If putting together proposals make you say…
“Ugh. How do I price this?”
And conversations around money make you feel uncomfortable or doubtful.
Right now, you’re probably reading this thinking…
“I work so much but I’m not making enough money in my business. What am I doing wrong?”
Maybe…
YOU’RE OVERWHELMED.
Whether by the work or the countless custom proposals you’re sending, but you don’t feel overwhelmed with cash. How can you be overwhelmed AND underpaid?
YOU DON’T MARKET A LOT
Honestly, you’d love to, but who has the time? But anytime there’s a lag in your work you panic, pitch a bunch of old clients, and end up with more work than you can realistically complete. Your marketing is inconsistent and always out of desperation.
YOU dislike TRACKING YOUR TIME.
But in order to get paid you have to bill the hours -- and your client needs to be able to see proof of the labor you’re performing.
ALMOST 80% OF THE PITCHES YOU SEND ARE ACCEPTED.
Errr, maybe closer to 100%. And the ones you don’t hear from you are complete ghosts.
OR MAYBE YOU DON’T EVEN PITCH!
Clients just...magically come to you. And it keeps you up at 3AM worrying that these magical clients may one day stop showing up in your inbox.
YOU STILL FEEL LIKE A NEWBIE.
Maybe you’ve only been in business for a year or two. Surely you have many more dues to pay, right?
Have you ever…
Said “yes” to a project even though you didn’t really want to do it, just because you needed the money?
Gotten on a potential client call and pitched your work only to never hear from them again?
Wanted to take on a side-project or collaborate with another business owner, but you can’t make time because your clients need all your attention?
Felt envious of competitors who seem to charge so much more...maybe you’re wondering what they do better than you?
Browsed around Indeed.com...just in case! Because you can’t take many more months or years of this hunting and hustling...maybe a full-time job wouldn’t be so bad?
If you’ve thought any of these things, then you definitely need to raise your rates.
Your business (and your quality of life) depends on it.
Before you resign yourself to a business that just “gets by”
and say “A profitable business just isn’t for me”…
Keep reading.
While advice like “Demand more!” and “Charge what you’re worth” is well meaning, it’s not helpful.
Getting clients to pay you higher fees while taking fewer of them is actually simpler than you think —
But it’s not easy.
I’ve found it’s much harder to do without the knowledge on how to increase your fees and support of others to actually go through with it.
The only reason your vision for more revenue and less client work feels far away?
You’ve been led to believe that...
Your clients are the expert not you, and so you do what they say (very “boss-employee” mentality that lots of us carry over from Corporate Job 101)
You need TONS of experience to charge a high price point (you definitely need experience, but for most women and femmes, experience is not the problem)
Your income is tied to your labor. If you’re not executing client deliverables, you’re not making money.
Your work is easy. Anyone can do what you do and it’s not worth paying a lot for.
Here’s what I believe:
Most women and femmes don’t charge enough, not because they’re not qualified, but because they don’t know how much they can realistically charge.
As women and femmes, so much of our self-worth and our belief in our work is related to how hard we work, how much we produce, and how little we need from others.
But that’s not how profitable companies are built.
And I’m here to help you focus on delivering excellent client work while paying yourself plenty.
The world will be changed by feminists and it CANNOT BE CHANGED unless you are well-resourced.
Our collective success relies on it.
What others are saying
“The Cashflow Check-In was so impactful.”
The most impactful part of this program was our 1:1 talk in the beginning about my annual cashflow. It opened my eyes to how I could actually make more money and that made all the other weeks more informative. My hurdle coming in was not charging enough, and the light bulb of this was hearing the other women say what they thought I could charge and also working through what that really meant on the cashflow worksheet.
- Friday Apaliski, sustainability concierge
The truth is most business owners (particularly women & femmes) aren’t actually making that much money.
Yes, even the one that you’re SUPER jealous of.
You know how I know?
I’ve been in the backend of 30+ event budgets, from BIG companies, which means I’ve seen how much they spend on the people that help their businesses run
I’ve worked alongside a lot of female business owners who have told me how much they’re making (it’s kind of my thing -- I love talking about money because it affects every part of our lives).
I’ve hired a decent share of contractors for myself and for others. I know the range.
I’ve coached over 20 women and femmes (paid and unpaid) whose business models don’t allow them to draw an income.
In my community, among my clients, and among my contractors, the theme is consistent -- most of you aren’t charging enough.
Here’s what I’ve noticed:
Most women & femmes are excellent at the work they do but struggle to charge for it.
Whether it’s something our parents told us every day before we went to school
…or the way we watched our grandparents reuse plastic bags…
…our attitudes about what we can and can’t have…
Our attitudes around money have been with us for a long time.
This transfers over to entrepreneurship.
When we have no frame of reference, we start with what we’re comfortable with.
We say “well, I’ll start with my hourly wage from my last job.” and we quickly realize it isn’t sustainable.
It took me YEARS to finally get up the courage to say “something isn’t right with my money” and then another 18 months to actually make the change in my business.
I want it to be different for you.
Which is why the answer isn’t another class on how to get better at your craft.
It’s to understand HOW MUCH you need to be charging to pay yourself enough, and then a PLAN to go about charging that.
This work takes time, but it’s doable with commitment and a process - repeated over and over again.
And most entrepreneurs won’t ever do it.
They’ll spend years hustling and talking about how HARD business is — and they’ll never consider there’s a way to do it better.
The few entrepreneurs who DO this work to understand pricing, and who can finally get comfortable with pitching high numbers?
They can ACTUALLY build sustainable businesses -- whether that’s so they can hire more people, do less work, work on different projects, invest in a real estate empire or WHATEVER.
That’s what we learn in Price Perfect.
Even if you feel like you’re still “paying your dues”...
Because you’re busy with client work and you feel like you can only make money when you’re “an expert.”
PSST…Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.
You being underpaid serves no one…especially not your current clients.
And you believing that being underpaid is okay is where we start in this program.
The route is simple (though not easy).
Introducing:
The Price Perfect Accelerator
A 12-week group coaching program for business owners designed to help you price your work perfectly every time — whether it’s a small consulting project or a custom proposal for a corporate client.
What others are saying
“The network was incredible.”
I just wanted to let you know again how immensely grateful I am for this group. Admittedly I was a little skeptical about a group coaching situation, yet it was just what I needed to not only propel my business forward but also make invaluable connections. More than anything it was a game changer to know that I was not alone as a business owner.
— kristina klaas, Fundraising consultant
Go from hustling for more clients and feeling like there’s no money left…
To lovingly saying “Nope!” to project requests and instead counting your money (or, let’s be honest, taking a dang nap.)
By the end of this 12-week group program, you’ll be able to:
Understand how expensive, expert service providers differentiate themselves (and it’s generally not with a fancy website).
Nail your sales pitch, so you’ll be ready when that new client with a decent budget comes along.
Phase out old, low-paying clients, either all at once or slowly over time.
Or keeping a few if you want! But you’ll keep them because you want to, not because you “need the money.”
Divorce yourself from the idea that if you say no, you won’t ever get another inquiry again.
Raise your rates. Sometimes by 5 or 10 times what you’re charging now.
Curriculum Breakdown
STARTING September 2021...
We meet every week for 12 weeks on weekly group Zoom calls. This group is small, highly facilitated and high-touch.
Not only do you get support, but I’m intentionally keeping it to 8 business owners (plus me) so that you can get a high-level of service to take massive action that leads to massive change.
PLUS, 8-weeks of video lessons you can revisit again and again (access to the video lessons for 1 year).
Plus Spreadsheets & Journal Prompts!
I’m creating a library of templates & journaling questions for you.
Templates include:
Revenue mapping template that helps you plan out your year
Proposal template that reflects your new pricing structure
Swipe copy for saying “No” to red flag clients, communicating an hourly rate, plus other “clients-trying-to-cross-my-boundaries-and-I-don’t-know-how-to-respond” emails
Email scripts to easily ask for referrals from your network
….and more! You tell me what you need, and I’ll create a training for it.
And a very special ‘pay in full’ bonus…
For anyone who pays up front, you’ll get access to a 1:1, 90-minute cash flow analysis call with me.
Looking at our numbers without help can be overwhelming.
Just like real estate or investing in your 401k, building a business GENERATES wealth -- but not if you’re constantly hustling inside of it every day.
Together, we’ll analyze your last 12 months in business, get a clear picture about what is the specific problem in your business (leads, pricing, marketing, sales conversations, or a combination of all of them) and make a strategic plan to address those problems immediately, while you’re working through the Price Perfect coursework.
But how do I know it’ll work for me?
Right now you’re…
Feeling trapped working with clients you don’t love, going to meetings that drain your life force, slapping on a smile that strains every cheek muscle since it pays your bills
Struggling through feast and famine -- how will you ever survive these cycles of work → no-work → too much work?
Hustling to get clients one month, then hustling to deliver that work next month, then scared because you don’t have any client work the following month
Thinking about throwing in the towel because you can’t understand how anyone does this AND eventually hires people AND maybe takes a real vacation every now and then
Scared to increase your rates because what if you lose your current clients (you might, but I’ll teach you why it’s okay)
But after we’re done, you’ll…
Deliver your project fee, what it entails, and exactly how it will change your clients’ lives like you’re asking for the time.
Amaze your damn self at how many higher-quality clients you book BECAUSE you’ve created a system that gets client from inquiry to booked in no time flat.
Have a totally indulgent, freak-out moment while sitting in your dining-room-slash-office when high-end clients start emailing YOU instead of you sending out cold pitch after cold pitch.
Feel relaxed because you know that the money coming in is more than enough to pay you and your expenses with a profit left over.
Set up an autoresponse to inquiries that say “I’m booked up right now until Spring 2022. Click here to add yourself to our waitlist!”
How do I know how to do this?
In my career in events, I’ve gotten to see the backed of a TON of businesses, and many more high-stakes sales calls and high-dollar proposals.
Watching peers and clients pitch big projects was an education.
And though I could handle pitching and selling $50,000 - $100,000 proposals for my clients, I realized it felt hard to consider the work my team and I were doing even close to worth that much.
It seemed like I was working to spend money and time...and barely taking a breath.
I hustled, landed great contracts, only to have to turn around and do it again....my business wasn’t the freedom-based business I thought I’d have.
I just wanted to go to a yoga class, or take a morning to come up with new ideas (the reason I started my business in the first place).
I didn’t want to feel rushed, burnt out, and barely booked up, but that’s all I felt -- and I couldn’t create, couldn’t serve, and couldn’t level up unless I did any of that.
Sound familiar?
After trying to find the “right” hourly price point, I finally realized that raising my rates wasn’t just about going from $75/hour to $150/hour.
It was about understanding the value that I provided and pricing the RESULT...not how fast I could do the work.
When I changed my approach to selling clients on my work, my business took off. People valued me as an expert instead of as just a contractor.
Clients started trusting me to take work off their plates instead of questioning every single decision.
And my work became way better, because I took FEWER clients, which means I could give them better customer service.
Hey there. I’m Lauren.
I’ve been working in high-touch, mega-impact client events since 2006, and in my own business since 2013. In the last 10+ years, I’ve worked with some of the world’s biggest companies (which I can’t disclose due to confidentiality), and some of your favorite entrepreneurs (which I can -- see the testimonials!) to help them create uber-meaningful, profitable events that turn a small group of their existing community members into their top-rated clients.
In 2015, I started a coaching circle with other female business owners that I knew, and the results were astounding.
I’ve coached and taught ad hoc since 2016, but when I streamlined my business, got some help, and (gulp!) raised my own rates, I finally remembered why I started my business in the first place.
Getting paid does that to a girl.
My mission in life is to help women gain more equity, and that often means getting paid more.
Which is why I am excited to host the second round of this accelerator program — so that you can contribute to your family, your community, and yourself in a meaningful, purposeful way AND build real wealth for yourself.
Here’s How You Know This Group Program is For You
Like giving up coffee, this program isn’t for everyone. This is going to be a business game-changer for you - if you’re in business for the long game. It’s made for you, if you plan to be here in 2 years, growing your business continually.
I’ve crafted this program for you:
THE SERVICE PROVIDER
A service-provider who’s already getting inquiries pretty regularly -- but they’re all over the place.
Some people want tons of help, others just want you to do one thing. How do you stop the flood of “bad” clients (there are no bad clients, just poorly-fitting clients).
THE FREELANCER
A freelancer who wants to be a CEO -- you want to build your business for the long haul (maybe to sell or maybe to retire with the proceeds). These strategies will serve you for as long as you provide a service -- and the framework will help you slowly add $500 - $1,000 per new client without even blinking.
Who this program is not for?
This isn’t for anyone who:
Is desperate for cash — Ugh, that’s a no fun place to be, but honestly, business is a long game, and creating a sustainable business that doesn’t burn you out after 10 years is what this program is about. If you just need someone to tell you what to do so you can make money fast, this might not be for you.
Is willing to try hard things. A lot of the work we’ll do is uncomfortable. We’ll be asking clients how they perceive us and how our work brings them results. Sometimes the uncomfortable part is hearing positive feedback. Either way, this work is simple, but not easy.
Brand new businesses who DON’T think of themselves as an expert. There are lots of programs out there that help you get your first client -- but this one isn’t it. However, if you’re a new business owner and are looking to go out on your own in a similar capacity to what you’re doing in your current company at expert rates (aka $100,000 revenue or more per year), then I can help you!
What others are saying
“Working with Lauren helped me change the way I measure my own value, worth, and time.
She made it possible for me to put new guardrails around my business and now I know exactly what to say no to, in order to say yes to that which brings me joy, taps into my unique capabilities, and actually pays me appropriately. The clarity I've gained from working with Lauren is unmatched. It's the best money I've ever spent on myself and my business.”
- CAMERON MCCOSH, Independent CMO