The piece of advice I give to my coaching clients most often, and the one that remains unheeded, is that they need to charge more. Far too many of you are charging well below what you’re worth because you believe the wrong facts about your business and your own value.

[Tweet “Are you basing your value, and the value of your work, on false beliefs?”]

See, it’s easy to think that if we raise our rates our clients will laugh right in our faces. They’ll tell us we’re simply not worth it and then they’ll tell everyone around us that we aren’t worth it so we’ll end up on the street.

We forget that we’re wizards.

To combat these false beliefs we need to fact check our story and find out what’s true.

The key to fact-checking a thought or story is to have a realistic assessment of the situation while actively searching for fueling facts. Fueling facts are true parts of our reality that give us hope and a sense of empowerment in the face of a challenge. – Broadcasting Happiness

Let’s apply the fact-checking exercise from Broadcasting Happiness to see what happens when we charge more:

Step 1: Isolate the stressful thought

The stressful thought for most of you is what I’ve already stated. Your higher rates will mean that no one wants to work with you and your business will collapse.

You figure that you’re simply not worth the higher rates.

Step 2: List the facts you know

Now what are the facts that support your feelings? I said facts, not feelings, here.

Ask yourself: “Do I know anyone who raised their rates and then couldn’t get work anymore?”

Write down the facts that support those feelings.

Step 3: List facts that support the other side of the story

Now it’s time to list the facts that support the other side. Ask yourself: “Who do I know who raised their rates and did better?”

I can tell you that every single one of the people I’ve coached to raise their rates made more money with less time and had better clients.

Now that you have a realistic picture of what raising your rates means, maybe it’s time to raise those rates.

If you need help positioning your business for those higher rates, I’d love to talk.

photo credit: zstasiuk cc