How to Change Your Money Mindset
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir
I help women start and scale their online business to 7 figures and beyond ?? | Award Winning Business Coach | International Speaker | Bestselling Author | Top Podcaster | Angel Investor
Women have more issues with money than men do.
A woman will not raise her prices until she is 100% sure that someone will pay that price. A man will raise his prices and if no one buys, he will just lower the price again.?
As governments and corporations work very hard to close the gender pay gap, female entrepreneurs have created another gap, the entrepreneur pay gap.?
Women running their own businesses pay themselves lower salaries than men do and they also charge lower prices for the same service.
There are all kinds of theories as to why women have issues around money and we’re not going to dive into the why here, but the fact is that women need to learn to deal with their money mindset in order to grow their businesses and close the wealth gap.?
Money mindset shows up in various ways.
How I fixed my money mindset issues
My first experience with money mindset issues was when I decided the price for one hour of business coaching. I was in my first year of business and this was my first offer. As I was contemplating the price, I considered my MBA and decade of experience as a CEO. My husband reminded me that my colleagues from business school were probably charging between $800-$1000. I laughed at his idea to charge those kind of rates. I thought of my ideal client, a female solo entrepreneur, and wondered what she would be willing to invest.?
Living in Switzerland I also knew that freelance engineers charged $180 an hour and I thought even that was quite high. So, I decided to start at that rate.?
Shortly after I put the offer on my website, someone bought and then another person bought. That confirmed that the price was right or at least not too high. A few months later I invited my first clients back for a free follow up call. My second client, Mallika, told me off.
"Sigrun, I bought one hour of business coaching from four business coaches, including you. Your price was the lowest at $180, the highest price was $400. Overall the experience of working with you and the advice you gave me was the best. With your experience and professionalism, you should raise your rates to $400 an hour!"
I was shocked, I didn’t expect a client to tell me to raise my rates. And I was scared to follow her advice. But a few months later, I had the courage to raise my rates to $350 an hour and the next day I got two bookings.?
I eventually raised my hourly rate to $750 and sold at that price before I decided to stop offering one off business coaching sessions. When I calculate my hourly rate today, it is somewhere between $1500 and $2500.?
If someone would have told me back in 2014 that I would be charging those kind of rates a few years later, I would have called them crazy.
领英推荐
What has changed between charging $180 an hour and $2500?
A lot has changed but most of it is my money mindset.
If you are thinking, I don’t have this problem, then I don’t blame you. I didn’t think I had this problem when I was a CEO and running other people’s businesses. I don’t recall any money mindset issue back then. It all started when I founded my own company in my own name. Then suddenly I had issues with my money mindset.
By uncovering old money stories I realised why I had certain beliefs around money. By creating a new story about the same event I was able to change my beliefs.
One belief I had was “Rich people are bad”. This belief came from a story that I repeated in my head about my father’s father. I was told as a child that my grandfather hadn’t helped my parents financially when they needed it the most.?
In my mind, he had the money but decided not to help. Instead the parents of my mother who didn’t have any money helped them out. Without knowing all the facts or details I created a story in my mind and a belief that people with money don’t want to help others. Since I didn’t want to become that type of person, I was self-sabotaging my own financial success.?
To change this belief I created a new money story which is; money amplifies who you are. Once I had created this new money story, I stopped self-sabotaging my financial success.
At every level there is a new devil. Money mindset is not something you fix once and for all. At every level you’ll discover new stories or old stories will pop up again.?
How to change your money mindset
Awareness is the first step like with anything mindset related.
The next step is to take action and change the story you tell yourself.?
If you’re ready to take action then I can help.? For the 12 days of Christmas I am giving away?12 of my specially-selected members-only 1-hr masterclasses covering 12 different business topics to help you grow your online business!?
Including …?
I realised that my money mindset based on the lack was related to my prefered VICTIM role with FEAR and anxiety being my steady companions. Funny enough I had it even when I become quite wealthy. I realised it only through coaching and a journey of self discovery. And only then I was able to change it to the abundance mindset.
Sworn Translator NL-SP & SP-NL / Freelance Translator and Proofreader EN-NL-SP / ProZ Certified Member
3 年Looking forward to see them!
I help women start and scale their online business to 7 figures and beyond ?? | Award Winning Business Coach | International Speaker | Bestselling Author | Top Podcaster | Angel Investor
3 年Awareness is the first step like with anything mindset related. The next step is to take action and change the story you tell yourself.