Barbara Christensen

Rest, Relaxation and Survival For The Work At Home Tribe

In today’s fast paced world we’re constantly on the go. We work long hours and even bring extra work home to catch up on at night and on the weekend. We work hard at parenting, keeping up the house and yard, and maintaining a social life. We are busier than ever, yet we are all still limited to twenty-four hours per day. Something has to give and more often than not it has been rest and relaxation.

Sleep is essential for our survival. We can’t survive very long without it. If I could tell you the number of friends I have that are proud of being up at midnight working on their next project, or the number of moms that say they haven't had sleep for twelve years ... would you be surprised? If you’ve had a newborn in the house or been in any other situation where you didn’t get much sleep for days and weeks on end, you know how bad the effects of sleep deprivation can be. Severe lack of sleep will be noticeable very quickly. You can pull one all-nighter, but go for a couple of days on little-to-no sleep and you’ll start to feel like you’re going insane. Cutting back on sleep just a little here and there is trickier.

That’s why we’ve gotten away for so long with six to seven hours of sleep and little time for rest and relaxation outside of those hours. We’ve been burning the candle at both ends and it doesn’t really work to our advantage.

We need to make rest, relaxation, and adequate sleep a priority to stay healthy and productive. We may feel like we get more done when we get up a little earlier or go to bed a little later. We feel like we’re catching up on work when we bring it home on the weekend to work on. Yes, it gives us more hours to work on stuff, but it often doesn’t make us any more productive. Work will fill the space we give it. By making rest and relaxation a priority and giving both body and mind to recharge, we can get just as much done in a shorter amount of time. That’s part of what I want to show you and prove to you during this month long exploration on the topic of relaxing and reducing stress.

Sometimes it feels like we’ve forgotten how to rest and relax. We’re running wide open all day long and while it can feel exhilarating and productive, it wears us down and takes a toll on our health and well-being. Plus relaxing can be a lot of fun when you take the time to rediscover the joy of it.

Rest, Relaxation and Survival For The Work At Home Tribe

Simple Pricing Strategies to Create Your Small Business Boutique Rates

It might just be the most stressful decision you ever have to make: what to charge?

You’ve got the competition to consider, your own skill set, what you perceive to be your skills (yes, this is different from the former for most of us), what your market will pay, your location, and a host of other variables. Working it out can feel like a hurdle you can’t quite get past.

Of course, there are some strategies you can employ. You can sit down with your money goals and a calculator and that will quite quickly tell you what you need to be charging to reach your income goals, and they’re a great place to start.

But what about all those other questions? Creating a solid pricing structure requires you to do a little more digging. So with your starting number in line, take a look at:

Your Competition. This might take a little detective work, since a lot of coaches and service providers don’t publish rates. But if you pay attention to their websites and social media, ask a few discreet questions, and get on their mailing list, you can figure it out.

Be realistic about who, exactly, your competition is, though. Don’t undervalue or over-sell yourself. In other words, make sure you’re comparing yourself to another provider who shares the same skills, market, and track record, rather than simply looking at who you strive to become.

Your Skills. In some fields, this is easy. There are certifications and educational programs that allow you—by virtue of having achieved them—to charge a certain rate. If you’ve followed this path, then pricing will be easy for you. If not, take a solid look at what you can legitimately claim as a skill. I love that there are so many great online programs now that will give you a business or wellness certificate in areas that really matter for you do make the business leap you are looking to take on.

Look, too, at your track record. Have you proven yourself by helping former clients (and do you have the testimonials and case studies to show for it)? Have your former clients moved on to bigger and better coaches after working with you? (That’s a good thing!) These are all reasons to maybe consider a higher price range than you might have first thought.

Your Market. In the game of setting rates, it’s your market that has the final say. As any first year economy student can tell you, the price of anything lies where what the buyer is willing to pay meets what the seller is willing to accept.

If your goal is to give newbies a helping hand and lead them down the path to success, that unfortunately means you can look forward to low paying gigs. That’s not a bad thing—everyone has to begin somewhere—but it does need to be acknowledged. And how much time to do you want to spend on creating those low level opt-in programs? I know that I would prefer to delegate that to someone that is really great at developing programs and then I can focus in on the bigger market value.

If, on the other hand, you’re target market is more established and economically stable, then a higher fee isn’t just warranted—it’s a must. They will expect a higher price, and will not find value in the lowest-cost provider of anything, whether it’s coffee beans or business coaching.

Finally, don’t forget that pricing is never set in stone. It’s flexible. If you find you’re attracting the wrong market (or no market at all) you can always change your rates. Working too hard for not enough return? Raise your rates.

It’s your business. You get to call the shots.