CBB 11: 3 Signs Your Self-worth Is Impacting your Profits

If the thought of placing a price on your services, or worse, increasing your prices, fills you with fear, this episode is for you. I’m chatting about pricing and three signs that your self-worth is impacting your profits. 

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For many business owners (women in particular), the sheer thought of putting a value on their products and services is enough to fill them with terror.  

Pricing is an area many conscious business builders struggle with, particularly early on in their business journey. If you’ve ever thought or said the following, chances are you fall into this category:  

“How much do you think people will pay for this?” 

“Surely I can’t charge THAT much!” 

“Won’t people think I’m greedy if I charge that?” 

“But X business charges $X. I can’t ask for more than them!” 

“My business is in the country. I can’t charge city prices!” 

I hear these questions and comments regularly from my coaching clients and I get the struggle. 

Placing a value on our products and services is indeed one of the harder things for us to do in business. 

Why? 

Because it brings up all our shit. Our self-worth…. Or lack of it to be exact. 

But our lack of self-worth can kill our profits. It can even kill our businesses. 

Let me share an example….. 

A couple of years ago I attended a full day yoga and meditation retreat. 

As primary caregiver to my kids and with a clingy pre-schooler still at home, default manager of our household and CEO of my business, life at this time was full. The chance to step off the treadmill for a day seemed like pure indulgence. 

And it was. 

This retreat didn’t just include a full day of yoga and meditation, it included a healthy morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, all prepared by a fabulous wholefoods chef. 

Now, what would you expect to pay for such a day of bliss, relaxation and rejuvenation with in-person yoga and meditation facilitators? 

$250? $500? $1000? 

I paid just $125 for the experience. 

That’s right! One hundred and twenty five dollars. 

But that’s not all! 

I even got a thank you gift for attending!!! 

The hosts were so lovely and so thrilled that we turned up that they gave us a gift. They rewarded our attendance with a beautiful handmade candle so we could remember the day. 

I almost felt too embarrassed to accept the gift. My friend sitting next to me even said “My goodness! It should be us giving you a gift!”  

And I agree. 

In fact, to be honest I didn’t even want a candle. I stopped burning them long ago – about the same time as my first son was mobile. I just wanted the benefits from the yoga and meditation and I was wrapped with the yummy food. The candle is a great example of the Lean Six Sigma principle of Overprocessing…. where you deliver more than what the customer wants (and needs). Overprocessing is one of the seven wastes in an organisation that can bleed your profits. 

I had a chat to the retreat hosts after the event when they were asking for feedback and I told them that the day was amazing but with my business hat on I can’t see how they would have made any money at all from holding the event. They confirmed that unfortunately they didn’t profit from the exercise. 

So in a nutshell they’d worked for a few days preparing and running the retreat for the love of sharing their gifts with the world. 

Sound familiar? 

Women especially are wired to give, give and give but it’s okay to receive as well. In fact, to be a successful conscious business builder you need to get comfortable with receiving.  

It’s okay to make money from doing the thing that you love doing and that comes easy to you. 

It’s okay to make money from your gift.  

It’s okay to make money from serving others. 

In fact it’s okay to make heaps of money from it. Because you are worth it. Totally worth it! 

Undercharging and overdelivering on your services is an indication that your self-worth is getting in the way of your business profits. Here are three signs that this could be playing out in your business. 

1. You Haven’t Raised Your Prices in Years

When was the last time you raised your prices?  

If it’s been longer than a year it’s time to time to up them. Your cost of doing business has likely increased in that time, so at the very least, you need that to be reflected in your prices. Add in the costs you’ve spent investing in yourself and you can soon see that if you don’t raise your prices regularly you’ll lose substantial sums of money over time. 

Many conscious business builders fear that by raising their prices they’ll lose clients, but the opposite often happens. They gain clients who value them more. The interesting thing about these new clients is that they appreciate you and are more inclined to do the work and get results. And as impact-driven conscious business builders, isn’t that what we want to achieve the most? Results for our clients and the world? 

2. You Constantly Overdeliver

Are you a coach and constantly run overtime on your sessions? 

Do you find yourself often throwing in free gifts with your products or services? Perhaps you have your own version of a candle that you’re giving your customers, regardless of whether they actually want a candle or not. 

If this sounds like you you’re an overdeliverer. While it’s sometimes good to overdeliver on our client expectations, question where this is coming from with you. It’s likely that it could be stemming from a deep-rooted belief that your standard services and products aren’t enough. That you aren’t enough. 

But you are enough my friend. Just as you are. 

3. You’re Late To Invoice (Or You Don’t Invoice At All!)  

The third sign that you’re self worth is impacting your business profits is that you’re late to invoice or worse, you have services you’ve completed months or even years ago that you still haven’t invoiced for. A sure sign that this is you is if you have clients asking for your invoice so they can pay you.  

You might feel that you’re being nice in not invoicing but this can make your clients feel very uncomfortable and stop them from sending you more business, which in turn, can kill your business, lead to you burning out, or both. 

I’ve been in this position as a customer on several occasions in my business and can think of two service providers in particular I’ve used in my business that still haven’t invoiced me for some work they completed a couple of years ago. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve asked for invoices and in the end I didn’t send them more work because I felt so awful that I hadn’t paid them. 

Not invoicing truly stems from not valuing the work you do. And if you don’t value your work, how can you ever expect others to? 

Luckily this can be quickly fixed by regularly setting time aside each week to catch up on your invoicing…. before you do any work! Or if you hate chasing invoices, have your clients pay you upfront for your services.  

Final Thoughts 

Where is your self-worth impacting your business? 

• Is it time you raised your prices? 
• Where are you overprocessing and delivering much more than what the customer wants or needs? 
• Are you guilty of being late to invoice or have you not invoiced at all for some of your projects?  

Please start valuing yourself because you deserve to be rewarded for your talents and efforts. If you don’t value yourself and your talents no one else will! 

If you’d like some fresh eyes on your business to identify areas where you can amend your pricing or discover where you’re overdelivering, book your Conscious Coaching Taster with me today!