Get Paid More – Right Now!

By Barb Wade, M.A.
Do you dread hearing the words, “So, what do you charge?” Knowing how much to charge and confidently standing behind those fees is the Achilles Heel of many entrepreneurs.

In fact, some service providers feel so much discomfort when stating their fees that they squirm, buckle, stutter, or even apologize when doing so!

But those of us who are also moms have it even tougher because we tend to be self-sacrificing. Moms are so used to giving to everyone else – our children, our spouses, the church, the PTA – that it can feel odd or even “wrong” to give to ourselves by being well paid.

Here’s a fact: a significant number of coaches, consultants, and service-based entrepreneurs charge way too little – especially if they are also moms. They undervalue their worth and are quick to discount their already low rates when asked. And many feel that making real money and “being of service” are somehow incompatible. But nothing could be further from the truth.

You deserve to be richly paid for the valuable gifts you share with the world!
Your specific expertise, knowledge, and know-how, and its ability to enhance and transform your clients’ lives and/or businesses is highly valuable. Your clients desperately need the information and instruction that you have to offer in order to solve their biggest, most challenging problems.
So why is it so hard to charge appropriately for the tremendous benefits that you bring your clients?

There are many factors that make this a problem area, including “money barriers” — both internal (in your mind) and external (real, practical issues) — that block the flow of abundance. Here are some tips to help you master your response to that dreaded question, “so, what do you charge?”

First of all, answer this question only after you have laid the right groundwork for your prospect to understand the real value of what your are offering. Some people are “bottom line” types and want to get right to the price. You can gracefully redirect them by saying “I’m happy to talk about that with you, but first I’d like to get a little bit more information about you and your needs…”

In order to command higher fees, your clients must understand the incredible results that your coaching, consulting, or service provides for them, and the impact of those results! You are not selling your “time,” you are selling the tangible and measurable outcomes that your clients will enjoy, and that will solve their biggest problems. What are those results worth to them?

Explore where your prospective client is now, and what the cost is of their current situation. Hint: That “cost” is not just monetary, but can include lost time, poor health, bad debt, missed opportunities, broken relationships, or whatever pertains to their circumstances. Then, paint a vivid picture of what is possible for them with your assistance. What will they be able to do, have, or experience at that point that they don’t now?

It’s incredibly important to have “social proof” that allows your clients to trust that you can, in fact, get them to the results that they so desperately crave. One particularly strong form of social proof is to provide testimonials from “raving fan” clients who are thrilled with your services and the results they achieved from working with you.

Another form of social proof that is equally strong is your own personal story. Were you once in the situation that you find most of your clients in, and did you overcome the obstacles you faced to achieve a significant level of fulfillment and success? Tell your story! People want to work with those that they can relate to, and who are living examples of the success that they want for themselves.

Also, cite any official credentials that you may have – degrees, training programs, certifications, etc. Anything that adds credibility will assist you in charging higher fees.

Finally, when it is time to answer the question, speak with authority and confidence. Tell them what you charge and use the word “investment” instead of cost, because no matter what the price, working with you is an investment in themselves or their business. Then be quiet! Let them think about it for a moment. It’s easy to want to start explaining or backpedaling in order to break the tension. Don’t. Wait for them to respond, then deal with any objections they may have.

Perhaps the most important factor in commanding the high fees you desire is how you, personally, feel about yourself and your “right” to be paid such amounts! For whatever reason, many women entrepreneurs in particular tend to discount what they know, and the value of that information. This is a terrible hindrance to your success!

A good strategy is to make a list of all of the contributions you have made to your clients’ lives and the results they have attained. If needed, ask your clients, friends, colleagues, mentors, business partners, and anyone else that you have worked with to tell you what you helped them experience, achieve or create.

You must also remind yourself that what comes so easily to you – either naturally, or because of years of study and experience, or from a combination – is neither obvious nor comes easily to those in your target market. Do not undermine their interest by being self-deprecating about your skills and talents – if you do, so will they!

So, in order to charge what you’re worth (and get it!), take the time to truly embrace the value of your personal skills and expertise. And then practice stating your fees with confidence and conviction.

For more information on our featured Corporate Mom Dropout visit www.barbwade.com

Having a plain-Jane blog with a few scattered keywords nowadays isn’t enough to
grab any search engine’s attention. The home-based working mom must choose her
categories and keywords carefully so her important pages will move to the head of
search engine’s list.

What categories does she choose? It depends on what her blog is about. For instance,
if she’s a life coach, and she posts affirmations often, she can use affirmations as a
category. The main thing is to make the categories reflect the subjects she posts about
most often.

Also, there should be no more than five categories, all of which must be short (two
to four words), to the point and keyword rich. Those categories have to be general
enough to have a lot of entries, however. Each category can reflect a different part of
the business. She mustn’t be whimsical about the categories; changing them means
anyone who has earmarked category will lose it. It’s better to add another category, but
not too many.

If the mom is having difficulty finding the right categories, she can go to http://
www.blumenthals.com/index.php?Google_LBC_Categories , which is a Beta site right
now, but has a search engine that offers a multiple choice of category names. Also,
http://google.com/analytics examines the Web site’s traffic so postings can be refined
to boost viewings. Warning: Google Analytics requires putting HTML code into the site,
so the working mom can have a knowledgeable person do it for her or give it a whirl
herself.

Keywords, also only two to four words, should appear in the title of the blog and in the
first sentence. They can also appear in other parts of the blog. The minimum number of
words for a blog is 250.

Remember, search engines look for pages not Web sites, so the categories and
keywords have to be so full of information that once visitors click on the search entry,
they’ll click through other parts of the site. Any mom from life coach to retailer can
maximize outreach and potential income with targeted blog categories and keywords.

Emails, even email blasts, work just fine for ordinary communication, but if the self-employed mom needs her clients to see something she created, for instance, a Web video, then she has two outlets: Youtube and Ustream. Everyone is familiar with Youtube (www.youtube.com), in a lot of cases thanks to Susan Boyle’s Youtube video that went insanely viral. Ustream (www.ustream.com) is slightly different from Youtube because it’s live streaming.

To effectively market a video posted on Youtube is to post it in your blog also. Follow this up with a tweet, a Facebook announcement and an email blast to your blog subscribers and to your alliance partners. Facebook friends can send to their friends and in that way spread the word about your products or services. Since you now have a Youtube account, the site will accumulate all your postings in one place. This means if you post on a regular basis whether weekly, monthly or quarterly, all your posts are in one place.

Ustream is a live feed and so lends itself to something like video conferencing because there’s a section next to the video for people to comment and ask questions. It’s a quick and easy way, pretty much set the camera and go, to brand your services or products and find a global audience. Again, announcements of when you’ll be posting the video are necessary to reach your subscriber base and outreach to others.

Make sure you get the word out there with your video it can make wonders happen for your business. Create and experience that goes viral.