Stop Making These 5 Mistakes When Pricing Your Services (And What You Want to Do Instead)

You’re listening to The Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast  with Debbie Sassen Episode 85.

Welcome to The Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast. I’m your host, Debbie Sassen. I went from being a financial adviser, author and chronic underearner to building my business to six figures as a financial planner and money mindset coach. And then, on to multiple six figures as a full-time money and business coach. I help entrepreneurs create money making businesses and build wealth, using sales and money mindset strategies in alignment with authentic Jewish values. Now, let’s dive in to today’s show.

Hello, my friends and welcome back to the podcast. We are going to talk about all things pricing your services today, and the mistakes that you want to stop making.

But before we get there, I wanted to share a little family update with you. Our 18-year-old son graduated from high school this week, and tomorrow morning he is off to the United States where he is going to be a summer camp counselor for summer vacation. Our house is really emptying out.

Even when my son comes back from summer camp, he will be leaving to Yeshiva gedolah. It is a religious seminary where men go and they spend most of their day learning Torah and Talmud. We will have only one boy left at home. He also only has one year left before he too graduates and moves on.

Then my husband and I, after more than 30 years of child rearing, will be empty nesters. But it’s a beautiful thing. And thankfully, my kids and my grandkids come back. It’s a big party, lots of noise, lots of food and lots of mess, when my kids and my grandkids come to visit. Thank the Good Lord for that.

I also want to let you know that I’m doing something that I haven’t done in about 80 podcast episodes. I actually have a script written before me. Now, here’s the funny thing about having the script. Because the topic of pricing is so near and dear to my heart, I wanted to make sure that I got all of my thoughts down on paper and I wasn’t going to forget anything. I recorded this podcast once, and I thought that it sounded so stilted that I was like, “No, I can’t do that. I’m going to record it again.”

I immediately shut it down, turned the podcast mic back on, and I recorded it again. And then, I sent it into my podcast producers and they sent it back to me and they said, “Debbie it doesn’t sound like your regular mic.” And indeed, when I checked Audacity…

If you have a podcast or if you do any audio recording, I use free software on my computer called Audacity to do all of my recordings. They updated the latest version of the software today before I recorded my podcast. And indeed, when I went to check my audio device, for some bizarre reason it was not connected to my podcast mic, it was connected to my webcam. Go and figure. It doesn’t make any sense, but that’s what it is.

It sounded so tinny and echoey, that here we are recording the podcast for the third time. And there’s a lesson in this. Number one, give yourself extra time for everything that you do. Build in buffers into your day. Now, I actually had a lot of buffers scheduled into my day because I didn’t have anything to do today in particular, because I was going to be helping my son get ready for camp.

And between all the last-minute details, making sure that we had health insurance and doing the online checking, and all of the details to do with his suitcase and whatever, it really has taken me all day to get back to recording to this podcast for the third time.

I also want you to know that I haven’t even looked at my notes while I have been speaking with you. But we’re going to dive into the podcast now. Because this is a super-duper important topic, especially for female entrepreneurs.

Now that we’re at the end of June 2023, the end of the first half of the year, I want you to review your prices, how much money you made in the last six months, what your goals were for 2023 when you started this year, and where you think you’re going in the next six months. It could be time for you to review your prices.

And if you haven’t raised them in the last six or 12 months, it might be that it’s time for you to raise your prices. I also want to mention, before we jump into the podcast episode, that what I’m going to be talking about today is probably most relevant for newer entrepreneurs. I’ll be sharing a story from when I started out, pricing my services as an entrepreneur. A totally laughable situation. But you’ll hear more details shortly.

But I also think, when I talk about the things I’m going to talk about, they’re relevant to anybody. But if you feel in the beginning, that it’s only relevant to new entrepreneurs, just stick with me, because I think that you will also have some a-ha moments.

So, let’s dive in to the five mistakes you want to stop making when pricing your services, and what you want to do instead. Here’s the thing about just starting out in business, it can be really confusing or unclear or challenging even, to figure out what you want to charge for what you do. It’s something that you’ve never done before.

You’re going to probably ask people, look around, try to get some sense of what’s going on in the market, in order to set your prices. When I left the Bank of Israel, this was 14 or 15 years ago, and I transitioned into financial planning, like probably most new entrepreneurs, I had no idea how to value my services or how to charge out.

And I didn’t even understand what my price represented, in terms of the value I was giving to my client, both economically and also just emotionally when you understand what’s going on with your money. That’s what I was helping my clients do as a financial planner. It just brings so much relief. The anxiety and stress around money really, really, really goes down.

There’s a huge benefit in the wellbeing of a person when they just know that they have enough money to be sustained financially. Or if they understand a little bit about what’s going on with their investments, and how their money can grow over time.

But nobody talked to me about pricing. I had a mentor at the time, who taught me the basics of financial planning that I didn’t learn working on Wall Street or working in the Central Bank. We went together to workshops, where he was giving workshops. I watched him give the workshops. I was able to ask him questions, so I understood it.

Then, I was kind of off on my own, and I started giving workshops. And then, probably six or nine months into my new financial planning business, when I was really out there on my own, I got my first client and I really had no idea what to charge her. You’ll hear how laughable it is that I had no idea. But before I share with you, I actually don’t even know if it’s laughable. I mean, there’s something maybe comic about the price that I charged.

But it’s almost more tragic, or even ironic, that for somebody who had worked on Wall Street selling derivative products valued at hundreds of millions of dollars to multinational companies, and for someone who had worked at the Central Bank co-managing a $6 billion investment portfolio, that I had no idea how to value my money, my time, and the investment that I was making in my clients.

Really, here’s the truth that I want you to take away from this episode when it comes to women and money and pricing. It’s really only in the last 100 years or so that women have entered the workforce in droves. Until the 1920s, the majority of women who were in the workforce were uneducated, single women, and they were poor.

They worked in people’s homes as cooks, cleaners, childminders, they might have done some sewing. But they were poor, uneducated women. They weren’t charging high prices for high value, high impact work that they did. I mean, we can argue, especially as women and mothers, that the cooking and the cleaning that we do, and the kissing of the boo boos that we do is very valuable and high impact.

But when you’re working in somebody else’s home, they don’t usually measure that as highly valuable as some of the other services going on. And perhaps, I’m just throwing this out there, it’s a supposition, it could be that poor, uneducated, single women were taken advantage of economically.

Then, as the Industrial Revolution developed and the manufacturing industries also grew, women did enter the workforce in larger numbers and they worked in piece work. They worked on assembly lines in the apparel industry, or maybe the tobacco industries. Later on, in aircraft and shipping yard. They worked putting together pieces of things on production lines.

And then, World War Two came along. When men were enlisted into the army, the women also joined the workforce. There was the effort, and there was the patriotism around the war efforts. Women really went out and worked harder. And some of them even took over the jobs that the men had been doing. Like, a male doctor went out to be a doctor in the army, and then a woman doctor could take over his position.

I’ve even you know, read some articles when the men came home, the women were displaced, sent back to the kitchen. And that’s another podcast episode for another day. But here’s the thing, after the World Wars, and already into the 1950s, as the global economy; we’re talking post-depression, post-World War Two increase of the industrial revolution.

Right now, we have an increase in economic activity, and more and more women are entering the workforce. And by the 1950s 35% of women were participating in the workforce, either part time or full time. I also want to point out that 60 years ago this month, in June 1963, just six weeks before I was born, President John F. Kennedy signed into law the Equal Pay Act, protecting women against wage discrimination based on sex.

That’s a fascinating thing to realize that the Equal Pay Act has been legislated for 60 years, and still, there is a gender wage gap. We’re not going to talk about that today. Let it just be said, that in the last 20 years, there has been no narrowing of the gender wage gap.

Here’s one thing that I want to just point out, and that is, there is a gender wage gap. Women are the ones who really have the babies, take care of the babies. It’s a historical thing that we’re going to talk about. But even before we get to 1963, it’s important for us to realize as women, that the careers and the jobs that have traditionally been dominated by women or filled by women,  are jobs like sewing and teaching, nursing, clerical and secretarial jobs.

And then, women moved into factory work. And then, only more recently, in the last few decades, have women gone into social work, therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, like all the therapies. They become coaches, and other emotional health professionals and healers. Traditionally, these jobs have been undervalued, underpaid, even devalued by the men who have been running the global economy since the dawn of time.

Here’s another thing that I want you to know about me, and that is, I am not bashing the patriarchy here when I talk about men running the “global economy” since the dawn of time. Because I don’t believe in painting broad brushstrokes. I don’t think it’s helpful. I don’t believe that half the world’s population all banded together to keep women down, to underpay them, and undervalue their contribution to society.

But rather, historically, it makes sense that men would “run: the global economy. Meaning, the economy pre-internet, pre-podcast, pre-telephone, pre-industrial revolution. Because here’s the thing, men are physically stronger than women. They can throw things farther.

So, think about an arrow that they are throwing, or a spear that they’re shooting, in order to catch their dinner. Men can run faster than women, so they can run after animals, chase them down faster than women can, and they can bring home the dinner more efficiently than women. Male bodies are also designed better, to be the hunters and the farmers and the fishermen. They’re just going to bring home dinner more often than the women, and I don’t mean pizza, hamburgers, or sushi.

On the other hand, women’s bodies are designed to carry babies and nurse babies. You can’t expect a woman who is eight or nine months pregnant to be hunting and trapping and running after your dinner. Neither is a woman who is nursing a two-month-old going to abandon her nursling to go out into the fields and gather in this year’s crop of wheat.

Now, you might say that I’m also guilty for painting these broad brushstrokes of the work that women did, because of course they were out in the field. And we can look at many paintings that hang in museums and we can see women out in the fields gathering in the crops. But still, women are the ones who are physically able to have the babies and nurse the babies.

Does it mean that the men cannot be doing the work? No. But again, until about 100 years ago, it just made sense that the physically stronger person would be the one outside in the fields. And then, I want to add another element on top of that. Is that Jewish women were praised for being in the home, and I don’t want to say that is exclusively in the home, because we can also do work outside the home. That’s what I’m doing right now talking to you on this podcast.

But our home is our castle. Our home is where we create a loving, nurturing environment for our children. We do kiss the boo boos, and we make delicious meals that we make to honor the Sabbath and honor our holidays.

I actually have sons and sons-in-law who cooked delicious meals. My husband is of the previous generation, he does toast really, really well. But he’s not a great cook, or doesn’t want to. He does amazing other things in the house. But making food is not his thing. He can order pizza well, also.

But anyway, women being in the house is how we really pour ourselves into our children. And we strengthen our children physically, emotionally, and spiritually to thrive for the next generation. We’ve been doing that over and over and over again for thousands of years. It’s a beautiful thing, and we are dearly praised for it. Every Friday night, in fact, before sitting down to our Sabbath meal, my husband sings to me “Eshet Chayil”.

These are the final verses from the book of Proverbs praising a righteous woman. It is a beautiful moment. We look at each other, we look in each other’s eyes, it bonds us, it just casts this beautiful aura over our entire family. That is part of what has enabled the Jewish people, the Jewish nation, to continue thriving through hardship through all of our history for thousands and thousands of years.

But here’s the thing. And now, I’m going to detour back to speaking about women post industrial revolution, when, as I said earlier, more women entered the workforce and we were starting to charge out for the work that we did. Remember what I said that the women worked in jobs that were underpaid and undervalued. Like, teaching and nursing, and maybe sewing, and other emotional health care professions.

There’s also this phenomenon that through the millennium women were expected to work for free or receive low wages. Because as I said before, we’ve been doing it since the dawn of time. Women have always helped other women in the communities. Whether that’s our tribal community, or our shtetl community, when we’re in Eastern Europe.

Or even today in our communities, I mean, not everybody lives in a community. But I certainly live in a Jewish community where people know each other. We still borrow sugar and oil and eggs from our neighbors. That’s the kind of beautiful Jewish community that we live in. We support each other. Women have been making meals for other women after childbirth or in sickness, again, for hundreds of thousands of years. This is the way women have connected with each other.

And we haven’t asked a dime for the work that we do. Women have been there to support other women, let them cry on their shoulder, come for advice, come for help. Again, this is the emotional support that we’ve been giving to each other and in our communities for free.

So, all of a sudden, here we are in 2023, and it’s been going on for 50 years, and we want to charge out for it? It’s not something that people, and I’m talking about the 8 billion people in the world, it’s not something that people are familiar with. And going back to just being there to support each other, give meals, helping a woman to recuperate after childbirth.

It even tells us in the Book of Psalms, “Olam Hesed Yibaneh,” a world will be built with kindness. And again, this is something that’s very praiseworthy, and it holds true of course, for women and for men. But being in the home is how women have done it for their families, and for each other, since the dawn of time.

As a result, we lack female role models who can show us how to set our prices and create financial success and wealth. Because until about 100 years ago, there weren’t very many women in the workforce creating wealth.

Now, we’re going to go back to my first financial planning client, who hired me 14 years ago. I want to leave you in a little bit of a suspense; what I charged her. Here’s the deal. I charged her 85 shekels an hour, which was about $25/hour at that time. Which is, as I said, ironic, comic, even tragic.

Because after having a six-figure income, in 1987. Working on Wall Street selling derivatives in the hundreds of millions of dollars around the globe. And then, transitioning to co-managing a multi-billion-dollar investment portfolio at the Bank of Israel, I had no idea how to value money, my services, and the value thereof. I ended up charging $25/hour.

I want to bring in three important points about the fee that I charged out. Number one, as I said earlier, I didn’t have a coach or a mentor who guided me. And so, that’s the price that I charged.

Number two is that the woman that I worked with, legit, could not have paid me any more. She didn’t have enough money, except maybe through a wing and a prayer and a miracle. She really did not have enough money to get her through her retirement years.

It’s been a long time since I’ve spoken with her, but she will probably end up leaning heavily on her children to help her out until her passing. May she live in good health until that time.

And number three, and this is what I think is the most important point, especially for newer entrepreneurs. That is, I got started. I started where I was. I chose a price. I learned how to sell myself. I learned how to sell my services, and the results that I was giving to my clients. And the price was way low-balled based on my years of experience and the value that I could give to my client.

But you know what? Once I chose a price, there was only one way I could go. And that was, raising my price. And so, if you think that your prices today are too low, guess what? You get to raise your price.

Interestingly, I spoke with a woman last week, she’s been coaching and teaching and giving advice, that shoulder to cry on that I spoke about earlier, she has been doing it in her community for 20 years. And now, after speaking with me last week, now she is finally ready to start charging for what she gives her people. And no more, she’s just drawing a line in the sand saying, “I’m not going to do it for free anymore.” And really, now is her time.

All right. So now let’s talk about your price, what you’re charging out, how you’re trying to figure out your price, because I want you to stop making these five mistakes.

Number one don’t crowd source your price with your friends and your family. I know those are the people that are closest to us. But really, they are not your ideal clients. Can you imagine going to your dad, your mom, your cousin, your five best friends, and asking them, “What do you think I should charge out?”

Imagine that you’re a dog walker, okay. And every morning, you get up, you go out, you collect your four or five dogs that you’re walking that day. And you’re scooping up their poop, you’re giving them some food and some water, then you bring them home safe and sound. And your mom and your dad and your friends, and all those people that are very close to you, they don’t have a dog. They don’t even like dogs.

And you’re going to go crowdsource the people closest to you, asking them what they think that you should pay? It doesn’t make any sense. They’re not interested in you and your services. They’re not motivated to pay you money.

It only makes sense to start thinking about your prices, vis-a-vie those people who are looking for you and want to buy what you have to offer. So, don’t go out and do a global crowdsourcing to try to figure it out. I mean, some people google it and try and understand it that way. But even then you’re looking at very static information on Google. You don’t know all the fine details.

I sometimes think about this when I get the local circulars in my mailbox, there’s always a section for real estate. I’m always looking what are prices in my area, my neighborhood, for four-bedroom, five-bedroom, six-bedroom homes. And really, the little pictures in the circular and the price that they give you don’t tell you very much.

You don’t really know if the street is quiet or noisy. If there’s a lot of sunlight. If the people who live in the same building… We have many apartment buildings in our neighborhood. You don’t even know if the people in the same apartment building get along. If the apartment building is clean. You have so little information to go on.

It could be that the information that I see in our local circulars is less than you might find on Google, if you’re trying to figure out how much a dog walker charges. But really, it’s not a good idea to start doing this crowdsourcing.

Which brings me to mistake number two. And that’s rather than crowdsourcing among people who don’t want what you have to offer, there’s crowdsourcing among people who are your professional peers and colleagues. It might seem very compelling if you’re a copywriter, for example, that you go to a few friends of yours who are also copywriters.

Maybe they’re a year or two ahead of you, or five years ahead of you. And you ask them, “What do you think I should charge?” They could give you some valuable information, unlike your friends and your family, who aren’t interested in what you’re offering.

The other copywriters, who are doing ostensibly similar things to you, could probably give you some guidance there. But you don’t want to really set in stone what they’re saying, because you don’t know what your copywriter friends relationship is with her clients, and how satisfied her clients are with her.

Meaning, you don’t know what their communication is like. Whether it’s communication by email, or communication by Zoom. You don’t know if she delivers on time, or if she has a good feedback mechanism set up in place with her clients. And also, when you deliver a product like copywriting, there’s probably bad copywriting.

But however her clients receive it, is going to be subjective based on their styles. I mean, some people like more humorous, some people like more straightforward, some people like very cold and professional. Everybody has their way of relating to different styles.

Just think about all the different writers and authors who write books. Sometimes you connect with them, and sometimes you don’t. So, here we have a very subjective field. Yeah, it’s important that I have a website, I’ve got copy, and there’s some blog posts up there, etc. But it’s going to be a little bit fuzzy. And you don’t want to rely solely on what your professional network says.

I also want to add that if you’re crowdsourcing your peers and colleagues, and other professionals in your network, you are probably inviting in their money blocks. Meaning, they could be hesitant to raise their prices because they’re afraid of being rejected, afraid of getting nos, afraid of people judging them. Like, how dare she? Who does she think she is? How can she charge so much?

I bet you’ve had some of those thoughts running in your head, from time to time, when you’ve raised your prices or just thought about raising your prices. And if your colleagues and your peers also have those money blocks, and they’re afraid of raising their prices because of the push back, you are going to get their money blocks in the price that they tell you, you should be charging. Because that’s their money block.

It doesn’t have to be your money block. You can learn how to charge out for the work that you do. Not based on who you are and what you do, and how dare you? But rather, based on how valuable your service is to the person who invests in it, and to the person who buys it.

So, here’s the truth about your prices. I think that Oprah Winfrey says it best, “You get in life, what you have the courage to ask for.” And that is a point that I really want you to take away with you. Especially when it comes to setting your prices, and looking outside of you and maybe inviting in other people’s money blocks.

If you have the courage to ask for more, that opens you up to receiving more. So, if you want to be courageous; and courage doesn’t feel good. It feels like a lot of frenetic energy in your body and in your chest. Because as I said earlier, maybe you will get that rejection. Maybe you will get that no. But if you’re courageous, and you’re willing to ask for more, ultimately, you will get it.

And that brings me to point number three, discounting your prices. Just don’t do it. I mean, you could have a birthday sale once a year if you wanted to. But here’s the thing about discounting your prices. If you do it and you do it regularly, first of all, you’re going to condition your clients to wait for the sales. To wait for the times that you’re discounting.

That’s especially true if you’re offering courses or programs, or something like that. Then, you’re going to put it out on the internet that there’s a special deal, a special summer sale, a special birthday sale, a special New Year sale, a summer solstice, Rosh HaShanah, Passover. Whatever it is, right? There are always times in the year when people can have sales.

But oftentimes, people are discounting their services because you’re having a sales conversation and the person on the other line says, “Oh, that’s a lot of money. Oh, I can’t afford that.” Or your potential client says, “Oh, but so-and-so, she charges half of what you’re charging. What’s the difference between you and her?” Maybe your client says, “I don’t think I can do six months. Do you think we could work together for three months?”

In all of these scenarios, you’re in your head thinking, “How do I get this client? I need to discount my services. If they say it’s too expensive, if I cut my price in half, maybe I’ll get the business.”

Again, when you’re bringing your own insecurities into the conversation rather than listening to the potential client, listening to their needs, and understanding the value of what you’re offering, you’ll probably end up lowering your price and discounting your services. And you know what’s going to be impacted most? The bottom line of your business. The profit margin in your business.

So, you really want to stop making this mistake, and figure out how you can charge out properly for the work you do.

And the last part about discounting your services that I want to point out to you, is something called “pick-pocketing your client before they buy”, or being in your client’s wallet.

This happens when you’re on a sales conversation with someone, and you’re not really listening to your potential client clearly. But rather, you’re in your head trying to size them up. Trying to figure out, “Hmmm, I wonder if they could afford my services? Oh, I heard them drop these little seeds that makes me think that they have a lot of money. For them, I can charge more money than for the person that I spoke with three hours ago,” or three days ago.

Are you with me on this? Have you been on a sales conversation and you actually notice that you were in your head thinking about what you could possibly charge them? “What do I think they’ll just say yes to? Maybe that’s too much. I don’t know.”

If you’re in your head during the sales conversation, I want you to know that your potential client can feel that. They can tell when they’re energetically separated from you, and it destroys trust in the relationship. And very often you’re not going to get the sale, because your clients don’t have that trust in you. You haven’t been holding space for them, and being really with them for the entire duration of the conversation.

That really brings me to a little commercial interruption. I am creating a four-day sales training: Four Simple Steps to Non-Sleazy Sales Conversations. If you want to make sure that you get a hold of that free training, when it comes out in a couple of weeks from now, I want you to go over to my website, DebbieSassen.com/newsletter.

I want you to get on my newsletter because I send out weekly tips and insights and understanding about business and money. And as soon as the sales course is ready, I’m going to be telling you all by email, how you can enroll, and learn more about sales and sales conversations.

Because this is really the key to building your business. Every sales conversation is going to include a money block or money mindset or money healing issue that needs to be grappled with. So, we want to make sure that we get that piece as well. And then, just learning how to close sales conversations, over and over and over again, is an extremely valuable skill set.

So, put this podcast, right now, on pause. Go to my website, DebbieSassen.com/newsletter and sign up. Because you’re going to be the first to know when that four-part sales series drops.

All right, let’s finish up this podcast with two more mistakes that people make when pricing their goods and services. Mistake number four is that they charge out by the hour. Just don’t do this. People come to you for the results that you give them. People come to you for the solutions that you offer them. People come to you because they have dreams and aspirations and you can help them to fulfill their dreams and aspirations.

There is value in what you give, value way beyond the hours that you exchange for the money that you make. Don’t charge out by the hour. I know many of us have grown up in a dollar-for-hours model. If you were a babysitter, if you worked in a retail store.

I worked on my cousin’s camera store when I was in my teenage years, and I got paid per hour. There were also commissions as I got older, and I started selling VCRs and other electronic equipment. But I started out earning dollars per hours.

So many of the jobs that are held by women are also dollar per hour jobs. Whether it’s a teacher or a secretary or a nurse, when you show up, you get paid. When you don’t show up, you don’t get paid. You’re exchanging your time for money. You’re exchanging your dollars for hours. And as an entrepreneur who is giving her heart and soul and mission in the world into her clients, you want to learn how to charge by value.

The value that you’re giving your clients now, by helping them to solve a problem, by reducing their stress, reducing their anxiety, helping them increase their wellbeing, help them save time, get things done, heal relationships, put boundaries in place, stop burnout. Have beautiful pictures, photographs, from beautiful life events like weddings and Bar Mitzvahs, etc. There is so much value in the work that you do, and the work you do is unique. We’re going to be talking about this in a moment.

Mistake number four, you want to charge out for the lifetime value that you give over to your clients. And that lifetime value can be one or two or five or ten years of value, that your customers and clients are going to get from working with you. And sometimes it can even be, when you’re healing stuff that’s within you, it can be a lifetime value.

That brings me to mistake number five, and that is believing that there is a market price for what you do. That there’s a single price. This comes from what you may have learned in economics. I was an economics major in college. And every economics 101 class will teach you about something called a “market clearing price”.

There is a supply curve, and there is a demand curve. And when this fictional supply meets this fictional demand, at the place where the two curves cross, eureka, you have reached the promised land. You have reached the market clearing price.

But here’s the thing that I want to tell you, I live in Israel. I live in the Promised Land. And there is no such thing as a market clearing price here. For example, I can leave my little home podcast recording studio. And I can walk, I can actually walk, to probably five different supermarkets or mini-markets within 10, 15 or 20 minutes from my house.

At each one of those markets, I can buy the exact same box of cornflakes, and I bet you there will be a different price on the cornflakes at every single market. You know what else is fascinating about those cornflakes? They are exactly fungible. That’s a fancy economic word for saying they can be exchanged for the other box of cornflakes. Cornflakes are commodities, they’re exactly the same.

What you do, however, is not exactly the same as what anybody else in the world does. You are uniquely you. The products, the services, the programs that you offer, the processes that you take your clients through, are unique. And the value that you give over to your clients is given over in a way that only you can give it over. There is no such thing as a market price for what you do.

There are people who charge sometimes a little bit more than you, sometimes a little bit less than you. And we can all have pricing wars and we can price ourselves to the bottom of the pricing ladder, the pricing scale. That’s a little bit connected to discounting. But what you offer has value to your clients. So, don’t do that.

Here’s the thing that I want you to believe about your prices as we close up this podcast episode. There is no right price for your offer. There is only the price that you make right. And the way that you make your price right is through two things.

Number one is understanding down to your tippy toes, this is a full-bodied experience, understanding how valuable what you offer is to your clients and really feeling that course through your body. And then, step number two, is delivering that over and over and over again to your clients. They receive your services, they achieve the dreams that they aspire to, because of working with you.

And this beautiful process repeats itself, and then you get to raise your prices. But you have to believe it first. And when you believe it, and then as Oprah said, again, when you have the courage to ask for more, you get in life what you have the courage to ask for. You price your goods and services at the courageous price. And you hold yourself in that full-bodied experience. You actually end up receiving more money for the work that you do.

That’s the end of the podcast, my friends. Let me quickly recap the five pricing mistakes that you want to stop making. And that is, number one, crowdsourcing your price among your friends and family. Number two, crowdsourcing your price among your professional community. Number three is discounting your prices. Don’t condition your clients that discounts are available. Don’t condition yourself that discounts are available. Become the person who learns how to sell her full price for the work that she does.

Number four, don’t charge out dollars for hours. Don’t charge out by time. Time is not money. Time can never be replaced. Money, on the other hand, is inexhaustible. You can receive more money. Money can flow to you and through you over and over and over again. It can continue to circle around and circulate through the economy. But once time is gone, it’s gone. Don’t exchange time for money. Believe in the value of what you offer.

And don’t look for a market price, because there is no such thing as a market price for the unique thing that you offer the world. So, that’s it my friends. Those are the five mistakes I want you to stop making. Go review your income for the first half of 2023. And think about where you’re going for the second half of 2023. And maybe it’s time for you to raise your prices.

Thank you so much for listening in. I want to give you a quick reminder that in the next couple of weeks, I will be offering a free four-part sales course. And make sure that you are on my newsletter, so that you will be the first to know. Go to my website now, DebbieSassen.com/newsletter and sign up, so that the moment it’s released, you can start learning how you can close your sales conversations in a non-sleazy, ethical manner.

Thanks so much, my friends. I will see you next week on the podcast. Bye-bye for now.

Thanks for listening to The Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast. If you want to stop under selling and underearning and close more sales, you need to clear the limiting money beliefs that are sabotaging your business growth. Head on over to DebbieSassen.com/mindset and download my free Money Mindset Workbook. Uncover and dissolve money blocks, like hundreds of other entrepreneurs who are now building six, multi-six, and seven-figure businesses and creating true financial freedom.