with, but.

[00:10:30] Perhaps I can't afford my actual rate. Or somebody like Barbara who's been a very loyal client, choose three slots, have three openings, and that way you can work with some folks who might not be able to work with you normally while still allowing enough revenue to come in so that you earn an income that allows you to have a full cup.

[00:10:55] Finally, the last thing I want to share with you today about your pricing is I would like to invite you to give, to be generous in a variety of ways. You do not just have to be generous in your bodywork. That's your profession. That's where you earn, as I said, enough money so that you can come from a full cup so that you can take care of yourself.

[00:11:19] And often your family and not constantly be worrying about finances. You can be fully present for people. So how, I know that you're big hearted, I know you want to give to others, but how can you do that without discounting bodywork or without charging a premium rate? One of the things that I did instead of, you know, I used to think, Oh, I know I'll go to a.

[00:11:45] You know, a church every week or something, and I'll do chair massages or something like that for free, rather than using that as my service, I reached out in other ways. For example, I was on the board of our local co-op, which is, it's an elected position, but it's a volunteer. There's no pay for that for three years, which really helped me become a part of the community.

[00:12:07] Give back to causes that I cared about. I was also on a steering committee for another charity, which was something where we did micro-financing for women in Nicaragua, Nicaragua, and then I also, I taught an adult how to read, and that was a really, really rewarding experience. Each one of these things helped me give back and also.

[00:12:31] Helped me really walk my talk about social justice without causing me to have an empty cup without causing me to be afraid and nervous and have anxiety around my finances because my work was separate. Then. This other service that I was doing. So I invite you to consider that as well. What are other ways that you can give back without keeping your prices for your services low or, you know, being afraid to raise your prices?

[00:13:04] How can you give back in other ways? I invite you to think about all of these aspects when you're considering your pricing. The most important thing is that you come from a full cup. In business terminology we say is protecting the asset. You are the asset. You must take care of yourself and provide for your needs.

[00:13:27] Only then can you truly be of service to others.

[00:14:26] I'll see you next week, same place, same time until then, get out there and do it with intention.