Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey. Hey. I'm Shawna A. And you're listening to delightful audiosodes. These are mini episodes designed to spark inspiration and provide practical tips for therapists looking to diversify their professional income and achieve lucrative, fulfilling careers beyond the couch. You're listening to season two, episode four. This episode is titled Shauna Fix It. Today we're going to talk about the one mistake that keeps you from scaling your business. Now, here's the show, so let's just talk about it, right? January 2025 is off to a start. And I know many of us are thinking about how we can make our businesses work for the better this year. Working with therapists to scale their businesses is my focus for 2025. And today we're diving into that major mistake that holds so many of you back. I'm going to let you know it's about pricing and that your pricing needs to be strategic. But so many of you are working harder than you need to because you're not pricing in a way that supports your business. Now I get it. When we start talking about money, therapists get anxious. Pricing can feel overwhelming. But pricing strategically isn't about raising your fees so high that you're out pricing your audience. It's about understanding what's needed to keep you in business while honoring your energy and your capacity. If you're feeling overworked and underpaid, this episode is for you. Let's go. Why is undercharging hurting your business? Well, many therapists set their rates based on fear not strategy. You might be thinking, will people actually pay this? What if no one books with me? I don't want to seem greedy. Another thing that I see, therapists question is whether or not their clients can actually afford this rate. But here's the truth. When you undercharge, you're actually hurting your ability to serve your clients effectively. You're working too many hours, you're stretching yourself too thin, and you're burning out before you can actually even scale. A sustainable, thriving private practice isn't built on discounting yourself. It's built on pricing that reflects the value that you provide.
[00:02:13] So you need to make a strategic shift. You're pricing for growth and not survival. Instead of pricing based on fare priced based on what your business actually needs to survive. So what I tell people is instead of guessing what price you want, you're actually going to reverse engineer that you are going to start at, what would you like to make in a year? And this is really just short for knowing your numbers. Do you actually know how much you need to make per month to cover expenses. Pay yourself, invest back into your business. Most therapists, especially when they're starting off their private practice, they don't. What I see a lot of therapists doing is asking around. They say, hey, what's your prices? I'm in this particular area, what's the average rate? And then therapists will jump in and will be like, good grief, that's a lot. Oh, my goodness, that's too low. Right. That's not a good pricing mechanism. What you want to do is actually look up what's the going rate for your area. You can do this by looking up the insurance rate, the going rate for the insurance code. You can look that up by going to fairhealthconsumer.org fairhealthconsumer.org and you will find that in the show notes as well. But by starting with this number, you can see what is the going rate for your practice according to the code and the area that you were in. Next, you want to understand your capacity. You actually have a limited number of client hours per week. I know there are some people out there who are like, I can have a caseload of 30 to 40 people and can versus capacity is two different things. Yeah, I can have a very high caseload if I wanted to. Do I want to have very high caseload. No, I don't think that is appropriate for the work that I do, especially as a professional who comes into trauma quite a bit. If your current pricing is leading you to overload yourself just to make ends meet, it's time for a change. You want for your price to match your capacity, and the next thing is you charge for the transformation, not the time. Now, when it comes to the therapy world, I recognize that things therapy is a health need. So it's very different than if you are charging for a coaching service, because coaching services are a bit of a luxury. It's not as necessary as healthcare like therapy is. The next thing is we want to charge our value, not our worth. So a lot of times people will say, well, just charge your worth. That's not enough. Your worth is priceless. Clients are not just paying for your time, they're paying for your expertise, your ability to help them transform their lives and make shifts and the results that you help them to achieve. Now, I recognize that in this therapy world, therapy is a health need as well. So we recognize all of that when we're building those prices. Again, this is not a number. It is a combination of knowing what your business needs to be Sustainable understanding your capacity and the transformation that you help clients achieve. So a very simple way about going about this is putting in the number that needs to be made for the year, dividing that by how many weeks you're working, then dividing that number by how many clients you will see. That will allow you to come to a number. And the good thing about this is that it's very foundational, right? So you know how much the sessions need to be. But you can play around with this based off of what other services you provide. But again, it's very strategic. You have the number and you know what you need to make, at least per session. So for today's homework, I want you to take 15 minutes and review your pricing. Ask yourself, am I undercharging out of fear? Am I pricing in a way that allows me to work within my capacity? And do I truly know the numbers that will sustain my business? And you know, one thing is that it's not just about the pricing. It's also about how you promote that to your clients. One question that instantly improves your consultation calls can help you share this information with clients better. So once your pricing is aligned, you need to confidently communicate your value to your potential clients. Here is a simple yet powerful question that shifts consultations from convincing to clarifying. You can ask, what's the biggest challenge that made you reach out today? This question puts focus on them and helps you understand their path point immediately and allows you to position your services as an exact solution they need. So a lot of times people are afraid of the pricing because they don't know how they'll communicate those pricings to the people that they want to work with. But this shift will help you see that it's not just about the price. It's about the transformation that your clients would like to see if you're ready to actually go deeper and implement these strategies. This is exactly what we do inside the lucrative therapist school. And in my coaching programs inside, we take therapists from uncertainty to clarity. We move beyond just learning strategies and we actually implement them so you can confidently scale and attract your ideal clients, as well as build revenue beyond just therapy services. For those looking to join, be sure to click on the link to schedule your next strategy call or join the lucrative therapist school. So let's recap. Undercharging is keeping many therapists stuck, overworked and underpaid. Strategic pricing is about sustainability, knowing your numbers, working with your capacity, and charging for transformation, not just time. And one small shift like better consultation questions can make a big impact on how you position your services. If this resonated with you, take a moment to review your pricing and make sure it aligns with the business you actually want to build. And if you're ready for guidance and support, check out the lucrative therapist School or book a coaching program with me. You can check those out in the links below. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. If you found this helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and share it with another therapist who needs to hear it. You can also connect with me on Instagram and TikTok. The delightful clinician is the handle. Until next time. Keep building, keep growing and keep thriving. I will see you then.
