Our values reflect our priorities, such as family, career, friends, spiritual network, education, and leisure. They also display our principles, such as saving for retirement, for future generations, for donations, or for a rainy day. We begin to get the answers by asking ourselves, "What is important to me?" That is when we begin to comprehend the intended pun, "the value of money."
However, how does this translate when we are asking clients to pay for our services and products? The value of money, then, has a reciprocal relationship where the customer and the provider both need to acknowledge each other's personal values, as well as their own to understand the value placed on a good or service. For example, the yoga instructor charges a competitive and fair price for her classes taking into consideration the cost of her training, her years of personal yoga practice, choosing to be of service to others, and wanting to support herself and her family. The yoga student is willing to pay for a healthful lifestyle which promotes flexibility and relieves stress in a communal environment.
The challenge relies on both parties acknowledging a common value of the product or service. If the price is too high, customers will go elsewhere. If it is too low, it brings down the worth of our profession and customers may feel our goods or services are not high quality. The secret lies in doing our homework to see what others in our field are charging. Then, we follow our own intuition as far as what we believe the service or product is worth. If we know the integrity behind what we offer, clients and customers will also recognize the worth because of the positive energy the products and services emanate. Clients need to pay to truly take ownership of the information or the goods they purchase. Free services may not help clients own the healing. If clients and practitioners find the product or service fits a value they are upholding, the money becomes secondary because the price has been set for the highest good of all involved.
GWENAEL SALHA, founder of Intrajourney does Intuitive Consulting, Therapeutic Life Coaching and Workshops on communication and counseling skills. She has a Masters in Marriage Family Child Counseling, is a Certified Spiritual Healing Practitioner and Reiki Master Teacher. For more info, contact: intrajourney@yahoo.com or 626-512-6424.
