Is It Wrong To Charge For Your Services?

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Struggles around charging enough money and discounting services is an issue I see come up all the time. I see such sadness in people receiving backlash from others who think they’re charging “too much”. I’ve personally been on the receiving end of it too, and it’s just not nice.

If you feel somehow that it’s wrong to ask for payment for your work, product, or service, you need to read this post. I want you to come away from this feeling confident that yes, you should be charging for what you do, and not allow anyone to derail that confidence.

Could You be a Heart-Centred Money Archetype?

I’m certified as a Sacred Money Archetypes™ coach, and I help women with their finances based on this fascinating insight into our money personalities. The creator and my mentor Kendall Summerhawk identified eight different money archetypes, where three types in particular find it really difficult to charge appropriately for their services – the nurturer, connector, and the alchemist. If you’re curious to know which money archetype you are, take this quiz to find out.

Click here to take the Sacred Money Archetypes quiz.

These three archetypes really struggle. They’re constantly thinking, “Is it wrong to charge money for what I do?” The reason for these struggles is because these people are very heart-centred, doing what they do because they want to help people. They want to change the world.

The problem is, they don’t feel worthy of receiving money for doing something that they love — something which comes so easily to them. There’s a big block at play here. And it’s one which stems from a deep-rooted belief that earning money needs to be hard.

Earning Money Shouldn’t be This Easy

It’s quite a common conception that earning money should be difficult, and that it needs to feel uncomfortable. People believe that being miserable and hating your job justifies getting paid for it. On the other hand, being paid for something you love doing is considered wrong by many because it doesn’t “sit right” with them.

To be able to move past this limiting block, these archetypes need to learn that it’s okay to charge money for what they do. And when they start to charge appropriately, they can expand and help more people.

You Deserve a Better Life to Change the World

There is nothing wrong with wanting a better life for yourself, your family, and your community. The way to do that is to improve your ability to receive money, however, that in itself can be affected by others in your industry who are also not charging enough.

Collectively, you’re preventing yourselves from growing. It takes a few people to step away and affirm that they’re going to charge money for what they do. Then it gets tricky, as it could attract criticism from others who are not courageous enough to go through with it themselves.

Being judged is hard. It creates friction like a salmon swimming upstream, and you have to live with the discomfort that other people believe that what you are doing is wrong. But do you know what? It’s none of your business — you don’t need to care about them. Because it’s their problem, not yours. Do what you need to do, to have the life that you want.

Charging for your work enables you to supply the goods and services to the people who want to pay you: Your Customers. What you absolutely don’t want to do is attract people who are not interested or expect everything for less (or even for free).

Should You Discount Your Services?

Customers who constantly ask for discounts are not your type of customer. The people you want to attract are those who are willing to pay for what you provide. They can see the value in what you offer, and these people are your type of customer. They are the ones you need to focus your effort and your time on, instead of worrying about the prospects who want a discount.

Which leads me on to the question, should you provide a discount if people do ask? Ideally No. You shouldn’t discount your prices. But it is your business, and you can do what feels right, but definitely don’t make it long-lasting habit!

Added Value

Obviously, if you want to give a special offer for a short period of time, that’s fine. But consider adding value rather than discounting. Give something extra like a freebie or some other additional value item instead. The problem with discounting is that there’s only one way down.

Think about the supermarkets who are all competing with each other over potatoes at 69p in one shop, 67p in another shop, and 65p in another. It’s the farmers who are losing out, not the big businesses. Small business owners need support to be able to grow. And as a business owner, you need the confidence to charge for your services, to stand in your power and actually ask for that money.

In some industries it can feel very difficult to start charging for your services. Take the NHS in the UK, for example. If you originally come from this industry like me and are conditioned to helping people without receiving direct payment, it can feel tricky asking for money for your services. If you do acupuncture or homeopathy for example, you just want to help people.

On the flip side as patients of the NHS, we’re so used to not having to pay (directly) it can be difficult to shift out of that mindset. Both of these situations can affect ability to earn or pay for additional services. So, if you come from that kind of industry, just be aware of what might be playing out in your mind, and that you need to start thinking outside of that way of things.

Another question you might have is, should I offer freebies? Yes, you can offer people freebies. I’ve got lots of freebies on my website that readers can always make use of, which I’m happy with. But at some point, I do need to charge people, which I do through my membership and courses.

Running a Business Costs Money

At the end of the day, it costs money to run a business — you can’t offer everything for free. Even email lists need to be paid for eventually when they get to a certain size.

My courses are hosted on a platform which costs money every month. It costs me time and effort to create videos, blog posts and social content. And all the years that I’ve spent educating myself and learning what to do to help my clients costs money, and time. These costs are subsequently distilled down into my services which I then charge for.

When I first started out, I was charging very, very little for what I was doing. Very, very little. To be honest, people argue that I’m still charging too little for what I do. But I’m charging what I feel comfortable with, and that’s what you need to do. So, if you feel really uncomfortable with charging for your services, start small.

Then every six months, review those prices and push it a little bit more, another £5, or £10 more. Obviously, it depends on the overall price of what you’re selling but start increasing your prices in small increments. People will pay if they value what you do.

Charging Accordingly Helps Your Business Grow

The people who value what you do will pay what you charge, and increasing your prices incrementally will improve everything. When you’ve got more money coming into your business, you can spend money on advertising, or developing new services. You can bring in extra people to help you with your business and then grow some more.

Making this progress is really powerful, and it has a ripple effect. When you can employ someone, that person can then pay for their own goods and services and spend money on their family and the things they need.

This effect starts with us feeling okay with charging money for what we do, and not listening to those who say we are charging too much. They are not our customers.

Your customers are the ones who will pay for the value you provide.

So seriously, put yourself out there, and be amazing. Build your business the way that YOU want to build it, and please, let me know how you get on. I would love to hear how this resonates with you.

Bye for now,