Your needs, wants and desires determine how much you need to earn to live the life you’ve always dreamed of. This in turn determines the amount of time you are prepared (and able) to spend working and how much you need to charge for that time. This chapter may seem slightly mercenary for a book about living a life of passion and purpose doing what you love but a sound budget and financial goal-setting are critically important for conserving your energy and motivation levels for practice, making sure that you have ample time for yourself family, friends, recreation and hobbies, and for having the resources to enjoy your time and to give back to others. Without a budget, you will be fighting an uphill battle to truly enjoy your business OR your home life.
The Fair Exchange Principle
On several occasions when I’ve written for magazines and blogs about the topic of how to monetise health services, I have received reader feedback along the lines of: “Cliff, if you love what you do, and if you are working to help people, then shouldn’t it be freely available?”
Firstly, it is important to remember that I, like you, love what I do. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t, and not for all the money in the world. But I also choose to exist within the bounds of the society that we all co-create; one that relies on money as a medium for exchange. While I believe that we can and should drastically change our societal perceptions around money, time and happiness (not to mention that there is an interesting ethical debate about whether we really can consent to be part of society!), the fact remains that we all need money to buy food, pay rent, and get from place to place. If I didn’t charge for my services, or charge a fair rate (proportionate to my skills, education, and the market) I wouldn’t be able to service these very basic requirements and would have to choose to either abandon living within society as we know it which is not a viable option, or take up another job—one in which I would not get anywhere near as much life satisfaction and that wouldn’t positively affect the lives of people in the same way that my current work does.
When we assume that because something is health-promoting, holistic (or even spiritual) it should be free or cheap, we fall into a trap of separating the material/physical, mental/emotional and spiritual components of the human condition, when in fact they are intractably linked as interrelated components of all that we are.
Money is simply a medium of exchange.
In my years of mentoring others, I have seen many great practitioners drop out of the industry due to not feeling that they could charge what they are worth. This self-limiting belief robs us all of great practitioners doing great work.
A key principle of the economy of holistic health in business is ‘fair exchange’. When there is a fair exchange, whether, in the form of money or payment in kind, we achieve a harmonious balance. In charging what we deserve, we are valuing ourselves, just as when we pay what is fair we honour the practitioner or other service provider, allowing them to more comfortably express their passion to the world.
The fair exchange principle also allows for the giving of goods and services. I give a proportion of the revenue from my business to charity, and donate time to those in need who could not afford my services, because it makes me feel good. And like many other practitioners, I offer a huge amount of freely available information in the form of blog posts, articles and ‘pay by donation’ plans and programs. It’s all about a fair exchange. Remember too that when we provide something for ‘free’ there is still an exchange. The client is giving you their time…and time after all is our most important currency.
Value is the key.
Excerpt from the upcoming Book and Course, Time Rich Practice 2.0
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