Pricing is a big, important topic. And there's quite a bit that goes into pricing. So I've decided to break pricing down into three episodes and each, we will tackle a different component that relates to pricing for wedding entrepreneurs.
Welcome to Bright, the podcast for wedding creatives that want to earn more and have a life and business that they love. Hi, I'm your host and money mentor, Melissa. I make understanding money in your business easy. Each episode, we'll be talking about finance, growth, mindset, and real strategies for your creative business.
Are you ready? Let's get started.
Up first, how do we limit ourselves? Recently in several of the last podcast episodes, we've been talking about creating big audacious goals for your business.
And there's many components that kind of need to click together for this big goal or other outcomes you may want for your business to be where you would like them to be. Pricing is one of the things that needs to click.
And pricing is one of the top questions that we get [00:01:00] asked about for good reason. Getting your pricing right can help create more money in your business, increase your bookings, and help you stand out amongst your peers in your niche. But pricing is also one of those topics where people second guess themselves and have doubts money stories we have can potentially limit you and what you're capable of accepting for your product or your service. So there's multiple ways we need to discuss pricing.
And I like to start with the premise that many of us have created a ceiling for what we think we should be paid for what we offer. We've literally created a number that is the max we can earn or think we can earn for each booking, for each wedding, for each year we're in business, and we are convinced that this ceiling is it.
We've capped ourselves, not on purpose, but with what we believe is possible for us and our business.
And that is why getting out of your comfort zone and challenging yourself to create a big outcome will effectively force you in essence, to evaluate your current pricing model because to break into the new version [00:02:00] of you, that books the clients they want at the price point you want requires upgrading not only your pricing, but your mindset as well.
So first things first, understanding your pricing, many wedding entrepreneurs undervalue what they do. Some look to others to see what they're charging and then set their prices based on what others in the industry charge.
Others might look at what it costs them either in money or time to provide their service or product, and then just double the cost.
Others look at what other jobs pay and just come up with some way undervalue price per hour, and then they settle for that.
Whatever approach you've taken to decide on your pricing, if you want to get unstuck, elevate your business, or create a big audacious goal, Then we need to evaluate how you approach your pricing because many of you are not making anywhere near what you're capable of. And many of you are making less than if you worked at a big box store.
I know how it feels to have to say yes to everyone and anyone who inquires about your service or [00:03:00] product because you need the money.
And I know what it's like to deal with clients that inquire about pricing before anything. And that usually means they are looking to book based on price and not value. And I also know what it feels like to not believe in my pricing.
For most of my life, I've struggled with believing what I'm worth. And only in the last few years have I done a ton of work on my relationship with money and I have evolved, and I have come to terms with how I was afraid to value myself and accept the right amount of money for what I do.
I struggle to value myself in so many ways.
How did it show up in our business? First, how I felt about pricing. I could put a number out there, but I couldn't necessarily believe in it. Part of that, of course, was because I didn't feel that I was worth this.
And second, I had a hard time accepting money and that people would be willing to pay me what I had typed out on my price list. It's as if that number on the price list wasn't attached to me. I was detached in a way I [00:04:00] can't quite explain. I didn't value what I was doing. As I've said in other episodes, Keith didn't have these same limiting beliefs, thank goodness, that I did.
But I kept us small in so many ways. so I could look at my price list and on one side, know full well the value we offered our clients. But on the other side, I could also doubt that anyone would be willing to pay that to work with us. I wonder if anyone else feels this way, but doubt showed up for me everywhere.
So when I get asked the question about what should you charge, a lot comes up, I love the number side of the business, so I can technically break down what we charge how much we bring in and how much we spend. I can tell you what our profit margins are and I can easily explain to you a simple math equation about how much you should charge.
Based on the time you put in, your experience, and the value you offer. But, but, but, the first place to start is believing that you are ready for the next level of pricing for what you offer. You don't have to believe it right away, but you have to put that thought out there that this [00:05:00] is what you're charging, and for these reasons.
And then wake up every single day and believe more and more in yourself. And your value. There are creatives I work with now that tell me one of the hardest things for them to admit. Funny choice of words, right. That they are a photographer, a florist, a videographer. Insert your professional creative title here.
It is hard in the beginning, maybe the first few months, few years for some, to say, I'm Melissa and I'm a photographer and I charge blank for my work.
In the early days, I felt like a fraud, an imposter. Like who would pay me to photograph anything, but believing in what you do is one of the first steps to evolving your pricing. When we value ourselves and what we do, the world in turn feels the same way about us. So evolving your pricing starts with evolving the way you think about yourself.
And many of you think for whatever reason that you can only charge X for what you do.
It's one part comparison to others in your niche. One part limiting beliefs in [00:06:00] your relationship with money and worth. And another part, self confidence. Many of you are barely pricing yourself for profit. I know that because I know how many of you work job to job.
You literally trade your time and know how for so few dollars. As I mentioned a few minutes ago, so many of us have pre decided what we can and should charge. We self limit unconsciously. We know we're worth more, but we keep telling ourselves that we aren't ready to charge more, or we can start charging more when we get to some hypothetical, like, unicorn spot in our entrepreneurial journey.
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But our biggest pricing obstacle is that we still have a limit in our minds about what we can charge and what people are willing to pay. Ugh. I just had a memory pop in from years past when I used to [00:07:00] cringe at the thought of sharing our pricing with anyone. Imagine that. But I was really good at keeping my brain limited.
If I asked my family members about my pricing, they may repeat back to me what the beliefs I'm trying to shed are like, how much do you charge for a wedding? You're not worth that. You can't charge that. No one is going to pay you that much.
Let go of the fear and these very unhelpful thoughts you're having and believe that what you offer is worth whatever you believe it is worth. Not what your friends think, not what those who don't value you think, what you believe. You know in your heart what your product is worth. You know how hard you work, how many years you've studied your craft, continuing to perfect it.
It sounds so simple, but you just have to believe in your worth, and when you meet a potential client and they ask you about your pricing, you need to demonstrate 1000 percent belief in you and you answer with confidence and you say, I'm Melissa, I'm a wedding photographer and our wedding packages start at [00:08:00] 5, 200.
And what becomes most important here is how you handle a potential client's reaction. Because if you're like me, I have heard many, many times from potential clients, things that at one point would make me feel like crap. Like when people would say, wow, you charge a lot. I can find someone else who charges a lot less.
And it took me a while to get to this point, but you just have to be willing to say, that's wonderful. Enjoy working with them. Don't start to negotiate. Don't try to win them over because they have shown you their hand. They don't value you like you do. Don't get upset with their reaction. Just embrace it.
The limits that that specific potential client has are not your limits, but because you wholeheartedly have the. self confidence and believe in your value, you are okay with letting them go. Let them move on. You will be so much better off for it. Your belief in you is what's needed, not someone else's own limiting beliefs around what they value.
If they don't value what you do, so be it. There are [00:09:00] stacks of people out there who will. This can be hard. As I said, I understand. Photography was the only source of income in our home for the last 20 plus years. The sooner I stopped undervaluing what we offered and created pricing that worked for the life we wanted, I gave myself permission to finally believe that I could create money beyond the ceiling that I had lived under for so long.
I couldn't even see this for most of my life until then. Let go of this limit you have around creating money and keeping money because if you don't, you're only going to attract the amount of money your ceiling allows for forever.
My most important rule for pricing, figure out what your ceiling is and let's break through it.
Thank you so much. This is episode one in my pricing series. Check back next week for episode two because we want 2025 to be the best year yet for you Good. And your business. I'll see you next week.
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