Value Yourself

WHY do so many of us feel paranoid about appearing greedy? ROBIN CURRIE explains why you should not feel guilty about charging for your work.

I WAS running a workshop recently at which someone said how difficult it was for them to charge the right amount of money for a treatment. Like many of my clients, this person was a complementary healthcare practitioner and, like many others, paranoid about being thought greedy.

This is so common that I'm almost convinced that there is a module in the teaching of alternative medicine that encourages people to be ashamed of money. So let's talk about whether it's okay to be rewarded for your work and how to work out what's fair.

Firstly, you need to be clear that money is not the sweat of Satan, and that it is quite possible to be financially secure while retaining your integrity. You should also remember that you are not exploiting your clients by charging for your services. Quite the opposite, in fact - you will be of no use to your clients if you're constantly worrying about where the money is coming from to pay the rent.

There is a quid pro quo here: you look after them and they look after you. To think otherwise is to adopt the patriarchal 'doctor knows best' attitude that resulted in God-knows-how-many mis-diagnoses and inappropriate treatments over the years.

Medicine isn't a process where the practitioner dictates the treatment without reference to the patient. Indeed, one of the justifiable criticisms of the NHS is that it has permitted doctors not to be directly rewarded by patients and thus encouraged the idea that healthcare is a centralised, universal freebie. In that kind of bureaucratic universe, care becomes a commodity and relationships are peripheral to healing. Thus many of the problems.

While remaining utterly married to the concept of a benign and abundant universe, I reiterate that there is no such thing as a free lunch. And if it's true for sushi, it's also true for acupuncture, Reiki, shiatsu, moxibustion and Indian head massage.

Jung famously said that he always charged his patients because they got better quicker. And any salesman will tell you that people attach greater value to expensive purchases than to cheapies, irrespective of the item. Ergo, the more you charge, the more effective the treatment.

Now before the highly-qualified readers of this article start sending me rotting cabbages in the post, consider the following. Some years ago a woman I know was training as an aromatherapist, an occupation that is notoriously over-supplied with semi-qualified practitioners. By strict application of the laws of supply and demand you will see that, as a new and inexperienced therapist, Sharon should have found it difficult to attract clients.

The usual dodge is to lower the price, although aromatherapy doesn't command a premium at the best of times. However, this would have meant Sharon working all the hours that God sends for a pitiful income and it's a sure bet that she'd end up loathing her discipline and resenting her clients. By extension, the quality of her practice would suffer and she'd find it even more difficult to attract clients.

But even before she qualified her diary was full to bursting, with clients forming a waiting list over the next several months. In most disciplines this is unusual. In aromatherapy, it's unprecedented.

As you will already have guessed, the reason for her success was that she was charging about a hundred quid a session.

Of course, she was clear in her own mind that she was worth the money, which tends towards being a self-fulfiling prophecy - Sharon's confidence in her own ability was her major asset, the aromatherapy being merely a manifestation of it.

However, experience suggests that not all alternative practitioners have that level of self-belief, so if you're setting up in practice and you can't do a Sharon, here are some suggestions:


Don't offer discounts - they make you look desperate.

If you want to attract extra custom offer, say, five sessions for the price of four, booked and paid for in advance. This is merchandising rather than discounting.

Never offer a freebie because you judge someone can't afford your services - it's insulting and none of your business. If they want you enough they'll find the money.

If you ever do give free treatments, set a limit to the number of sessions you are willing to offer. In advance. And stick to it.

And on the subject of freebies, ask for something in return. It needn't be money, it doesn't have to be proportional and it may not even be for you, but this honours your treatment and avoids the feeling of obligation and the resentment of charity.

Review your prices upwards on a regular basis as you become more adept.

Tell your clients that you are looking for more patients and ask them to recommend you to their friends. Offer them an incentive - one free treatment per new client.



Robin Currie is an Independent Financial Adviser specialising in ethical investment.

He can be contacted for advice or discussion on 01392 411360
or e-mailed on Robin@newmoney.demon.co.uk.

Advice is given subject to the provisions of the Financial Services Act.