Spirituality in Business: Pricing Your Services

Mark Silver
Founder and Healer

http://www.HeartofBusiness.com
Spirituality in Business: Pricing Your Services
Table of Contents
About Mark Silver Founder and Healer .................................................................... 4 Can You Make Your Business Work Without Crushing Your Spirit? ................................ 5 Raising Your Prices without Breaking Your Heart ........................................................ 7 The Wackiness of Resonant Pricing ......................................................................... 10 Whether or Not to Publish Your Prices ..................................................................... 12 When Making a Profit Feels Greedy and Selfish ........................................................ 14 Mixing Spirituality and Business .............................................................................. 19
Legal Disclaimers
All contents copyright 2012 by Mark Silver and Heart of Business, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this document or accompanying files may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, electronic or otherwise, by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. This ebook is presented to you for informational purposes only and is not a substitution for any professional advice. The contents herein are based on the views and opinions of the author and all associated contributors. While every effort has been made by the author and all associated contributors to present accurate and up to date information within this document, it is apparent technologies rapidly change. Therefore, the author and all associated contributors reserve the right to update the contents and information provided herein as these changes progress. The author and/or all associated contributors take no responsibility for any errors or omissions if such discrepancies exist within this document. The author and all other contributors accept no responsibility for any consequential actions taken, whether monetary, legal, or otherwise, by any and all readers of the materials provided. It is the readers sole responsibility to seek professional advice before taking any action on their part. Readers results will vary based on their skill level and individual perception of the contents herein, and thus no guarantees, monetarily or otherwise, can be made accurately. Therefore, no guarantees are made.
About Mark Silver Founder and Healer

Mark is a fourth-generation entrepreneur who has run a distribution business, turned around a struggling non-profit magazine, and worked as a paramedic in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the author of seven different in-depth programs and a number of other smaller teachings and classes for entrepreneurs. Together they form a comprehensive entrepreneurial wisdom academy curriculum. A designated Master Teacher (muqaddam murrabi) in his Shaddhilliyya Sufi lineage, Mark is currently studying for his Masters of Divinity with a specialty in Ministry and Sufi Studies. As a coach, consultant, mentor and spiritual healer, he has facilitated more than 2000 individual sessions with entrepreneurs and has led hundreds of classes, seminars, groups and retreats. His weekly writings and teachings are followed by thousands of people around the globe. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Holly, twin sons Sam and David, two cats Rafi and Kira, and all the rain you care to soak up.
Spirituality in Business: Pricing Your Services - http://www.heartofbusiness.com/new-here/ Copyright 2012 Mark Silver & Heart of Business, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Can You Make Your Business Work Without Crushing Your Spirit?
This is the question, isnt it? I mean, mixing spirituality and business; that seems like such a fantastic idea, doesnt it? Sure. From a distance. Because when you get closer, it always almost looks like the need for money and making money wins out over spiritual and ethical values. You know there is no such thing as get rich quick- and you know youre not afraid to show up and do the work that needs to be done. Yet you might be trying to find your way, and, just maybe, having a hard time balancing your practical needs with your spiritual ones. So, you might be wondering: Can I really build a business that makes me money AND fulfills my spirit? And, I say to you, the answer is, unequivocally, Yes. Im Mark Silver, the founder of Heart of Business, where weve been putting money and spirit into the mix since 2001- and thousands of heart centered business owners have tested our ideas, so we know they work.
Heres What We Can Do For You

Share effective business practices. Our clients get clients, make money and thrive. Sometimes this process is quick and clean, sometimes its messy and takes a bit longer, just like life. But, with the right perspective, its always interesting and you can get there too. Imagine having a business that is filled with clients and money.
5 Spirituality in Business: Pricing Your Services - http://www.heartofbusiness.com/new-here/ Copyright 2012 Mark Silver & Heart of Business, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Provide a real spiritually-based perspective. Remember how I said that how you view your business is a matter of perspective? Well, our perspective is based on a 1400 year old unbroken lineage, where we have our own teachers keeping us humble and honest. Youre not going to get made up, off-the-cuff, fly-by-night spirituality here. Demonstrate ethics. It seems like it should go without saying, but spiritual presence doesnt always mean ethical practices. Were ethical. If I write more trying to convince you how ethical we are, then it would come out sounding strange. Just know that I care more than I can express that my kids- and yours- be proud of what were doing.
What do you get?

Is it time you joined over 7000 heart centered micro business owners who are seeking to build a business that thrives, is ethical, and spiritual? Would you like to receive heart-centered, spiritually-authentic and down to earth business advice delivered right to your email every Wednesday.
http://www.heartofbusiness.com/new-here
As a special thank you for taking action today, youll also get a 3 chapter workbook, Getting to the Core of Your Business, that will help you change your perspective so you can create a bigger, better business that is also spiritual and ethical. And it goes without saying (though Ill say it anyway)- Ill never share, rent, sell, or trade your information without your consent.
Raising Your Prices without Breaking Your Heart

After you've been in business for a while, you start thinking about whether you should raise your prices. Sometimes this happens when one year ends, and another is about to begin. Other times, this happens when you realize that you've been working for the same rate for a certain number of years, and you're thinking it's time for an increase. It can be an agonizing question. You want to be paid an amount that feels good and supports you well, but you also dont want to alienate people or shut down your business. And its not an idle question. You can raise your prices too much and see die off from your active customer list. By the same token, you can continue to underprice yourself, and that keeps people away, too, and may keep the wolf at your door. What to do? What to do?
A Few Words about Pricing

One of our most popular and most-referred to articles is on pricing. So, let me add a few more eye-opening thoughts that should make this whole process much easier. First, raising your prices is inevitable. Maybe not every year, maybe not even every other year. Are you paying the same price for shoes that you did in 1984? Prices go up. Im also guessing that you may not be taking into account the true price of your offers. One client realized she was only accounting for her time in front of a client, and not on the administrative time required, the marketing time required, and prep
time before and after the client, the continuing education of her own self development, etc. For every client hour there were 1-3 additional hours needed to really care for that client. Okay, I think youre getting it. You probably know whether your prices really need to inch up a bit or not.
And if its A New Offer?

A client was about to launch a new offer, and we were talking about it the other day. She was struggling with how to price it because it was radically different than any other offer in her business. I told her to 1) make it easy for new people to buy and 2) make it significant enough of a price so that it felt good and she could keep offering it. Comfort and stretch. If its a new offer youve never made before, find the price youre comfortable offering and stretch just a little bit. My experience has been that the price you are completely comfortable with in theory will probably feel too low once you actually start engaging with paying clients. So stretch a little bit to avoid needing to raise your prices two weeks later.
A Little Pricing Trick

There are pricing ranges, where one price feels very similar to another. For instance, whether I spend $16 or $19 on something wont really affect my purchasing decision, but the extra $3 multiplied by 10,000 sales may help out the business tremendously. Similarly, a massage that is price at $80 or $95 is a very similar price to the buyer, but to the massage therapist, that $15 per client, times 30 sessions in a month, times 12 months means an extra $5400/year.
You can jump from one price range to another, for instance from a $65 massage to a $110 massage, but that would require a step up in your marketing and how you describe your service. As you sense into your next price, see how far you can go in your own heart while staying within the price range. Its all a little subjective, so dont worry about hardand-fast lines, they dont exist. Just feel into it.
Time to Tell the World

Of course, telling your clients about it is a different story. But, they may already know. And you? Is it time to raise your prices or are you happy with them?
The Wackiness of Resonant Pricing

Havi today posted about resonant pricing, and how she had adapted our Your Right Price exercise to her and Naomis own ends. Its an amazing little exercise, and in the spirit of generosity, I thought Id post the pdf for anyone to download. Your Right Price pdf. The design of the pdf is a few years old- Id love to update it and prettify it, but the information is rock-solid. Its an excerpt from the larger Guidebook, which has what used to be all and is now just many of our foundational teachings in it. What youll need to use it. Youll need some way to go inside and check your heart. I have a method called the Remembrance, which is a Sufi spiritual practice that anyone can use. Its very simple, and you can get our free workbook that has a complete how-to of it here: Getting to the Core of Your Business. (It also includes the fabulous Unveiling Your Jewel exercise, which is finding your uniqueness, your USP, in an unassailable, non gimicky way. If you dont use the Remembrance, use another method of accessing your intuition, your heart, your deep knowing. Its also incredibly helpful to do the exercise in a group. As Havi described in her post, and as I did in the comments to her post, it really builds your confidence to hear other people reflect your resonant price back to you. You can learn to trust it that way. Just my gift to you, prompted by Havis wonderful description. And, as a nother little gift, heres a teaching I did on why buying or selling something is NOT a transaction, and why its okay to sell something as sacred and beautiful as the amazing work you do.
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Sufi Teaching on Pricing (mp3). (An excerpt from a past six-month Opening the Moneyflow Course.) Enjoy! And let me know if you have any questions, problems, or pushbacks. It IS pretty wacky spiritual stuff.
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Whether or Not to Publish Your Prices

In The Business Oasis, our online business community, one of the members wrote: I am unsure if its a good idea to include my fees in my brochure and on my website. Good question: do you or dont you include your price? If you dont include pricing, are you being coy and deceptive? Or, if you include your pricing, will someone whos interested say No before they even have a chance to consider?
What happens when someone sees your price.

Well, what happens when you see a price? The price brings the whole idea of whatever the offer is into concrete, grounded here-and-now-ness. You see the price and all the dreams of what it will be like to have whatever the offer is, suddenly become real. The price represents a choice point. When you are reading a website, brochure, or what-have-you, you may not be ready to make a choice. And so when the price pops up, its reminding you that the choice is waiting. Remember that the moment of purchase is a sacred moment- its a moment of great intimacy. Someone is giving to you, and you will be giving to them. Instead of them receiving your marketing, perhaps anonymously, suddenly it becomes a two-way relationship. Thats increased intimacy. When someone is considering increased intimacy, they tend to have a lot of questions, and they want those questions answered before saying Yes.
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Sounds like a great argument for hiding your prices?

Except its not. You see, if someone isnt ready to make a choice, theyll just glance at your price, take it in, and file it away for when theyre ready. But, if someone IS ready to make a choice, or even just moderately close to ready, and your prices are hiding, there is no choice point. No here-and-now-ness to your offer. Your reader will begin to wonder: What are they hiding? Can I afford it? Are they just trying to get me to call so they can do the hard-sell on the phone?
The price is actually a lightening rod.

So, what happens in a prospective client is they have questions pop up while they are reading about your offer. Then, if those questions arent answered in your writing, the pressure builds. And builds. And when the price pops up, all of that energy jumps, just like a bolt of lightening.
For instance, I may have a question about looking foolish in an art class. But, do I want to admit Im worried about looking foolish? Maybe not. And, if not, then its much easier to say: Well, heck, I aint payin that much for an art class. When, thats not actually true at all- I may well pay that, or more, for an art class, if I know I dont have to look foolish.
Its another one of those both-and situations.

Yes, publish your prices. AND make sure youre answering as many questions as possible. Is that it? Just always publish your prices? What do you do?
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When Making a Profit Feels Greedy and Selfish

On the surface it seems absurd. Of course its okay to have some money for yourself. Its okay to take care of yourself. Its okay to make a profit. And yet when it comes time to actually collect enough money from your clients and customers, you balk. By enough I mean an amount thats actually fun and full-feeling, instead of scrape-by-just-enough-ish. You give discounts. You give pro bono work. You give away the farm. Because maybe its not okay to have more than just enough, when so many people have so very little. Whats true about this whole profit thing?
Honoring Your Heart

I always like to start with acknowledging a truth: our global and local economies have tremendous injustices built into them. The power and reach of industrialized nations is built on wealth stolen from other parts of the world that remain impoverished and in debt. In our communities there are many people who have tremendous access to money living their lives side-by-side with folks who are homeless and having trouble keeping themselves fed and clothed. My heart aches remembering these realities, as does yours, Im sure. Your impulse to not want to profit off of other peoples pain is completely appropriate, and needs to be honored. It becomes even more complicated when you enter the picture.
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Life Is Expensive
In western culture our lives cost a lot. Owning a home, raising kids, and running a business runs the expenses up quickly. Add to that the rising costs of food and fuel over the last two years and bare minimum living expenses seems uncontrollably high. The trouble of course is that there are some choices you cant easily make. The way a city is designed effects whether your family needs a car or not. Doing the right thing and buying food that is sustainably grown costs a lot more than the commercial, non-organic version. Its a heart-tussle for sure. I remember back in college living on very little money, and Im shocked at the difference twenty years of inflation and rising responsibilities and expectations cost. And you want to pay for a yoga class on top of that? Oy
Stop! Just Slow Down a Moment

The chaotic, frenetic state that can start to spin when you try answering the ills of the world and your own financial needs is not helpful. First stop. Take a gentle breath. Return to your heart. In returning to your heart, bow your head in humility. I dont know why the world is in such a crazy mess. I dont know why reality is the way it is. And I surely dont have the power all on my own to make everything all better. The first step in healing is acceptance of what is. Its such a simple step, and yet so hard to face. Homeless on the street, the cost of living, the amount of money you need to be comfortable. And when did comfort become a dirty word? Acceptance This is how it is right now.
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Instead of giving into the frenetic resistance that your ego wants to jump into, working through a thousand item to-do list trying to make it all better, notice the grief you may have in your heart for how things are. That grief is helpful. The frenetic chaos isnt. Through grief one can find acceptance and even love. Once you touch into acceptance and love, youve got access to some righteous power to make a difference in this world of ours. Grief and acceptance isnt collapse. It isnt saying you dont want to help make things better. Its just facing the truth that the river has already flowed this far, and this is where we are now. Standing in the here and now is the most stable, powerful stance you can take. And about that profit?
Acceptance of the World Includes You

When youve discovered that you need a certain amount every month to be comfortable, then thats what you need. Thats what is. If you have the chance to bring that much in through your business, thats fantastic. To ask for and receive enough so that you can be cared for and have a stable foundation under you is so critical. Without comfort, without a little ease in your life, without stability, its really hard to access generosity and creativity. And without generosity and creativity, its hard to fully serve others. My Advice: Get Comfortable First If youre concerned about whether youre taking too much, I want to first encourage you to reach a level of acceptance and comfort in your monthly needs. Catch your breath. Pay your bills. Take that yoga class.
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If what you offer to people is honest and of service, if people are benefitting, then accept the gratitude and support that comes your way. You give your all to your clients, allow your clients to give similarly to you. Take a moment to notice your heart. How does your heart feel about receiving as much as it gives? How does your heart feel to be included in the flow?
After Comfort Comes Sufficiency

Once youve worked on your business and youve become comfortable with asking for more money, then things become easier. You reach a level of comfort, the panic stops, and you catch your breath. Now that youre in more flow, you can start to ask yourself how much is enough? The CEO of Whole Foods realized one day that he had more money than he needed, so he reduced his salary to $1 a year. Whatever you may think of Rick Warren, the evangelical Christian author and pastor, when he started making much more money than he needed, he started reverse tithing. He began donating 90 percent of his income and keeping 10 percent. Paula, who cuts my hair every four weeks because, you know, Im just not a hippy, hasnt raised her rates in years. She tells me, I could, but, hey, were making plenty of money. I dont need any more, so why should I raise my rates? Notice that all three of these people made their decisions after they had attained some level of comfort.
Now Its Your Turn

When you are doing honest work in the world to serve others, its okay to be included in the flow of giving. Please dont take on trying to solve all the worlds ills by refusing to let your clients and customers experience the generosity of giving to you.
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I realize it may not be as simple as this because of the emotional baggage we carry. Yet if you can shift from frenetic fixing to grieving, and if you can find acceptance of your need for comfort, you might find more spaciousness to ask for and receive a bit more than you have been. Once you find comfort and catch your breath, you can decide on how much is enough.
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Mixing Spirituality and Business

What do you get? Is it time you joined over 7000 heart centered micro business owners who are seeking to build a business that thrives, is ethical, and spiritual? Please visit http://www.HeartofBusiness.com/new-here and enter your name and email, and youll get heart-centered, spiritually-authentic and down to earth business advice delivered right to your email every Wednesday.
And, as a special thank you for taking action today, youll also get a 3 chapter workbook, Getting to the Core of Your Business, that will help you change your perspective so you can create a bigger, better business that is also spiritual and ethical. Join over seven thousand other heart-centered business owners who also subscribe. http://www.HeartofBusiness.com/new-here
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Mark Silver

Founder and Healer

Spirituality in Business: Pricing Your Services

About Mark Silver Founder and Healer

Heres What We Can Do For You

What do you get?

Raising Your Prices without Breaking Your Heart

A Few Words about Pricing

And if its A New Offer?

A Little Pricing Trick

Time to Tell the World

The Wackiness of Resonant Pricing

Whether or Not to Publish Your Prices

What happens when someone sees your price.

Sounds like a great argument for hiding your prices?

The price is actually a lightening rod.

Its another one of those both-and situations.

When Making a Profit Feels Greedy and Selfish

Honoring Your Heart

Stop! Just Slow Down a Moment

Acceptance of the World Includes You

After Comfort Comes Sufficiency

Now Its Your Turn

Mixing Spirituality and Business

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