Why you can’t raise your fees

Often I run across solopreneurs who are overworked and overwhelmed because they don’t feel comfortable raising their fees. As a consequence, they are working really hard with clients who are demanding, fussy, and non-appreciative, and they feel stuck in the lower fee range. I have found that there are 4 areas that are preventing you from raising your fees. These need to be addressed before you will be able to raise your fees. 1) Assuming people can’t afford you 2) Fear of losing business and/or rejection 3) Not investing in yourself 4) Lack of proper self-worth Assuming people can’t afford you One reason for this is that the business owner makes the mistaken assumption that people can’t afford their fees. This is a mistake because you can never know for sure what a potential client can afford. There are people who have plenty of money but won’t spend much on themselves, and there are those who have very little spending money but are willing to do whatever it takes to get a problem solved, including spending money. It’s a huge presumption to think that you have the right to place that kind of judgment on people. The fact is you just don’t know. Whenever I made that assumption and thought I should charge a low price for my services, I usually found out after the fact, that the person could have afforded my higher price and I left that money on the table. That’s a mistake---to leave money on the table because of an erroneous assumption. Once you stop making that assumption, it will be easier to raise your fees. Fear of losing business and/or rejection Another area that causes people to not raise their fees is the fear that they will loose business---that people won’t pay the higher fee and will go elsewhere. This is really a deeper fear of rejection. You are afraid that your potential clients will reject you and to make sure that they don’t, you keep your fees low. The best way to get over this is to figure out how much your fear of rejection is costing you. Just think of what you deserve to be charging and what you are currently charging, and the difference is what this fear is costing you. Now times that times the number of clients you want to have and you will have the real cost. Is it worth it?…Probably not. Not investing in yourself The third area that you need to look at if you are having trouble raising your fees is, are you willing to invest in yourself? If you aren’t reinvesting some of your profits on coaching and further education, how can you expect others to? The fact is that things will go much faster and smoother if you have some help. Hiring an assistant comes into play here too. You can’t do it alone. Walk your talk and get the help you need. Then you are an excellent example to your potential clients. Lack of proper self-worth The inability to raise your fees also reflects the value you place on yourself and your services. If you can’t seem to raise your fees, you may need to take a look at your self-worth and see if it needs some improvement. Most of the solopreneurs I work with are giving plenty of value. They just don’t see their value because of some issue with how they feel about themselves. Getting some help in raising your self-esteem is essential for growth in this area. That’s one of the benefits of hiring a coach. It’s like having a personal cheerleader because sometimes it’s easier for someone else to see your value than you can. Seeing your own value is a key factor in the ability to raise your fees. This is also true for your products and services. Do you feel that they have a high value value? Do you think what you have to offer is worth what you would like to charge? One exercise to help determine your services’ true value is to think about how much it’s costing your client to NOT have your solution to his/or her problem. Knowing that will put the value of your product in a more realistic perspective. After addressing all of these issues, remember that you are actually doing your clients a favor by placing the proper value on your services and raising your fees accordingly. That’s because when you ask for a higher fee, you are inviting your potential client to step up to the plate and perhaps make their first breakthrough. If someone really wants to work with you, they will find a way to afford it. That process of making that investment in themselves gives them a goal to achieve and a sense of accomplishment. And the process they go through to come up with the extra money is a breakthrough for them. You helped them to do it just by charging what you deserve.