How to overcome pricing guilt

The topic of pricing guilt is not one I really see spoken about, like ever, but I know I’ve personally felt it so I wanted to take a moment to address it & hopefully help you overcome it if you’re struggling. I even remember wanting to talk about this over a year ago and polling in a FB group to see if people felt that too and the only comments I got were ‘hell no’ ‘of course not’ ‘i’m worth it’ ‘i don’t feel guilty about my prices’. Rather than writing about it then, I felt like maybe this isn’t a thing. But again, I’ve felt it, I’ve struggled with pricing & I think it’s a helpful conversation to talk about.

So what do I mean when I say pricing guilt?

What I mean is that you feel guilty for charging a higher (or lower amount), for raising (or not raising) your prices or for ‘charging (or not) your worth’. For me, this came from a true desire to serve & help and feeling that I wasn’t able to help those that actually needed it if I charged more. It’s a feeling that you’re being selfish & that those you may want to serve are not going to be able to afford you and get the help they need.

How to overcome pricing guilt

There are a few ways I’ve learned to combat feeling guilty for my higher prices. One major thing you will have to do, is deal with your mindset. Here’s a few tips on how to overcome pricing guilt:

1. Understand it’s your mindset & not always reality

Most of the guilt felt comes straight from your mindset. Here’s a couple ways to shift your mindset.

As a web designer, I do realize that my prices are higher than other designers, but I also realize that my prices are actually a lot lower than others as well. The market varies in prices. There’s nothing wrong with what you charge (regardless if it’s more or less than others).

Pricing is about numbers, not necessarily feelings. At the end of the day, your numbers do have to work for you. It is a business afterall. So know your numbers, meaning know your expenses & how much revenue & profit you need to make. This becomes way more ‘concrete’ than just ‘charging your worth’.

Realize that in order to take care of others better, you have to take care of yourself first. You can’t serve or help anyone if you can’t survive yourself.

Another thing to remember is that people are willing to spend money on things they value. Think about your own buying habits & what you do when you want something that’s important to you. If someone truly values you and your work & your products, the price will be worth it.

2. Find other ways to serve (at more affordable rates)

Finding other ways to serve has been what made the biggest difference for me. I offer a lot of free goods inside my free resource digital library (which you can access here) as well as provide a lot of quality content through my blog. I’ve also recently launched a shop that sells digital goods like website templates at more affordable rates.

I know that although someone may not have the ability to afford working with me one on one, that they still have access to quality resources & goods.

3. Give back

Another way is to eliminate any source of guilt is to give back. This can be done through a scholarship, donating to a cause of your choice, or provide a free service to limited amount of people each year.

These are great things to do regardless but knowing that you have other ways of providing your services to those who may not typically be able to afford your higher priced offerings are great options.

Pricing guilt doesn’t hit everyone, but for those of us it does, it’s important to recognize that you don’t have to feel guilty for doing what is best for you. But that there are also ways of giving back & still doing good in the world without causing to much stress on your business. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this & if this helps!

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