THINGS I LEARNED THE HARD WAY IN MY CLIENTELE: Services, promos, charges & revenue

When I had started out most people came to me because I was a good listener. I am also not a judgemental person and that works for me because I don’t have to bother about why so and so person would do ABC, etc. That helped me to be emotionally intelligent in situations that were the most challenging ones. To run a business is not easy, I had known of it but to actually experience it first hand was not something I had anticipated. I did have my struggle period initially because some clients tried bargaining and had their way and since I was desperate to get a foothold somewhere in this field, I said “Yes” to everyone, often lowering my worth just for the sake of it.

I tried to sell the course offline through PDFs and audio-visual formats for better comprehension but it turned out that people were more comfortable speaking to me on call or in person. I used to charge a decent amount for the phone calls and a bit higher for the face-to-face interactions because it took greater effort to travel to the places I had to for the purpose, since I don’t have an office yet where people can directly come over and I cannot lay out my residential address for obvious reasons. The rates have increased in the past couple of years since I have had massive success in the relationship -related areas and a fair amount in the self-concept ones. The Mindset courses are hardly completed by the ones opting for it because I am quite the disciplinarian in this regard. They often leave mid-way. However, there are a few things I learned through the years and I am only putting this out to guide anyone who is thinking of making a living out of a similar service-based business.

• Not everyone will understand your vision. Sometimes they’ll question your ethics, belief systems, challenge your faith and put forth random ideas completely disregarding the fact that there is a coach-student dynamic.
• Your key strength is and will always be your ability to connect with your client. You have to be able to tap into their deepest sentiments and extract what needs to be extracted for the purpose of their own betterment. Some of them will be obstinate because they fear being judged and trusting someone doesn’t come to them easily. If the equation works, good. If it doesn’t, you have to let them go. There’s no point trying to convince anyone if they don’t want to be convinced. The best deal is the one you can walk away from, someone I truly admire has said this countless times.
• You are not charging less. If they have an issue with the payment, there is always a way out by means of negotiations instead of asking for a discount. Some people shamelessly do that because they think they are doing you a favour by adding to your sales. That’s never true because there is always an option of curating a coursework that suits their budget and they just have to ask for it. That is real negotiation. There will be several instances where you’ll be asked to give a discount. Unless you’re someone who is starting out, never settle.
• People will take advantage of your empathy a hell lot. You’ll be shocked to know the level of degeneracy people resort to in order to make you feel guilty. That is where the actual challenge is, will you let your heart submit or let your mind win? There is no place for sentiments in business. I never understood the meaning of this sentence until I had experienced it myself. You have to be able to sniff out the parasites with ease.
• Every course that you sell is a product in itself. Nobody should make you question if it is too overpriced or anything like that. Just like they would go to a mall or a shop to buy something and they wouldn’t question the owner why is something priced the way it is. I realised it a lot later because I had the habit of over explaining why the service costs X amount of money.
• Every business says customer is King. But loyalty cannot be from one end only. I have said what I had to say. This should be self-explanatory.
• There are several ways how someone can coax you into selling something for half its rate. You have to remember that your hard work is not free. If you can identify that someone isn’t giving back even a quarter of what you are offering, terminate your relationship with the individual. There’s no point burning your brains for those who have no regard for your time and energy.
• Your revenue from your clientele is always going to be amount that you are left with after investing the money you made from the work to generate more money. For example, if I charge a 100 USD for a single call, I should be able to segregate the amount for buying materials to enhance my knowledge to deliver better, labour and investment in tertiary stuffs like paying an editor or an assistant to do the additional job. Whatever is left is my revenue. People tend to think that the entire revenue is the money you get for your services/coaching but they don’t realise that there are other investments made to improve the quality of the whole experience. The more you invest in knowledge and improvement, the better your returns are, even in a field like this.
• Occasional discounts are necessary. I offer a discount every month to commemorate any significant moment in my life and that puts me at my place. I never did that before because it didn’t occur to me that celebrating a victory can also mean being charitable sometimes. It helps you to regain your trust in yourself as someone who owns a business and is doing something to bring about a change.
• DO NOT INVOLVE YOURSELF IN POINTLESS DRAMA. That is something I had an enlightenment about and realised that this is not my job to sit around and validate someone’s actions or lack of awareness. Your clients and you should have a boundary and that is the end of story. I have had to block a few of them because they were being too toxic for me and I don’t feel guilty about it.
• Be prompt with your ideas. There is no place for mental laziness in a business like this. You should be loaded enough in your gray matter to be able to provide a fraction of relief at least in moments of crisis.
• Detox once a while. I used to work on Sundays too. I have now allotted Sunday as a rest day.
• Protect your self respect. As much as they say there are no refunds in a business like this, pay back to those who claim or display behaviour reeking of “This isn’t helping me.” Nobody should pay for a service they don’t like. Return their money, choose peace. Say God Bless and move on.
• Intentions are everything. Always intend the best for whoever you are working with. That is the kind of energy which comes back to you.

For coaching: anjashi.work@gmail.com