Pricing Structures for Graphic Designers and Entrepreneurs

Today we’re expanding upon our “How to Launch and Run a Thriving Design Business” series by diving deeper into the imperative concept of charging what you’re worth. Guest blogger Christine Kane, President and founder of Uplevel You™, a million-dollar company committed to the growth and empowerment of entrepreneurs and creatives around the globe is here to share her insights with us.

This includes how our mindset is an essential component in our ability to get comfortable with really charging what we’re worth as professional graphic designers in Cleveland and beyond.

For more on this topic, see our post: “How to Charge For Your Graphic Design Work (& Get What You Deserve)”

Now, let’s hear from Christine!

– Heather Sakai, ‘Zine editor

Upleveling:
Shifting Your Mindset About Pricing

How did you come up with your pricing structure in your business? How did you decide what to charge your clients?

Most likely, you did one of the following:

1 – You looked around at your industry to see what other people were charging. And then you went just above or below that, depending on whether you were feeling confident or fearful.

2 – You climbed into the wallets of other people to see what they could “afford,” and you adjusted your pricing based on how sorry you felt for them.

3 – You asked your friends what they would pay you.

4 – You based your prices on what your family would consider a fair price.

5 – You blurted out the first thing that came into your head when your first prospect approached you, and you’ve been charging that ever since.

Which one best describes you?

[Tweet “Truth: Most business owners stink at pricing their services and products.”]

Why is this? Why are we so bad at this?

Well, let’s pull out one of my five laws of money to discover the reason.

This is my second law of money. And it is this:

Money Comes Through People.

What this means is that when we have a scarcity or lack mindset, we aren’t being scarce about money. We’re really being scarce about people.

When my Uplevel Academy coaches and I work with clients to help them with their pricing, what we often discover is this:

That they are giving their power over to other people.

And not just giving it over.

They are leaking it out from every cell in their body.

It’s not about the money. It’s about the people and the opinions of those people.

So, let’s review my examples above to see what’s operating at the core…

1 – We look around our industry to see what’s the norm because, holy hell, we don’t want to be judged by our peers. (“Who do you think you are?”)

2 – We climb into other people’s wallets to see what’s there right now, and we feel sorry for them because we haven’t yet recognized that we don’t serve people by believing their current stories. We serve them by seeing who they can become by working with us. Until we do that, we will see them as sad victims that we need to rescue.

3 – We ask our friends because we don’t want them to judge us. And we don’t want to be abandoned by our tribe.

4 – We check in with our family for the same reason as #3. No one in the family should move out beyond the family’s agreed upon money comfort zone, right?

5 – We stick with what we blurted out one time because to get strategic about our pricing means that we may have to face the discomfort of our own clarity. It’s more comfortable to go with that first blurt and just deal with the effects of not making enough.

These all have one thing in common:

They’re about asking for what we think we can get, as opposed to asking for what we want or for what we’re worth.

Get it?

More often than not, lack is about how we deal with our clarity, and how we think that will affect the people in our lives.

Money is a Channel

So, money is not a mysterious entity that either flows to you or not.

Money comes through people. You’re in business because of people.

Now, let’s expand on this a bit more.

Some gurus like to teach that money is an energy. And this is fine. But I don’t think it goes quite far enough. It’s not clear enough for us business owners.

So, let’s talk about the mechanics of money here…

Consider that money is a vehicle. It’s a CHANNEL.

It’s a channel or vehicle for the highest form of human energy – which is commitment.

Decision is commitment. And yes, it’s the highest form of our energy. Once you really decide, there’s no turning back in spite of all the many possible risks involved.

So when someone purchases your product or service… she isn’t buying stuff from you.

What she’s doing is that she is committing to her results.

[Tweet “When someone pays you money, she’s investing in her own results through your service or product.”]

And once you understand that, it’s a game-changer. It’s a money changer.

Pricing Starts with Your Mindset

So what does this mean for you and your pricing?

Well, it means that you have to:

1 – Lead people by seeing them beyond their current stories about themselves.
This can be one of the most challenging parts of being a leader, a coach, a consultant or a business owner. People will fight you to hold onto their stories. And sometimes they will hate you if you don’t endorse those stories.

2 – Lead people by modeling what it means to be clear about who you are.
I can tell you from experience that your clients will want to be around you most because of this one thing alone. They will GET that you model congruence. And that you model wealth. And that you model clarity. Your ideal client may not know consciously that this is why they love you – but you will know it. And it’s powerful.

3 – Be self-aware.
Recognize when you are giving your power over to the opinions of others rather than standing in an abundance mindset. And yes, this will still happen even after you have made progress. A prospect will come along and you will find yourself agreeing to something you don’t want to do or charging lower pricing than you have set. Use these situations to uncover more hidden blocks. These are priceless aha’s along the way.

[Tweet “”Pricing Starts with Your Mindset.” – Christine Kane”]

4 – Set standards.
We trigger-finger quick-start fast-thinking creative entrepreneurs like to do things “in the moment.” We’re kinda “notsomuch” when it comes to setting standards and being clear. This is why my mastermind clients get such great results. My retreats force business owners to step back and actually THINK ABOUT THEIR THINKING. When you do this, you can set clear standards that guide you in the moment so that your knee-jerk responses to things are no longer running your business and keeping you in a state of lack.

5 – Be willing to be uncomfortable.
Money is a highly charged topic.

Most of us don’t want to deal with the discomfort that comes with our own clarity. I can promise you, however, that there’s a tipping point. You sit with the discomfort, you hear a few “no’s.” Then, you get your first yes and then your second yes. And then you live through someone criticizing your pricing. Then you pay for your family vacation and see your partner’s eyes light up at how cool that is. And you start to realize the beauty of clarity and you become willing, even excited, about not always being comfortable with your own upleveling.

But that’s what makes upleveling so worth it!

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About Christine:

Christine Kane is known as the Mentor to People Who are Changing the World. She is the president and founder of Uplevel You™, a million-dollar company committed to the growth and empowerment of entrepreneurs and creatives around the globe through teaching not only high-level cutting-edge authentic marketing and business strategies – but also transformational techniques to shift mindsets and wealth.

Christine has now worked with over two thousand people in her Uplevel Your Life® Mastery Program and Uplevel Your Business™ Program & Blueprint, in addition to her popular events and retreats – where she teaches students how to create successful businesses based in their passion, attract an on-going stream of customers, clients and income — while creating a life of meaning and purpose.

Christine provides Upleveling advice, breakthrough techniques and other resources to over 37,000 subscribers from around the world via her Uplevel YOU eZine. If you liked today’s lesson, you’ll love the transformations you’ll experience in Christine’s Uplevel Coaching Programs to help you quickly break through into higher levels of happiness and success!

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Click here to receive a free download of Christine’s 5 Smart Ways to Make Money Fast video and worksheet.

And for all you’ll need to start your freelance business, including Billing, Legal, Media, Design advice documents and more, check out Go Media’s Freelance Survival Kit, now available at arsenal.gomedia.us.