Pricing and Packaging Your Services

Package Your Services: You are priceless

March 21, 2016 by influexwp Leave a Comment

Hey y’all,

I just got off a training with my members on Pricing and Packaging your services.

We’re creating ease of enrollment and wanted to offer you some of the juicy parts. Why? Because it is the #1 thing I repeatedly see most people in service-based businesses are missing the boat on and was the 1st step toward building my professional practice into a million dollar business.

#1. Be really clear about who you serve. Most business owners start off in business trying to serve way too big of an audience.

My law practice took off big time when I narrowed my focus to serving families with young children and was able to become the go to lawyer in my community by educating families with young children in a way no other lawyers were doing at that time. I later expanded to serving business owners with young children at home, when I began offering legal services for business.

Up until I narrowed my focus, I struggled to get clients in the door and when I did, they often had to think about whether to hire me or were shopping around. Once I narrowed my focus and designed my service to meet their needs, I became unshoppable.

#2. Drop the free initial consultation and instead create a first meeting that provides tremendous value, has a name, and a specific purpose or outcome.

No one really values a free initial consultation and it’s most often seen as a sales meeting in which people really just want to know how much you charge so they can shop you.

When you shift away from the free initial consult and instead create a meeting that has a name, a purpose, and a value, your ideal clients want it, value it and whether they hire you or not, will tell all their friends and family about you.

Plus, you’re delivering value right from the start and when this meeting is done well and you prepare your prospects for it well, they aren’t focused on price, they are focused on the outcome of the meeting.

Make this meeting so awesome that you could charge for it and people would be happy to pay, but see below for how to use it in your marketing by offering it for free or discounted.

#3. Use your marketing to educate, educate, educate and give people an easy way to get your now named and highly valuable initial meeting for free or at a significant discount.

For example, if I served folks one-to-one, I would offer a pricing and packaging strategy session or Money Map Life and Income Planning Session at the end of this message, either at a discount or free, depending on how many new clients I wanted and where I was in my practice.

#4. Make a list of all the services you can possibly provide to your ideal clients by focusing on the problems they solve using outcome based language.

I see too many people trying to offer their services in terms of time or number of sessions (3-hours or 4 sessions) rather than in terms of the outcome provided.

Your pricing should be based on the value of the outcome you provide to the people you serve, not at all based on the number of hours or sessions it takes to get there.

#5. Base your fees (at least in the beginning) on the LEAST you can charge, rather than buying into some idea of charging what you are worth.

You are priceless.

You couldn’t possibly charge what you are worth, even if you tried. What you can do though is charge what you need so you aren’t sacrificing your life in service to your work AND once you’ve got confidence with your enrollment structure (which will happen quickly if you follow my guidance here) and your practice is full or close to full, you can increase your package fees based on the true value you are providing to the people you serve.

In order to ensure that you are not under-charging for your services while at the same time knowing the least you can charge, make sure you understand your Money Map Numbers at five levels — min to be happy, min to be of service, preferred, no limits, and now — so you know what you are working towards.

These numbers are calculated based on the life you want to have, what it will cost to have that life at your next number, the amount of time you have to earn in exchange for your services — which is less than you probably think given all the other things you need to do in your business.

If you found this helpful, check out our Money Map Life Planning Series. You can get it here.

Inspiration to Leap and Rites of Passage

January 22, 2016 by influexwp Leave a Comment

If you’ve already introduced yourself, I’ve probably fallen in love with you. If you haven’t written in, please tell me about you; let me fall in love with you too (alexis@eyeswideopenlife.com).

I’m gearing up for a BIG week next week and I’ll be honest I’ve got a bit of pre-big things happening anxiety kicking in.

I leave for a secret retreat at Esalen on Sunday and get back on Thursday so I can immediately dive in to our first Money Map Masters in-person retreat here in Boulder. I’m super excited for all of it and a little anxious about being off the computer and away from my kids for pretty much the whole week before the in-person retreat.

Gratefully, I do believe both the businesses and the kids are ready for this kind of independence.

In some ways my kids and businesses are at the same stages, on the verge of adulthood and I’m being invited to let go more and more as they individuate from me, which has me on my edge, in the best way possible.

Learning to let go is one of the most valuable lessons we can receive in this lifetime, I think.

There’s a time to micro-manage and infuse yourself into your kids and businesses and a time to let it all go and trust you’ve baked enough of you into the system that they will continue to operate at a high level even without you there.

Let go of trying to control the kids, but only after you know you’ve given them a solid foundation of learning to trust themselves and be trustworthy. Let them make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, grow and evolve.

Let go of control of the businesses, but only after you’ve established the systems and got a team in place that you know trusts itself to carry out the vision you’ve established.

One of my teams had an intervention with me last week and said “go, Ali. we’ve got this. You can be all of yourself out there in the world and know we’re holding down the fort while you do. We love you, we accept you, now get the “F” out of here.” Well, it wasn’t word for word like that, but that’s how it felt.

And, I believed them. I felt so loved. We are creating a plan for them to buy the business so we can be partners and truly share the wealth that’s being created here.

My kids’ dad is in Thailand until Thursday and this is the first time ever I’m leaving the kids’ for 4 nights without me or their dad here. We do have a house guest here to stay with them and they are 12 (almost 13) and 16, but this feels like a huge rite of passage. They’ve assured me they will work together to get Noah off to school each morning, go to bed at a decent time and eat healthfully throughout the week.

Trusting my children to become independent is the weirdest process in the world. It requires me to face all of my own insecurities and I look forward to sharing more of my process with you as I see the outcomes of a few experiments I’m running in the background while parenting radically differently than most.

I’ll let you know how this 4-days away experiment went in the next Love Letter.

In the meantime …

I’ve been looking back over the many leaps I’ve made in my life to see if I can identify what most supported me during these times of great progress, so I can offer it back to you.

The leaps have been many …

From the security of the 6-figure paycheck into my own law practice. From the law practice into online business. From the online business to the farm and unwilling to do anything for money I wouldn’t do for free. To the willingness to let it all go and file bankruptcy. To rebuilding everything from scratch using “share the wealth” business models in which everyone wins. To coming out publicly and living with two names and distinct personalities in the world.

And here’s what I realize … I never would have even made the first leap if I had not seen someone else do it first. Just about every leap I’ve made has happened after I’ve seen someone else do it and said to myself “if she can do it, I can do it.”

When I first launched my own law practice, I had the courage to do it because I saw my friend Diedre successfully doing it. Then, when I decided to move it online, I had the courage to do it because I saw other women successfully creating lives of freedom and flexibility while sharing their work in the world.

Today, I am going beyond what I’ve seen anyone else do and I’m charting my own course. But, there’s no way I would have even gotten to this point if I had not allowed myself to be inspired and guided by other women (and a couple of men) who had done what I wanted to do and supported those early leaps with their courageous jumps first.

I hope that watching me go first is inspiring you to more of what you truly desire in life. I hope that I’m giving you permission to live all of yourself and integrate your work with your life fully so that it’s hard to tell the difference between work and play. I hope I’m the guiding light you need to know you can do this — you can make the leap and trust that the safety net you seek will be there to support you in the form of all the resources you need to experience the outcome you desire.

It does help to have a guide. It does help to have the support of someone who has already been there and done that. I’ve had a coach every step of the way. Each one perfectly keyed to guide me because they had already done what I wanted to do.

If you’d love inspiration to make the leap into an online business from a current bricks and mortar, on location reality, you may enjoy this post about how I made $117,000 in 67 minutes and transformed my business reality overnight (after a lot of not succeeding because I didn’t have the right guidance and support). The links at the bottom of the post are no longer active, but the post itself will guide you to the 4 biggest mistakes I’ve seen people make when making this leap to the online world + the 4 best tips I have for smoothing the process out and doing it well.

If you’d love inspiration and support for something you know I’ve experienced, please write in and let me know so I can speak to it in a future video or one of these love letters here.

It’s my absolute joy to share my experiences so you can learn, grow and evolve too because that brings us closer than ever to being able to play together.

With so much love,

Ali

PS — this is the last week for the Money Map Life Planning Series and the New Year’s Clarity workshop. If you have not gotten into them yet, do it now because we’ll be shutting it all down this coming week.

Money Map Life Planning Series is here.

Recording of New Year’s Clarity Workshop is here.

Recording of Live Q&A Call With Me From Yesterday is here.

PPS — if you are ready to have my support on your vision and the build-out of your business over the next year, join us in the year-long Eyes Wide Open membership: use code BOGO500OFF athttp://www.eyeswideopenlife.com/membership and take $500 off your enrollment + fund a scholarship for someone else in serious need.

Here’s some of what our new members are saying:

With her heart and Eyes Wide Open: a love letter to Ali and the Money Map

January 18, 2016 by influexwp Leave a Comment

This is no ordinary Love Letter; it is a Love Letter to Ali and the Money Map. A message to our community from a very dear, passionate and inspiring member of the Eyes Wide Open Collective:

In 2015, one of my biggest intentions was to create a career in alignment with my values and Soul-Purpose, one that created financial sovereignty while also being of service in a way that felt inspiring and nourishing. I heard about the Money Map Life Planning System through several friends who were going through the program and their feedback and reflections encouraged me to explore the possibility.

The Money Map is a system designed by Alexis Neely (artist name: Ali Shanti), a paradigm-shifting visionary entrepreneur and thought-leader in the field of Sacred Economics for the New Earth. This system guides participants to come into right relationship with time, money and how they get paid through a series of modules that are worked through at the individual’s own pace.

I was touched by what felt like a “wholistic financial perspective” with which this work is held. I chose this program as the next step on my path to creating an empowered, congruent and financially sovereign life. I knew that an “accountability partner” would really support me through this process, and quickly found an inspiring and resonant partner in a Facebook community group that I’m a part of.

The first two modules in the program helped me get clear on how much money I need to be earning on an hourly and monthly basis to create a lifestyle that is aligned with my values, needs and self-care, so that I can be in service “from the overflow”. It felt so clarifying to discover my “monthly number”, which is $3567, and to have a clear goal for my monthly income to aim towards. I even made a visionary collage art-piece with my monthly number on it, to help crystallize the intention.

The third module was very illuminating in helping me get clear on how I choose to invest my time. I realized how key it is for me to create space for self care (visits with a naturopath, acupuncture, massage, restful sleep), so that I can really begin sharing my gifts from a foundation of wholistic ‘thrival’. I began ‘time-blocking‘: creating my own schedule, making space for my business, clients, relationships, creativity and Spirit.

The next two modules led me into greater awareness of what real resources are currently available to me, and how I can best put them to use for my business, based on my ‘Entrepreneurial Archetype’. It was very enheartening to unearth the many ways in which my immediate environment is already aligned to support my life and my work in the world. The diverse, pioneering path that Ali has taken in her life and career has cultivated her ability to mentor other visionary entrepreneurs with creativity, innovation and resourcefulness. As I worked through these modules, I felt empowered to begin creating my website, promotional materials and branding. Of the eight entrepreneurial archetypes, I aligned with ‘Sage Guide’, and was better able to understand how to grow my business in a way that supports me in doing what I do best.

The final step was to get clear on my purpose and complete any ‘incompletions’ that are blocks on the path to creating the life that I really want. This included getting on track with loans and debt, clearing the air in challenging interpersonal dynamics and attending to health concerns that may have been swept under the rug. The intention of this module is to bring to light our blind spots and create an accountability system for us to begin bringing them to conscious completion.

Throughout this whole process, I regularly posted questions, reflections and intentions in the Facebook group, to have them witnessed and held by a supportive community. I attended the twice a month coaching calls, receiving guidance from Ali and her team, including the brilliant ‘Human Design’ consultant, Christopher Power, who works with the ‘Eyes Wide Open Life Collective’ to support people in understanding how their ‘Human Design Type’ influences their business.

As I deepen the establishment of my business and it’s processes I intend to work through Phase Two of the Money Map, which will support me in ensuring I have the proper legal, insurance, financial and tax structures in place.

With this program, I got really clear on the direction I am choosing to take my business. I created promotional materials, began seeing new clients and received really great and encouraging feedback about my work. Creating ‘right-livelihood’ through my skills and gifts has been a key component in creating a life that I love. It is definitely an ongoing journey, but having a resonant ‘tribe’ of supporters and co-creators has been an invaluable support and for that I am truly grateful.

I recently came across a quote from Dr. Wayne Dyer that felt like a powerful reflection for this journey: “When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous.”
Join us in the pursuit of your life and income awake, aware and on your terms. We want to work to construct an income model that works with you and for you, to include all of your amazing skills and talents into one thriving system. Take some time to go through the Life & Income Planning Series right now (for FREE) and then listen to the fourth session, recorded on New Year’s Eve. If you want to dive in with your Eyes Wide Open, join our Membership for a higher, deeper level of support from Ali and her team at the Eyes Wide Open Collective.

About Prema Gaia:

Prema Gaia brings over 13 years of intensive study and practice of the world’s wisdom traditions & healing arts to her transformational coaching practice, workshops and retreats. Feeling called to dedicate her life to service, Prema gave away all of her possessions and traveled the world on a several-year ‘vision quest’, writing about what she discovered, in magazines such as Spirituality & Health, Sage Woman & South Africa’s Odyssey Magazine. To connect, please visit: www.facebook.com/premagaiawriter

How to Price and Package Your Services in Alignment So You Can Confidently Engage More Happy Clients and Love Your Work

January 15, 2015 by influexwp Leave a Comment

I consistently see service providers ask the same question, “How should I charge for this service?”

The advice I see them get, most of the time, is the exact reason so many service providers are struggling, can’t get ahead, wonder if they are getting paid enough, work too much and overall feel stuck around their business, their income and their life.

How you get paid for what you do is probably the single biggest influencer of how much you love your work and whether you can build a sustainable income while loving your life.

When you have a process in place for how to price and package your services in alignment , rather than you just picking numbers out of thin air or pricing based on what your competitors charge, you are able to confidently engage clients easily. And, if you work for someone else, you can negotiate your pay (plus future increases) from a place of empowered clarity.

This article introduces you to the Money Map™ system for pricing and packaging your services sustainably, and in such a way that you feel in total alignment with your fees, and as a result engage more happy clients and love your work more.

(Check out the Money Map Life Planning Series – a 4-part mini-course that helps you discover your own Money Map Number and your Entrepreneurial Archetype so you can have what you need to price and package your services in full alignment and confidently engage more happy clients (or negotiate a sweet pay raise for yourself) as a result.)

Up until now, perhaps you’ve been pricing and packaging your services by looking around at how others in your market price and package their services. I’ll call this the competition model of pricing your services. This model usually results in a race to the bottom mentality; who can charge the least? And it doesn’t lead to a life you want, by any means.

Maybe you already price your services way too low, using what I’ll call the loss leader model of pricing your services. You charge as little as possible, just so you can get by and don’t have to be on the hook for doing that good of a job. You’re struggling to get by and wondering how you can possibly do more.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, perhaps you’ve been pricing your services by looking at how you can charge as much as possible. I’ll call this the suck as much as possible out of the marketplace model of pricing your services.

This model usually results in you feeling some level of incongruency with your pricing and you engaging a far smaller number of clients than you can actually serve, getting a lot of refund requests or push back on your fees. Perhaps you are also wondering if you are actually providing value, but you’ve got a lot of “face” wrapped up in your fees and you’re so focused on building a million dollar business that you feel like you’ve got to keep doing it the way you are doing it.

None of these strategies lead to pricing and packaging of your services that feels awesome. They lead to you struggling, straining, stressing out about your income and having a lot less to invest in your creative output.

So, what’s the better way?

Start with pricing your services based on the least you can charge for you to have what Lynne Twist refers to in her best-selling book the Soul of Money as sufficiency. Sufficiency means knowing what you actually need to have the life you want and then building your income to meet that need. {Tweet It!}

“Sufficiency is precise. Enough is a place you can arrive at and dwell in. So often we think of ‘abundance’ as the point at which we’ll know we’ve really arrived, but abundance continues to be elusive if we think we’ll find it in some excessive amount of something.”

So we begin there. Sufficiency. Enough. You earning what you need to have the life you want delivering a service you believe in that’s priced just right.

A service that’s priced just right for you to have the life you want must be built on a foundation of the life you want. This, my friends, is where most people get stuck.

We are deluded about the live’s we really want. We either do not acknowledge our true desires (and what it really costs to have them) because our true desires feel too outrageous, expensive or downright impossible. Or, we chase, struggle and strive for lives we can never possibly satisfy, always wanting more, more, more, more when the truth is, it will never be enough.

So a process of pricing our services based on sufficiency must begin with the truth about what we really, really, really, REALLY want, acknowledgement of what it will actually cost to have it and the real time we have available to create it.

Most of us are gravely underestimating the time we have available to invest in earning money without sacrificing our self care and relationships. As a result, we are either far undercharging for our services, deciding that self care and relationships aren’t that necessary or wondering why the heck we can’t make our lives truly work.

And if you are charging hourly for your services, forget it. Trading your limited time for any amount of money in 6-minute (or even 60-minute) increments simply sucks your life away.

When you come into right relationship with your time, putting yourself first, your family next and your income-earning activities last, you can price your services in right alignment with what you actually need to have the life you want.

This is what I’ll call the Money Map method of pricing and packaging your services. When you build in your Entrepreneurial Archetype and Archetype Path on top of that, you’re golden.

Once you’ve built on this foundation, you increase your fees as you want to free up time and as you gain more understanding of the true value of the outcome of your services to the people you serve.

Begin the process of discovering what you need to know (your Money Map Numbers and Entrepreneurial Archetype) to price and package your services confidently using the Money Map Life Planning Series.

It’s free to get started here.

Know anyone who could use some help with pricing and packaging their services? I’d love it if you passed this post along.