7 Insider Secrets to Stop Giving Away Your Power With Money

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Lisa Fraser, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.

Standing in your power with money, especially when you are providing your own services, takes courage and holding firm to your boundaries. When you are not in a place of power, people will show up to test out those boundaries. Following are 7 areas that you need to address or you will never be able to make more money in your business.

Discounting – Creating new programs and offers takes a lot of time (a precious non-renewable resource) and confidence to market them. By continually caving in on your fees and providing a discount to everyone in fear that they will not work with you at the higher fee, you are undervaluing yourself, your offers and those clients that actually need a higher standard to step up into.

Trading Services – When you are starting out or having a low cash flow month, you may be tempted to trade services. For example, if you need a new website and feel that you cannot afford it and your web designer friend needs coaching, you may be tempted to coach the web designer while they build your website for free. Sounds like a win-win, doesn’t it? The problem is that this arrangement usually benefits one person more than the other and there can be resentment as a result. You are also not holding yourself as powerful.

Free Coaching – Giving away free sample coaching sessions to get clients is a no no! This does not work as coaching is not something that is done as a one-off event. If a client is using one free session as the measure of whether to work with you, you will come up short. If you are a brand-new coach looking for testimonials and to build your confidence, this is okay for a short time. However, at the onset of the free coaching, there must be very clear boundaries set with the client around how many free sessions they will get, the length of each session, the desired outcomes and a testimonial from them outlining the results they achieved as a result of working with you. Do not be surprised if you get duped on one or two of those testimonials! I have had it happen to me in past. It does not feel good at all and is a great way to lose that confidence that you built up.

Going Over Time in Sessions – You may feel that you are going to lose clients if you interrupt them when they are stuck in their story or you may feel like you are rushing the client. When you structure your calls correctly, it is possible to get to a breakthrough within 30 minutes the vast majority of the time without rushing your client at all. Keep within your stated session times, unless there is a big breakthrough that your client is about to make. You are the coach and you need to stand in your power and stick to the schedule.

Putting too Much into Programs – Content may be king, but too much is just overload. It may feel like you need to add more to create a higher-end program, but this is not necessarily true. This can backfire and turn clients off if they are overwhelmed just reading about everything you want to do with them. By having high quality, highly marketable content that leads a client to accelerated results, you will not need to throw in the kitchen sink. Your core program with some meaningful bonuses that add further value to your program is much more effective for the client.

Caving in on Fees** – It is very uncomfortable for some people to state their fee when making an offer to a prospective client. Usually, there is an underlying issue around self-worth. Understand how valuable your services are and be in that space when it comes time to talk fees. Hold a powerful space for the client to step into and do not panic over a period of silence. You have no idea what they consider to be too high of a fee and need to wait for their reaction. Then calmly stick to your fee.

Customizing to Keep a Client – Congratulations! You have made your offer, the client agreed that the investment was well worth it and they are writing you a cheque. But then they want to change a few things first. Maybe the order of the content or the scheduling of the sessions. Again, be clear with your boundaries. You have designed this program a specific way and let the client know that it is part of a step-by-step system that works most effectively in the order you have presented.

While there are many, many ways that you could be giving away your power with money in your business, these are quite common. Before you put out any offer to a client, make sure that you are comfortable with the offer and know in your heart that the value you are providing far outweighs the fee. Once you are clear on the results your clients will achieve and the tremendous value you provide, holding firm on your fees becomes easy.