Why hidden guilt may be stopping you from raising your prices

Have you ever compared your business to another, similar business—and yours came up short in some way? Do you give more away than you should, in either time, products or services, without charging appropriately for it?

You may be harboring a subconscious belief that your services aren’t quite “good enough,” or that you don’t know enough, or that what you do know isn’t good enough. Regardless of how it manifests, it’s causing you to charge less than you deserve.

The thing is, there’s always going to be someone who knows more than you, and someone who knows less. There will be someone who does it better, and someone who doesn’t do it as well.

And no matter what you do, no matter how many products or services you buy, no matter how much you learn, or how much you offer your clients, it’s never enough. The feeling of not being “enough” never quite goes away.

You just wind up exhausted, overworked, underpaid, or/and under-appreciated.

All because of an underlying feeling of guilt that you don’t quite “measure up.”

You probably always have at least a few clients who are high maintenance, demanding, or never completely happy. Even though they may be very nice about it, you can feel that underlying current of expectation from them that you aren’t quite meeting.

You may over-deliver to make them happy by giving more time or services than agreed to, making their project a priority when it shouldn’t be, or working on their project during off-hours.

If you have raised your prices in the past, you may have increased this behavior to justify the increase, continuing the cycle.

If you recognize yourself in some or all of this, know that you aren’t alone. Our society programs us to desire the approval of others, which is a big part of what’s going on here: the desire to be accepted and approved of, and the fear that we won’t be.

Rejection hurts. No one likes being rejected. But when the hidden fear of being rejected and thinking you’re not good enough gets involved in your business, it stifles your creativity and prevents you from living the relaxed, happy, abundant life you deserve.

Here’s an example: I had a client last year who was incredible. Well, all my clients are incredible, but this one didn’t realize how amazing she was. She had persevered through things the rest of us couldn’t even imagine. Let’s call her Susie.

Susie was bright, competent, intelligent, creative, resourceful and dependable.

She was the “go-to” person at her job, and everyone depended on her to keep things going.

She regularly worked more hours than she was paid for, and hadn’t asked for a raise, well, ever. And when I asked her the last time she took a vacation, it was so long ago she couldn’t even remember!

Susie was essentially doing the job of at least two, if not three people.

She put everyone else before herself, and was exhausted, worn-out, resentful, and fed up.

And the last part of the sentence is the key to freedom from this syndrome.

You have to be fed up. You have to be tired of the demanding clients, and sick of giving and giving while others take and take.

You have to get angry about allowing clients in your business who send the subtle message that you aren’t quite measuring up, and that you’d better provide more.

You need to decide that you deserve to be paid what you’re worth, and that you ARE worth more than you’re charging now.

Once you make that decision, you can start to make the changes you need to in your business and in your life. You can set limits, stop “over delivering,” raise your prices, and begin enjoying your life!

By the way, the client I mentioned? By the time she completed her coaching with me, she had asked for (and received) a big raise, insisted on a defined job description that was reasonable for one person, and is now doing only that job and no one else’s.

The word “no” has become the most important word in her vocabulary, and she puts it to good use on a daily basis.

She’s taken one vacation already, has another one scheduled for this year, and has a month long Sabbatical to Italy planned for 2011.

Life is good. Ask for what you deserve, and then enjoy it.

And for those of you who want personalized help creating a breakthrough so you attract the income you deserve, I have a new 20 minute breakthrough laser coaching session available.

Just shoot me an email if you’re interested at Kellie@theVAsuccesscoach.com and I’ll send you the details.