Ep 28 - Permission To Earn More Money: How to Charge For Your Expertise

Episode Show Notes

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Episode transcription:

Beyond the Clinic EP28

[00:00:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: Welcome to episode number 24,,, permission to earn more money and how to charge for your expertise. So today we're diving into a topic that I think many of us shy away from, we're talking all about money. Now, before you start thinking, I didn't decide to become a healthcare professional to get rich, or money doesn't motivate me, I want to ask you.

[00:00:24] Sarah Almond Bushell: What if it was okay to want more? Not just more money, but more security, more freedom, more control of your business and your life because that's what earning more money can bring you. So today, we're not just talking about how to make more money, we're talking about your mindset around it too. So with that said, let's jump in.

[00:00:48] Sarah Almond Bushell: As healthcare professionals, we are trained to put our clients needs first. And for many of us, the idea of being financially motivated, doing so, can feel really quite uncomfortable. I hear it all the time when I have discovery calls. Sarah, I'm just not in it for the money. Or, I just want to make a decent salary.

[00:01:09] Sarah Almond Bushell: Something a bit better than the NHS, but I don't really want to be making millions. If that sounds familiar I want you to know that you're not alone here. Many of us feel conflicted about wanting more money or worse, they might even feel guilty for thinking that making a good living is important. You might tell yourself that you charge too much and if you do, clients won't be able to afford you and then you lose them.

[00:01:37] Sarah Almond Bushell: Or perhaps you might worry that Earning a higher income somehow makes you less compassionate or less caring as a professional. You might struggle even to spend money in your business. Loads of my clients and colleagues that I chat to think they don't need that much money to run a business. They just need an internet connection, a laptop and a few quid for resources.

[00:02:01] Sarah Almond Bushell: But actually, that's not right. You will need to invest in order for your business to grow, and that can look like anything from paying for your basic tech setup, like an email service provider and a subscription to Canva, or paying for additional team members like a VA. But this Mindset of lack, for want of a better word, is what's holding you back.

[00:02:26] Sarah Almond Bushell: So when you stay stuck in this belief, you actually end up capping your earning potential. What happens is you end up working too hard, but you don't actually see the return that you expect for that hard work. It's really frustrating and actually that frustration can lead to you doing more work or even overwork and then ultimately Burnout.

[00:02:51] Sarah Almond Bushell: Because you're probably doing everything right from a clinical perspective but financially it just doesn't seem to be adding up for you. So I want you to recognise that now is time to change that. So let's dig a little bit deeper here. I said this was going to be a bit of a mindset Episode. Many of us shy away from money conversations with clients or with colleagues because we've been conditioned to believe that it's not proper to discuss money.

[00:03:23] Sarah Almond Bushell: Maybe you grew up in a family where talking about your earnings or your successes at work was considered impolite or even a bit boastful. So phrases like, we don't air our dirty laundry in public, or you shouldn't show off. might sound familiar and these beliefs are deeply embedded. They can actually affect how you run your business as an adult now.

[00:03:52] Sarah Almond Bushell: I want you to think about these things. Do you struggle to set your prices with confidence? Even though you know that your services are valuable to people, do you feel a bit of a knot or an uncomfortableness in your stomach when you get to that bit in a discovery call where you tell a potential client your fees?

[00:04:13] Sarah Almond Bushell: Or maybe you just avoid it altogether and send your prices in an email afterwards. Are your prices clearly listed on your website or are they hidden in the small print or actually not there at all? Do you procrastinate when sending invoices or chasing up late payments, worried about being seen as being a bit pushy?

[00:04:37] Sarah Almond Bushell: Do you avoid buying that new piece of kit or tech that you know will make your life easier because you feel it's expensive and you shop around for a cheaper option that likely won't work as well? And do you think of buying things as spending? Rather than investing. If you said yes to any of these, these are signs that your discomfort around money is holding you back in your business.

[00:05:04] Sarah Almond Bushell: And you know what? It's totally exhausting. You're often left second guessing your worth. You're tiptoeing around the issue. I don't mean your worth as a human. I mean your worth as a clinician. You feel like you're just getting by rather than thriving in your business. But this isn't just about setting your prices.

[00:05:24] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's all about your boundaries as well, because if you can't confidently ask for what your clinical expertise is worth, how can you possibly handle the more challenging conversations that come around your time or your availability, or, just putting in limits with clients? We know that how you handle money directly reflects your overall approach to managing your business.

[00:05:51] Sarah Almond Bushell: So you might be thinking, but Sarah, I really don't want to seem greedy. I just want to help people. And I totally get that. That's why we all train to be healthcare professionals. But you know what? It's totally possible to do both. You can help people and you can also be financially successful.

[00:06:12] Sarah Almond Bushell: So why do we feel this guilt or even shame around money? As I alluded to earlier, for many of us, it's because we've been taught that caring for others and making money don't really belong together. You might have heard, if you're in it for the money, You're not in the, in it for the right reasons.

[00:06:32] Sarah Almond Bushell: And you know what, that's a bit of a damaging mindset because it keeps so many healthcare professionals undercharging, overworking, and feeling a bit guilty for wanting that financial success. So let's not forget that many of us started our careers in the NHS, where the bar for salaries is set so low. As of the time of recording this, in 2024, a highly specialised band 7 clinician earns between 46, 000 and 52, 000 a year for full time hours.

[00:07:07] Sarah Almond Bushell: If you've been working part time, your take home pay is even lower than that. So when you go freelance, it's natural to use the NHS salary as your target. You think, you know what, as long as I'm earning a bit more than that, I'm probably doing okay. But are you really? Is just a bit better than the NHS what you truly envisioned when you started your business?

[00:07:33] Sarah Almond Bushell: And what happens is when you stay in that mindset is you under charge. You take on too many clients at lower rates. You work long Maybe you say yes to clients who you don't truly enjoy working with because your income feels a little bit unpredictable. You want to give them more because they've gone private, but you end up feeling like the business is actually running you rather than the other way around.

[00:08:03] Sarah Almond Bushell: Does that resonate? I see it all the time in our freelance world, the fear of wanting more and the discomfort with the idea that it's okay to be financially successful. I've got a confession to make. I am the opposite of the person that I've just described. I'm not sure why, but I am someone who loves money.

[00:08:25] Sarah Almond Bushell: I'm highly motivated by it. And I'm not ashamed to say it. Whenever I get a new sale. I have an automation setup that makes a ka ching noise on my phone and I must admit it gives me a little thrill every time I hear it. So for me, money has always been more about just covering the basics. It's been about creating the freedom for me and my family to live the life.

[00:08:54] Sarah Almond Bushell: That I've always wanted. I love the things that money can buy. I am not a Gucci handbag type of girl, but I do drive a nice car. I can afford to pay my daughter's school fees. I love my posh coffee machine that we have in the kitchen. And I do enjoy a few nice holidays each year. So I know that loving money might feel a bit uncomfortable for some of you listening.

[00:09:21] Sarah Almond Bushell: You might even think it's a bit vulgar, but stick with me here because I think there's something valuable in my story that I think might help you shift your perspective on this. I want to take you back to when I first started thinking about money, not just as something that I needed, but something that I was absolutely determined to figure out.

[00:09:42] Sarah Almond Bushell: I was obsessed with having my own cash, not because I was greedy, but because I wanted the freedom and the independence. I remember being about 11. And getting my first job, it was a newspaper round. So you can picture it, early mornings, the crisp northeast air biting my rosy cheeks, the weight of a heavy bag on my shoulder as I trudged down the really long drives of the area that I grew up in.

[00:10:10] Sarah Almond Bushell: But, That sense of pride when I handed over that empty newspaper bag to the newsagent and earned my 3. 15 was addictive. I was absolutely hooked. And then when I was a bit older, probably about 12, I became an Avon lady. And what I'd do is I'd drop off those catalogues with the newspapers one week and then I'd collect them the next.

[00:10:35] Sarah Almond Bushell: And then I'd run home, really excited to count up the number of orders that I'd got. And then at 13, I started babysitting. So this was easy money, quiet nights in on somebody else's sofa, watching the TV, snacking on the contents of their fridge, waiting for the parents to come home. That was really easy money and I loved it.

[00:10:57] Sarah Almond Bushell: But what it did was it gave me a sense of responsibility of being valued for something precious, a child, and not just a bunch of newspapers. It was also the beginning of my understanding that the work I did didn't need to feel like hard work. By 14, I was starting to get a bit creative. I was making lemonade and trying to sell it at the end of my driveway.

[00:11:21] Sarah Almond Bushell: I didn't sell very much, we lived at the end of a cul de sac, but what I learned was that just working harder wasn't always the answer. I had to think differently. I had to become more appealing. I had to do something that would stand out and that introduced me to marketing. And then at 16 I took a proper job at an ice cream parlor.

[00:11:44] Sarah Almond Bushell: Every weekend I was there scooping ice cream for hours with sticky hands and this awful pink maid's uniform with a and my aching stocking feet. But what that job did was it paid for my first holiday without my parents, and that was a huge milestone because that's when I knew that money was the gateway to freedom.

[00:12:08] Sarah Almond Bushell: But when I went to university, that's when I learned one of the hardest lessons about money. I worked in a night club late nights, obviously loud music pounding in my ears, and I would sleep during the day. I was chasing money so hard that I almost failed the first year of my degree. I had to repeat the year to catch up because I had been so focused on the cash and not enough on my studies.

[00:12:34] Sarah Almond Bushell: It was a bit of a turning point for me, understanding that the balance was just as important as the income. Fast forward to now. Where I've built two businesses that give me everything I've dreamed of, really. Flexibility from being my own boss, my time with my family. My daughter is homeschooled. I do about 20 hour work weeks and I can take long, leisurely walks on the beach with my Labradoodle Dustin.

[00:13:02] Sarah Almond Bushell: Saying. No to work that doesn't light me up has been amazing and I've actually just given my notice to a large food brand who I've been working with for a few years, but I no longer feel aligned with and I can say yes to those clients who really do like me up and who I enjoy working with. But here's the thing.

[00:13:23] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's not really just about making the money. It's using it to create the life that having money can give you. So I want to flip this back to you. Now, I want you to think about where you are right now. You've built a business, you're working hard. Is it paying you the way that you imagined? Maybe you're juggling a full client workload, you're working long hours, but you're not seeing the returns that you'd hoped for.

[00:13:48] Sarah Almond Bushell: You might feel drained. You're probably doing what many clinicians do. You're setting your fees so that you earn just a little bit higher than what you did on the NHS, thinking that's a bit of a win, but deep down. You know it's not really enough. You might spend your days, bouncing between client sessions, replying to emails, trying to keep up with social media, doing all the admin, and then at the end of the day you're exhausted.

[00:14:14] Sarah Almond Bushell: You might fall into bed, unable to sleep. , you don't feel accomplished. And you feel a bit overwhelmed. You've got tomorrow's to do list ticking through your brain. You know that you could bring in a VA to do the admin. She could also manage your inbox and schedule your social media. You could invest in some tech to automate your client bookings and the onboarding process.

[00:14:39] Sarah Almond Bushell: You could invest in a business coach like me to show you how to strategize and optimize and grow. But none of these things feel affordable because your bank balance doesn't reflect the hard work that you've put in. And it's really frustrating, isn't it? There's this constant niggling feeling, that worry that sits in the pit of your stomach about whether you can really sustain life at this pace.

[00:15:06] Sarah Almond Bushell: Maybe you even catch yourself thinking is this it? Is this what I left the NHS for? You wanted freedom, you wanted flexibility, you wanted financial stability, but instead you've got a business that feels like it's just running you ragged. And every time you think about raising your prices so that you can start to afford these things, a little voice pops in your head that says, clients will say you're too expensive and they'll go to someone cheaper and then you won't have any clients at all.

[00:15:37] Sarah Almond Bushell: And so what do you do? You stay exactly where you are. So this is the reality that so many of my colleagues face. It's not that you don't want to make more money. You're just a little bit frightened of what might happen if you ask for it. You worry about what might people think. You worry about being seen as.

[00:16:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: Being money driven or worse, that you lose the clients that you worked so hard to get. But let me tell you this, when you are undercharging and overworking, when you're giving up everything to your business and you're not seeing that financial return, it does start to chip away at you. It impacts how you show up for clients.

[00:16:21] Sarah Almond Bushell: You're not just tired, you're emotionally drained. You're second guessing yourself. You're questioning whether this was really the right path. And all of this circles back. back to one simple truth. You're just not valuing yourself enough. So imagine if you didn't have to worry about all of that, about whether the next client would book in with you.

[00:16:46] Sarah Almond Bushell: Imagine if your prices reflected the true value of what you offer. Life changing services that help people regain control over their health, their families, their lives. Imagine waking up each day excited to work. Knowing that your business is giving you both the income and the lifestyle that you deserve.

[00:17:08] Sarah Almond Bushell: You're getting higher fees, you're working fewer hours, you're seeing bigger results in both your business and in your life, and you're not just scraping by. You're thriving. This is the shift that I want you to see is possible. I sound like I'm doing a sales pitch, don't I? I'm not, honestly. It's just something I'm so passionate about.

[00:17:32] Sarah Almond Bushell: So how do we shift our mindsets around money and move past the idea that financial success and Being a compassionate clinician can't coexist. Actually, you know what? It starts with reframing your relationship with money. Because if you think about it, money itself is neutral. It's just money.

[00:17:56] Sarah Almond Bushell: There's no emotion attached to it. But the stories that we attach are often shaped by the beliefs that we grew up with. And they create the discomfort that we feel around money today. So if you come from a family or a community where talking about money was seen as inappropriate or showing off, it's no surprise that you might struggle to discuss it openly in your business.

[00:18:22] Sarah Almond Bushell: You may even feel that making money or talking about money somehow diminishes the care that you provide for people and that's just not true. You don't have to broadcast your earnings or publish your tax return online to normalize these money conversations, although I do know people who do that and actually I quite like it.

[00:18:44] Sarah Almond Bushell: But what you do need to do is you need to start getting comfortable talking about money in a way that feels comfortable. And if that feels way off, then just start small. My first suggestion for you is making sure that you've got your prices on your website and they're clearly listed. People don't have to go hunting and pecking around your website looking for them.

[00:19:11] Sarah Almond Bushell: They're just there. Just be upfront. Next, when it's time to send an invoice, Send it promptly, without an apology. You have provided a service and you deserve to be paid for it. It's just part of doing business. And you can also practice talking about money with some trusted colleagues or in a business group, like my mastermind.

[00:19:33] Sarah Almond Bushell: The more you normalize these conversations, the easier it will be when they arise with clients. And the more you talk about it, the less discomfort you'll feel. And money just becomes another part of business. It's not personal. It's not something loaded with emotion. Remember, the stories that we've inherited about money, whether it's seen as taboo or success, is something to downplay because it deeply affects how we run our businesses.

[00:20:05] Sarah Almond Bushell: I also just wanted to say that if you've been in environments like in the NHS where being frugal is actually praised, so for example, the cost savings, the CREZ schemes, the productivity reviews, this can make you feel really uncomfortable to want more. But here's the truth, you can be compassionate as a health care provider and also be financially successful because these two things are not mutually exclusive, although it perhaps is our conditioning that's made us think that.

[00:20:42] Sarah Almond Bushell: And the key is to recognise that earning more allows you to actually help people better. So when you're financially secure, it You find that you will show up better for your clients because you're free from the stress of wondering when that next paycheck is coming from. You'll start to see selling as providing a service that they wouldn't otherwise receive.

[00:21:06] Sarah Almond Bushell: And actually this feels really good. You're helping more people. You can start investing in your business, like training, like better tech tools, or actually, you know what? Just taking some time off. for you to recharge your batteries so you can bring your best self to work. Phew! So that's been a bit of a deep and meaningful episode today.

[00:21:30] Sarah Almond Bushell: We started by talking about Money and how it can be a taboo topic. And we asked the question, what if it was okay to want more? And now, as we come to the end of this conversation, I hope you can see that it's not only okay to want more, it's actually really important for building the business and the lifestyle that you envisaged when you went freelance in the first place.

[00:21:57] Sarah Almond Bushell: Earning more money doesn't make you less compassionate or caring. In fact, I would argue that it enables you to serve your clients better with more energy, more focus and fewer worries about your own financial wellbeing. We've talked about the guilt, we've talked about the discomfort that many of us feel around money and the mindset that holds us back from charging what we're worth.

[00:22:20] Sarah Almond Bushell: We've talked about setting boundaries and running a business that supports both our values as well as our financial goals. And I hope that you can see that breaking out of this mindset is truly possible, but it starts with very small and practical steps like being upfront about your prices on your website and being confident to ask for what you deserve.

[00:22:43] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's just about normalizing conversations about money, both with your clients and with your colleagues. So what's the action step I want you to take today? I want you to think about your relationship with money. When someone says the word money, how do you feel about it? Or actually, now you've got to the end of this episode, how do you feel in your body?

[00:23:06] Sarah Almond Bushell: Does it make you feel uncomfortable? Do you feel guilty for wanting more? Take out a journal, that's what I do, and just write down all these feelings and be honest. I want you to write down how much you would like to earn in your business. Not what you think you should earn, but what would really give you the lifestyle that you want.

[00:23:28] Sarah Almond Bushell: What would that number allow you to do? Would it be to have more time with your family, to be less stressed because you know that money's coming in? And once you've got that number, I want you to ask yourself, what needs to change in order for me to get there? So it could be as simple as just raising your prices, but it might be shifting your services to include scalable offers like courses or group programs.

[00:23:55] Sarah Almond Bushell: Or it might simply be recognizing that you're worth more than you've been allowing yourself to earn. And if you're struggling with this, please do reach out because this is what I help my clients with every day, shifting their mindset and building businesses that give them that freedom and flexibility and financial success that they truly deserve.

[00:24:17] Sarah Almond Bushell: So thank you for joining me on today's episode of Beyond the Clinic if this conversation has resonated, I'd love to hear from you. Send me a message in our Beyond the Clinic Business Facebook group and share this episode with a colleague who you think might need to hear it as well. And don't forget to join me next time, where we're going to be talking more about mindset stuff.

[00:24:40] Sarah Almond Bushell: We're diving into why your subconscious. might be sabotaging your success. This is going to be a good one, especially if you are someone who has a goal and no matter what you've been doing, you're still struggling to achieve it. With that said, bye for now.