By Victor Bassey
One primary key to becoming a highly paid expert is simply to charge and get high fees that reflect what you are worth.
Unfortunately for most of us starting out on the journey to highly paid expert status, our fees are too low and we are seriously undercharging for our products and services.
While on the surface it doesn’t seem like a bad thing, after all we are trying to make our knowledge, expertise and life experiences available to the largest possible number of people on the planet, the truth is that under charging puts us in a position where we literally struggle with not earning enough.
And trust me, I KNOW ALL ABOUT NOT EARNING ENOUGH.
Not earning enough affects the financial, emotional, and spiritual parts of our lives, as well as impacts our future potential to grow, expand, and create a secure future. It impacts our capacity to make a difference in our communities and our families. Even worse, it impacts our ability to attract high value, high paying clients as well as the opportunities that come with such clients and It’s a terrible, terrible place to be.
All of this can be prevented or change the moment we learn that our fee at any point in time is a reflection of the confidence we have in our skills and ability to produce better than great results for our clients.
So what’s love got to do with it?
Simply this: When you fall in love with your clients and not your business or what you do or teach, that love motivates you to want to be better at what you do so that you can produce better results for them. Mediocrity becomes a strict no-can-do for you and your commitment excellence breeds the confidence you need to charge and get high fees. You charge according to the quality of results that you know you can confidently produce for your clients.
When I work with my private clients, I have a process I work them through to build the confidence they need to charge and get the fees they deserve. Unfortunately, that’s beyond the scope of this article. However, what I will share with you here is a simple 5-step formula to increase your fees so you are charging enough for your services:
Step 1: Decide on your annual income number
Here’s the key question: Are you making enough to meet your monthly expenses? If not, what’s the amount of money you need to earn in order to cover your monthly expenses?
Most of the people I’ve coached have never really sat down to determine what their actual monthly expense is. If you’re like that, now is the time to change.
Make a list of all your house hold (rent, water and electricity bills, food, fuel, car, etc) and business expenses (office rent, telephone, online fees, etc). What you want to do is create enough income in your business to meet ALL your expenses, and then multiply that monthly amount by 1.50 times.
Why?
So that you’ll me aiming to create an income number that exceeds what you need, and will put you in a comfortable place, rather than always barely creating enough income to ‘manage life.’ If you are making enough money to cover your monthly expenses, the next step is to decide how much you want to increase your income. Then, apply the next steps.
Step 2: Decide how many weeks and hours you want to work per year.
To do this, first decide how many weeks vacation you want each year.
Yes, yes…I know that’s a foreign concept to most of us here in Nigeria, but you’ve got to understand that having time away from your business actually helps you earn more money. I will share more about this in my next post as well as a unique time management system that works like crazy, but for now just go with me and decide how many weeks vacation you want each year.
After you have done that, subtract this number from 52 weeks in a year. The result is how many weeks of time is available to you to actively generate income.
Step 3: Determine what programs you want to offer
I like to look at my calendar, and then plan out my program launches for the year. This method naturally takes into consideration the number of clients you will serve, both private, and group.
Step 4: Determine the value of your programs
Now that you know what programs you want to offer, it’s time to ask yourself, “What is this program worth to my clients?” To determine this value, you must consider the impact of the result on their finances, emotions, and physical, and spiritual parts of their lives. Also, what are the COSTS for them not investing in your program? Come up with a number, in naira.
Step 5: Set the price
Now, aim to price your program so that your clients will get 2 to 10 times ROI (return on investment).
For example, if a program, when applied by a client can help them create a business that generates N100,000+ income, I would recommend this program be priced at N10,000 minimum, which equals 10 times ROI.
Cool right?
It’s a win-win for you, and the client!
Keeping Your Fees Low Keeps You Playing Small in Your Life and in Your Business.
It’s essential to increase your fees to a level that reflects the true value of your services you deliver to your clients. They get to win, because they get your juicy content that will change their lives. You get to win, too, by being able to support yourself and those you love, and you get to create financial security and wealth.
Don’t let your small business make you small minded.
You deserve the very best that life has to offer. By the way: If you are interested in getting getting paid to share your knowledge, expertise and life experience with individuals, NGOs, businesses, educational institutions and government agencies, you might be interested in getting a free copy of my book: The Beginner’s Guide to Becoming a Highly Paid Expert.You can get a free copy here: http://eepurl.com/hrqYU
