If you are one who makes an income from a special skill set which requires you to price your products or services, you have heard the following: “Your prices are too low, you should value yourself more!” You may have even said this to another who is also trying to figure out how exactly to honor themselves and their work, while at the same time envision a price that others will pay.

Money is an uncomfortable subject with many of us. With myself, I am an Astrologer and Intuitive with knowledge passed through family as well as in depth studies with well known others in my field. I paid for that knowledge and studies and the passed down information is invaluable. As for my Intuitive side, how do you price tag something you can barely explain to others? When pricing my Intuitive Natal Charts I went by what I saw others charging while also KNOWING many of them don’t take personal time with a chart. (If I purchase a Natal Chart and receive it in my email inbox within minutes, it’s been ran through a program. PERIOD) I on the other hand let my clients know that I will be 100% in their planets and stars for a max of 2 weeks. I give myself that time as I will only work on a chart when my energy is positive and clean, I won’t exhaust myself to the point your chart is rushed and you get nothing of value from it, and I still must keep up on all the free social media posts I create while having a life outside my laptop. My clients appreciate this and I have never been questioned about that timeframe I have set. Does it frustrate me that others with similar prices crank charts out? It does! Do I feel the work, energy and emotion I put in is worth even more? Absolutely and so do my previous clients! Why don’t I raise my prices? Well, that is an interesting question that I will answer toward the end of this blog. First, let me go over another more relatable situation I am close to…

My husband is a photographer. For the last 7 years I have watched him go from taking beautiful unique cell phone pictures, setting out to prove one can get professional quality pics with a phone, to now having 3 pro Canon cameras, multiple lenses, and more equipment than will fit in his current bag. He was talked into selling prints at the beginning and at a small crafters venue he charged minimal prices for 3×5 or 5×7 prints he had printed at Walgreens. It was fun and he made extra gas money or made the money back he used to get said prints. As his knowledge grew, his skill increased, and his passion got stronger. He began to believe he could really make it in the photography world and expanded into different cameras, different types of photography and decided his gear would only be purchased with the money he made with prints. To this day he only buys used gear and sets out to prove that its the photographer that makes the picture, not the price of their gear. He was sought after for senior pictures, only charging I believe $50 or $100 dollars for pictures to ensure lower income families could get quality pics for their graduates. In the town we lived in he struggled to stand out from the well known and well connected photographers but shortly before we moved, one of his pieces was purchased (for cheaper than what it was worth) by the National Historic Trails Center to showcase their exhibit on the Red Wall area of Wyoming. The picture covers an entire wall and seeing it was amazing, yet frustrating as well. Exciting that your work is in a museum but insulted at the price that was paid for it.

In the last 2 yrs since leaving his skill has only grown leaps and bounds, his prints are now done at a professional print shop in California, he has a website where others can order, he has published 2 calendars, done a workshop with 3 more planned, has had his work shared on social media by world known photographers and pages with over a million followers. He has even branched out to Sports Photography as he is still a school bus driver and drives for sports trips in the town we are in. Wait, what? Yes, you heard me right, my husband still needs to work a job where he has a paycheck written to him from someone else. How does that even make sense knowing everything above? You may even say “Why doesn’t he raise his prices to match his worth?” Well he has! Every time he raises prices he has someone in his inbox telling him they can’t afford that or not understanding why they are what they are. (Then others just download and steal them off of social media even tho they will get crap quality if they try to print) A artist should NEVER have to explain such things and defend their talent and what they value it at! Just because one can not afford a price does not mean they get to question why the seller came up with said price. It’s seriously rude and what’s worse is these type of people more than likely tell others that they undervalue themselves, while they NEVER purchase a product from those same people. If you wonder why many who price themselves also have other avenues of income, THIS IS WHY!

Big box stores like Walmart and Target will sell stock images that look nice in a cheap frame that you can snag for $20 bucks while if you buy from my husband it will cost $120. His competition is some mass produced picture that hundreds of others will also have on their wall. Crafters at craft shows are up against that same competition and rarely last past the point of their family and friends showing up to purchase or if they are lucky those family and friends will send others their way. My competition is the instant gratification of getting results of a Natal Chart within minutes for the same price. Like how can I raise prices when that is what I am up against?

The reality is, society has fallen away from seeing the work that goes into a home based skill and they only see what the dollar figure is, then instantly try to find a cheaper price. BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY THIS, WE ALL KNOW OUR WORTH IN THE BIGGEST OF WAYS! The issue isn’t US knowing our worth, it is getting OTHERS to see we are WORTH IT! Not in ways of explaining ourselves either. But with common sense that dictates 1) We are mostly one man/one woman shows. We don’t have a bunch of people behind the scenes. We are “the people”. 2) We put heart into what we do. We aren’t machines and we pay attention to fine details while keeping our customers in our minds at all times. 3) Equipment, training, schooling, and supplies cost money and time that we aren’t spending with our families. 4) NONE of us consider what we do as a “hobby” and wish you wouldn’t either! We aspire to make a living off our passions and gifts and when you view those as a cute hobby, well it’s insulting. 5). We will ALWAYS give better quality than ANYTHING mass produced so of course we can charge more. We are worth more!

So the next time you tell someone that they need to see their worth, instead ask why their prices are lower than you think they should be. Then purchase something, show support, share their business with others, and then seek other small businesses to support! If you are a person who has to put a price tag on their talent, passion, skill or knowledge know that you are not alone in this struggle. Also know that you don’t owe anyone an explanation as to why you value yourself so highly. Anyone who asks such a thing is just literally a shitty person who is already planning a trip to Walmart or a scroll through Amazon to find something cheaper. They don’t value quality, they don’t value your product and they certainly don’t value YOU!

~Kristie is an Astrologer, specializing in Intuitive Natal Astrology charts. She champions others who are breaking free from the Matrix of what society conditions us to believe and instead asks you to follow your dreams and purpose through this blog and on social media. She gives general astrology advice and more on FB, IG, Tumbler, and LinkedIn under her business Mystikal Rootz and offers a minimum 3 emails a month with detailed Astrology through her subscription for preferred followers.

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