What would you be able to do, if you doubled your income?
How would you feel?
Tripled or quadrupled it? It’s an exciting thought, isn’t it?
I remember when I was working as a professor at Columbia University, and my income was pretty much set. I had a “good job,” which means it was prestigious. And it paid okay: $40,000/year to live in Manhattan. That was back in the mid-1990s, and money did go farther then. And I also had some great perks, like an apartment overseeing Morningside Park for a reduced rate. Still, it wasn’t a lot of money, and it was fixed.
The idea of doubling, tripling or quadrupling my income was not something I could even conceive of at that time. But it’s exactly what I did when I joined a network marketing company as my way out of academe. I doubled my income from Columbia in 15 months. That’s when I got the entrepreneurial bug. That was 15 years ago, and I’ve never gone back!
Now truth be told, I had expenses as an entrepreneur that I didn’t have as an employee, absolutely. So doubling my revenue was not the same as doubling my “into-my-personal-bank-account” income. I also had many more tax benefits, so in the end I did come out well ahead.
Even more importantly, I began to understand the power of having my own business, of knowing how to generate revenue, and the freedom that I had now that I was in charge of my creating my own income.
That’s what caught my attention—the power and the freedom. Not power over someone else, but the power to create my own destiny and experience. That’s what being an entrepreneur can give you. And doubling, tripling or quadrupling your revenue can be an outcome of learning to use that power, and an expression of your freedom.
Now 15 years later I work with clients and students every day to show them how to claim that power and freedom for themselves. Of course there’s plenty of strategy involved as well. And it’s so important to stay on top of what’s working because we are in a very dynamic and rapidly changing environment. But without claiming the power and the freedom, all the strategy in the world simply will not work. It will slide right off your inner limitations and fall into dust (believe me, I’ve seen it!).
Here are four of my favorite tips for increasing your income immediately:
(1) Decide that it’s possible. Commit to having a possibility mindset that is based on your own appreciation of your worthiness and value. Act as though you really do believe what you espouse—that you live in an abundant and benevolent Universe. Except nothing less than your birthright of full self expression and empowerment. You don’t have to know HOW to do any of this—you just need to believe and commit. The way will appear to you as you commit, and so also the following actions.
(2) Uplevel Your Offerings. Review the ways that people can work with you, and take them to the next level in terms of value and pricing. For example, if you now provide individual sessions to people at $75/hour, increase your rate for individual sessions to $125/hour, and then add a package of 5 sessions for $500. Or if you are already offering a package like this one as well as sessions, then add a 3 or 4 month program for $500-$750 per month. Then instead of having to sell twice as many sessions at the same rate to double your income, you can simply sell one, two, three or more programs to double your income or more.
- In order to make this work, you may need to uplevel inside yourself your own sense of the value of what you’re offering. It may be that you already realize that you are undercharging, in which case you just need to act on what you already know.
- Or it may be you’ve been comparing your prices to other people’s, and have found it hard to raise your rates. In that case, you’ll need to be honest with yourself about the True Value of what you’re offering and what you bring to the table. My experience is that virtually everyone under-appreciates the value of the transformation they provide to their clients. That comes from your conditioning about your worthiness, and the cultural valuing of certain things over others. It is not about the actual value of what you’re doing. You have to be willing to step into that value in order to feel comfortable raising your rates. But I want you to know it really IS possible—yes!
- You probably are giving away services that you aren’t charging for, like email and phone support between sessions. Those are the most common. Build those into your program, and charge for them! That’s one of the easiest ways for you bring in more $$ without doing any more work—just charge for what you are already actually doing.
(3) Increase the amount of outreach you are doing. Talk with more people. Go to more events where your people are likely to be. Make connections with as many people as you can, and invite more people to work with you. Sometimes just increasing the numbers can bring about a big increase in your income.
(4) Seek out people who value and are willing to pay more for your services. Ask yourself, are you sticking with offering your services to people with whom you really comfortable? Do they seem “less evolved” than you and in need of your help? What would it be like to seek out higher caliber clients? Uplevel your belief in what you have to offer, and go after clients who understand and will pay for that higher value. They are out there—you need to be willing to seek them out and talk with them. You would be amazed at how quickly your income can grow when you do this!
Tell me if you found this valuable by leaving a comment below, and what you are willing to do TODAY to uplevel your appreciation of yourself and increase your income. And feel free to share what may be in your way, too—it’s a great way to release it!