I wanted to talk to you about some of the conversations that I’ve been having with clients and folks that are in my Lively Biz Business Club lately.
You’re probably having these conversations as well. Or maybe they’re just thoughts that are in your own mind.
It’s about charging for our offers right now during our current crisis.
I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about what I think is true and what I know to be true through all these years of experience of being online and being in business, being a business owner, and hopefully helping to give you a different perspective.
If you’re feeling uncomfortable about charging for your products, your programs or your services, or you’re feeling guilty about it, or you’re just really not sure what to do, here’s why it’s okay to charge.
The first reason is based on historical data and my MBA experience which has shown me that our economy will only stay afloat or not dive deeper into the abyss where it’s already headed as long as we continue to exchange money.
We need money to keep flowing in order for our economy to stay afloat, in order for our economy to bounce back quicker from our current reality and our current crisis right now.
We need that money exchange, we need to exchange value for value, money for money. If nothing else, if I can appeal to your logical left brain and historical data, just know that that’s true. If you want to help our economy, small business owners are in the best position to make that happen. So I’m going to encourage you to do that, if only from that perspective.
But I also want to address this from a more internal perspective, which is probably where you’re struggling with the most.
One thing that I love seeing and I talked about this recently is the generosity of all the free invitations that are out there right now. And if you can take advantage of some of those, I shared some tips on a recent Facebook Live that hopefully will help you really utilize those free invitations, those free offers and different programs and products without hopefully overwhelming you or adding more to what’s already a stressful situation.
Skin in the Game
But from a perspective of yourself and your business and charging for your products, programs and services, the fact of the matter is, if you really want to continue to serve your people, and for all of us who are service based business owners, that’s what we’re all about – we’re here to serve our market, our audience, our people. If we want to do that, then the best way that we can serve them is to ask them to put a little skin in the game – at least a little bit.
There’s nothing wrong with offering things for free. And there’s certainly a place for it. I offer a lot of content for free. But make sure that you don’t open up your stores to everyone for everything that you offer without charging them. There needs to be some skin in the game so they show up and do the work.
If you’ve ever had an experience like that, where maybe you took advantage of a free offer, but you didn’t show up and do the work, or maybe you had someone in one of your products or programs or services who took advantage of an invitation for free, but didn’t show up and do the work, then you know what I’m talking about.
Consider Scholarships v Free for all
Now, I’ve also had many people come through different offers that I’ve made over the years as a scholarship recipient. And those people have been some of my absolute best clients, and a lot of them are still with me today because of that first experience.
So if you’re thinking about making some of your invitations free to your audience, to help them, to serve them through this time, think about maybe offering a scholarship because that is a little skin in the game, right? They have to apply, maybe they answer a couple questions, maybe you only have so many spots to offer for people. That’s one way that you could approach this and still be of service to your market. To do it in a way that serves both of you – you’re serving both your potential client or customer but also serving your business as well.
Still OK to Charge
But the other thing that I wanted to say is that it’s perfectly okay for you to charge for your products, your programs and your services right now, even if it’s a little bit, maybe you’re adjusting your pricing right now to because it feels better for you to do that, that’s great.
But even if you don’t want to or don’t feel like depending on your market that it’s necessary for you to do, so don’t feel guilty about continuing to charge what you’re charging right now. It’s all perfectly okay. And it’s all very individual.
But I wanted to really just say that if you’re coming to your work and giving your work to your potential clients and customers, from a place of service, if you’re coming from your heart and you really are just there to help them and provide solutions, then it is okay to charge for that. Because doing so is going to help everyone. It’s going to help you, it’s going to help your clients, it’s going to help your customers, it’s going to help our economy. So it really is a win-win-win.
So again, yes, continue to offer your free content. So maybe do scholarship spots, maybe change some of your prices. I just did a course that I normally charge a couple hundred dollars for at least, and I did a “pay what you can” where I gave some lower prices because that was a way that I could serve my market. But I also know that charging them even little bit means they’re going to show up. They’re a little bit committed, they’re doing the work, they’re going to get what they came for in the program, which is going to help them and it’s going to help their families and it’s going to help their communities.
So don’t feel guilty about charging. Don’t feel uncomfortable about charging. Maybe look at it from a little bit of a different perspective. Have some free stuff, maybe do some scholarships, maybe do a “pay what you can” or “pay what you want”, or continue to charge what you’re charging right now and keep putting one foot in front of the other.
It’s
all good but you have the absolute opportunity here to serve your mark at an
even higher level by coming from your heart by actually asking them to commit
back to you as well. It’s truly a win-win-win all around.
I’d love to know what you think. Go ahead and drop your comments in here below.