I love this topic: thank you. I have owned a small architectural practice for over 2 decades and my experiences parallel your thoughts. In my early years I did not charge for an initial consultation and the amount of people who stood me up, or later balked at my fee was surprising. Once I began charging for my consultations, the increase in respect was obvious: no more no-shows or people trying to negotiate my fee. There is a sweet spot in finding the right fee that people can afford, but not so cheap that people disrespect you and your work. And I agree: I have found people in lower tax brackets are usually much quicker to pay their invoices than those in higher brackets. *Because my fees are somewhat fluid (there is no real formula, just a lot of projections of hours/costs), pricing can be based on a client's needs (eg, a fee might be low balled for a teacher or social worker, but not someone in finance).
I love this topic. I’m a therapist and I get so many ads for these grossly capitalist programs to help you build a practice where your session rate is what would be a week’s worth of minimum wage labor in my area.
I work with people with Complex PTSD, who have experienced the worst relational harms humans do to another. (And I do refer many to your work, Zawn.) At the risk of sounding braggy, I have a lot of experience and training and am pretty good at what I do. To get paid fairly and make my work accessible, I:
1. Charge a high cash rate (not a week’s worth of minimum wage work high!) but also accept Medicaid.
2. Offer low cost/sliding scale consultation and supervision to other therapists, which has a wider ripple effect than me offering a low cash rate to one client.
3. Offer a $0-$30 weekly group. Most other clinicians offering this group charge $100+ a week. (I do worry sometimes that I am undercutting the field by offering it for free.) This group is currently on hold, though, because I’ve been…
4. Writing a workbook based on the group and other skills I routinely teach clients.
Thank you so much for writing this. I agree. We should all, also, have the payment system for our SubStacks set up, so that people who want to pay us *can.*
Thank you for your amazing *work.* and i know it IS work. You work super hard - for all of your content. The research, the knowledge, the editing, the sources, the statistics, the reading & reading & reading of emails & messages of all kinds. You’re amazing. And I hope you’re getting generous income from your SubStack and other sources.
Thank you for all that you do. I’m referring a friend who has a low value husband to your work a little at a time, because she isn’t quite yet ready for the full shebang. You’ve taught ME so much. I look forward to more women realizing their worth as ripple effects from your writing.
I'm not a writer.... yet, and I wonder sometimes about offering for people to gift to others. Like a gift subscription or gift certificate. A way to pay it forward I guess. I don't know how many takers there would be, so maybe it wouldn't be something to rely on. But sometimes I think I myself get more charitable when others offer it up as an option. I've thought a few times to gift your subscription to my daughter and I would have by now if I knew for sure she'd read the posts. I'd be just as willing to gift it to someone else who really wanted it and couldn't afford it.
I'm a parenting coach. I am always trying to push back against capitalism in my work, but it never feels like it's 'enough.'
I offer sliding scale pricing for memberships and courses, and provide criteria that people can use to evaluate which option to choose. I offer that BIPOC people who would like to accept the lowest price ("Empty Cup") as a form of reparations can do that if they choose (without assuming that they can't pay). There's a full-price "Full Cup" option and an "Overflowing Cup" for people who want to help me support others. I also accept any request for scholarship that I receive, even if it's far below the value of the service - Overflowing Cup offerings never equal the value of the scholarships offered.
I make the e-book version of my book available on a gift economy basis on my website, with both financial and non-financial offerings accepted.
For an upcoming course, I'm considering experimenting with a model where there will be a base price and people will have the option to donate at the end of the course if they think they've received more value than they paid for from it (Miki Kashtan has worked extensively with variations of this model).
I'm always looking for more ideas to try if anyone has any to offer!
I love this topic: thank you. I have owned a small architectural practice for over 2 decades and my experiences parallel your thoughts. In my early years I did not charge for an initial consultation and the amount of people who stood me up, or later balked at my fee was surprising. Once I began charging for my consultations, the increase in respect was obvious: no more no-shows or people trying to negotiate my fee. There is a sweet spot in finding the right fee that people can afford, but not so cheap that people disrespect you and your work. And I agree: I have found people in lower tax brackets are usually much quicker to pay their invoices than those in higher brackets. *Because my fees are somewhat fluid (there is no real formula, just a lot of projections of hours/costs), pricing can be based on a client's needs (eg, a fee might be low balled for a teacher or social worker, but not someone in finance).
I love this topic. I’m a therapist and I get so many ads for these grossly capitalist programs to help you build a practice where your session rate is what would be a week’s worth of minimum wage labor in my area.
I work with people with Complex PTSD, who have experienced the worst relational harms humans do to another. (And I do refer many to your work, Zawn.) At the risk of sounding braggy, I have a lot of experience and training and am pretty good at what I do. To get paid fairly and make my work accessible, I:
1. Charge a high cash rate (not a week’s worth of minimum wage work high!) but also accept Medicaid.
2. Offer low cost/sliding scale consultation and supervision to other therapists, which has a wider ripple effect than me offering a low cash rate to one client.
3. Offer a $0-$30 weekly group. Most other clinicians offering this group charge $100+ a week. (I do worry sometimes that I am undercutting the field by offering it for free.) This group is currently on hold, though, because I’ve been…
4. Writing a workbook based on the group and other skills I routinely teach clients.
Thank you so much for writing this. I agree. We should all, also, have the payment system for our SubStacks set up, so that people who want to pay us *can.*
Thank you for your amazing *work.* and i know it IS work. You work super hard - for all of your content. The research, the knowledge, the editing, the sources, the statistics, the reading & reading & reading of emails & messages of all kinds. You’re amazing. And I hope you’re getting generous income from your SubStack and other sources.
Thank you for all that you do. I’m referring a friend who has a low value husband to your work a little at a time, because she isn’t quite yet ready for the full shebang. You’ve taught ME so much. I look forward to more women realizing their worth as ripple effects from your writing.
(I put asterisks around certain words to emphasize them, because I don’t know how to italicize them in this context.)
I'm not a writer.... yet, and I wonder sometimes about offering for people to gift to others. Like a gift subscription or gift certificate. A way to pay it forward I guess. I don't know how many takers there would be, so maybe it wouldn't be something to rely on. But sometimes I think I myself get more charitable when others offer it up as an option. I've thought a few times to gift your subscription to my daughter and I would have by now if I knew for sure she'd read the posts. I'd be just as willing to gift it to someone else who really wanted it and couldn't afford it.
Zawn has that option on her substack
I'm a parenting coach. I am always trying to push back against capitalism in my work, but it never feels like it's 'enough.'
I offer sliding scale pricing for memberships and courses, and provide criteria that people can use to evaluate which option to choose. I offer that BIPOC people who would like to accept the lowest price ("Empty Cup") as a form of reparations can do that if they choose (without assuming that they can't pay). There's a full-price "Full Cup" option and an "Overflowing Cup" for people who want to help me support others. I also accept any request for scholarship that I receive, even if it's far below the value of the service - Overflowing Cup offerings never equal the value of the scholarships offered.
I make the e-book version of my book available on a gift economy basis on my website, with both financial and non-financial offerings accepted.
For an upcoming course, I'm considering experimenting with a model where there will be a base price and people will have the option to donate at the end of the course if they think they've received more value than they paid for from it (Miki Kashtan has worked extensively with variations of this model).
I'm always looking for more ideas to try if anyone has any to offer!
I SERIOUSLY needed this and not sure why it never alerted me. I’m constantly battling to break to even 90 paid subscribers.
Each month people drop off and then I feel like I have to “hustle” new ones and it is absolutely exhausting.
I want to be equitable and accessible but I’m also navigating surviving CAPITALISM…
So yeah, I like the idea of just tell me you can’t afford it and I will give you a year
Thanks for all you do Zawn