Becki Sams

Freelance Copywriter

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How To Stop Working For Free & Get Paid What You’re Worth

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Sick of working for free (or for way less than you’re worth)? Use these 3 helpful strategies to stop giving away your precious time, energy, and resources – unless you’re being paid *handsomely* for it.

It’s always okay to ask how much you’ll be paid. 

Let’s get that out of the way first.

I know it sounds super obvious… but I also know from experience that it’s not always easy to do.

I can’t count the number of times I said yes to an opportunity – thrilled just to have the opportunity – without asking how much the pay was. Or even whether I’d be paid for it at all.

Oops.

On the other hand, I also spent part of my career working at a yoga studio, reaching out to local teachers and offering them opportunities to teach at the space. I don’t remember one person ever asking me how much the pay was until it was time to receive it.

(I eventually had to start highlighting the pay rate in the emails, so they knew up front!).

Just because you love your work and you’re talented at it, it doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to be paid, and paid well.

If anything, your passion makes you more valuable.

It’s also totally acceptable to negotiate your pay, set your own rates, and turn down opportunities that don’t pay enough.

If this feels like scary stuff to you, it’s time to reclaim your worth.

1. Stop working for free

Just stop doing it!

Give yourself a ‘deadline’; a date after which you’ll no longer work without pay.

When we’re just starting out in an industry and we need to build our experience or reputation, almost all of us start out working for free to learn the ropes.

But there has to be a point where we say, “no more”.

Most of my clients who struggle with this have spent inordinate amounts of money to train in their field of expertise – whether that’s yoga, coaching, healing – and they deserve to earn money for these skills.

To stop working for free, we just need to say ‘no’.

Need a few tips on how to politely say, “no, I don’t work for free”? Download my free at-a-glance guide below.

This doesn’t mean you can never, ever offer anything for free again. Even just last year, I taught a free corporate lunchtime yoga class as a favour to a friend when their teacher dropped out last minute. As a result, I landed a corporate yoga contract to continue offering my services once a week for their clients.

However, I was only able to say ‘yes’ to this opportunity because I’d stopped working for free as my default.

I was being paid well for my teaching through other projects, so I could say ‘yes’ to a freebie from a place of abundance.

Take action: set yourself a deadline, right now. Resolve not to take on any unpaid opportunities from that date forward.

2. Decide how much your time and energy is worth 

As an ex-freelance yoga teacher, I know how time-consuming it can be to:

  1. Plan classes and/or service treatments
  2. Travel to and from a venue
  3. Actually deliver the offer
  4. Create additional content and handouts
  5. Attract new clients and students

You have to work out whether your projects are paying you well enough, all things considered.

Every month, I used to sit down and calculate my earnings from the previous month, as well as the time I was spending to prepare for my classes, travel to them, and create content for my students.

For a long time, this was not a pretty picture.

But this practice was vital in helping me to identify which projects were paying me well, and which weren’t profitable enough for me. 

It’s important to get really honest about how much time and energy you’re spending versus the money you’re receiving in return.

Then decide how much your time is actually worth.

Once you set your new ‘rate’, you can start to reduce or eliminate the projects which no longer meet this criteria (and create space for new, more abundant opportunities to appear).

Knowledge = power!

Take action: set your new hourly or per-project rate. Resolve not to accept anything less than your new rate for future opportunities.

3. Ask & reflect before giving the yes

If an opportunity arises – or you’ve fought like hell to seek one out – ask how much it pays. Always.

Before you say yes.

Before you get excited. Definitely before you sign any agreements.

It’s so important to ask this question and then take your time before giving a response. I’ve made the mistake of getting ‘caught up’ in the flurry of excitement far too often, saying yes to projects I should’ve given more thought.

I always regretted it.

This can be especially challenging if you have unresolved blocks around money.

The fact of the matter is that money is an important part of business, and if you’re running a business (even if it’s just a side hustle right now), then you need to be clear on the payment terms.

So please, always ask.

Then give yourself the chance to reflect on your decision. If a client really wants you, they won’t mind if you take a day or two to think it over – and it’ll almost certainly stop you from making impulsive, unwise decisions!

Take action: practice asking “how much is the pay?”. Resolve not to say ‘yes’ to any future offers without knowing what the payment is.

On a final note – you now officially have 100% permission to ask how much you’ll be paid for any future opportunities.

With love,

3 Secret Weapons To Help You Get More Clients

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Getting more clients can be a tricky business. Use these 3 simple tools to help you master the art of finding customers (and keeping ’em so happy they’ll want to stick around).

No clients = no business.

The #1 question I get asked is, “how do I find more customers?”. 

The truth is that attracting and retaining clients is vital for keeping your business alive – without it, you don’t actually have a business at all.

Until I figured this stuff out, I felt like business was totally unpredictable. I didn’t know how to consistently attract clients, and I was essentially throwin’ spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck. 

These 3 secret weapons helped me to build my business and impact more magical beings around the world, and I’m hoping they’ll help you too.

Let’s dive in.

1. Know your ideal customer

This has gotta be the biggest game-changer – getting clear on exactly 1) who you serve and 2) what you offer.

When we’re starting out, most of us have absolutely no idea who we’re helping. We’re just so crazy in love with our product or service that we want to help everybody.

This is normal since we don’t want to actively exclude customers who might wanna buy.

It makes no sense, right?

The great cosmic joke, however, is that in business almost everything is counterintuitive; niching down doesn’t mean losing clients, it means gaining more ideal clients.

Think about it this way – if you had chronic lower back pain, would you rather go to a general ‘healer’ who treats everything under the sun… or a bodyworker who specialises in treating back pain?

I’ll bet it’s the latter, ‘cos you’d be more certain you’d get the result you were looking for.

So how do you figure out who your ‘ideal’ customer is?

To start with, think about who you’re already attracting, as well as who you feel most called to serve.

Who are (or would be) your absolute favourite clients to work with?

Think about their:

  • Demographics (such as age, income, occupation, where they live)
  • Psychographics (for example their fears, dreams, secret desires, hobbies, interests, personality, beliefs, attitudes) 
  • How you can serve them (i.e. the skills and talents you have that could help them solve an issue they’re facing)

Knowing who your ideal customer is will make your marketing efforts way easier – and way more effective.

If you’re worried about losing business; don’t panic! I still attract clients who are by no means my ‘ideal’, and you will too. This practice simply helps you get 100% clear so that more of your perfect peeps can find you with ease.

2. Use the ‘spotlight’ method

Once you’ve got your ideal customer down, it’s time to shine a big, beautiful spotlight on them.

The ‘spotlight’ method (a term coined by the fabulous Marie Forleo) means that in every piece of content you create, every interaction you have, and every sale you make, the spotlight is on your customer. 

It’s all about their needs, their goals, their desires.

The biggest mistake most entrepreneurs make, especially in the beginning, is they make their business all about them.

Why? Mostly because we want to prove our credibility.

We try to sell our customers on how much we know and/or love what we’re sharing.

Ironically, the most credible business owners never, ever lead with their passion, achievements, or experience – instead, they focus on their customers.

This is because they know that when a potential client’s interacting with their brand, the only question they’re asking themselves is, “what’s in it for me?”.

Try putting yourself in your customer’s shoes and looking at your:

  • Website
  • Landing pages
  • Product, service, or event descriptions
  • Past email newsletters
  • Social media feeds
  • Ads, flyers, and other promotional materials

As a customer, is it super clear “what’s in it for you”? If not, edit it through the lens of the spotlight method.

Putting your clients front and centre is key to helping you attract and retain fans who rave about you!

3. Set up a system 

I know most of us really resist this one… but the only way to keep the lights on in your biz is to have a trusty system in place to attract and retain clients.

As a teacher, I just wanted to be able to go with the flow, and I felt restricted by ‘systems’. But the truth is that building systems actually helped keep my business afloat.

Each system will look different, and mostly depends on our business model.

For example, my client attraction system as a teacher looked like this:

  1. Create valuable free offerings on a regular basis and advertise them on social media
  2. Collect the attendees’ email addresses (with their permission)
  3. Create valuable paid offerings and advertise them to my email list (as well as on social media, local event websites, and spreading the word to other teachers)
  4. Collaborate with studio spaces to offer events and get my name out there – bringing business cards and offering bonus downloads to those who leave their email address
  5. Collaborate with other teachers and coaches in a similar field to create a unique offering – tapping into new audiences for both of us

The next step would be to let my email list know when I had a 1:1 opening, inviting them to book a free call. Then to overdeliver my ass off!

Overdelivering = the best client retention strategy ever.

Note that none of these steps involves manipulating people or using pressure tactics to get a sale. You absolutely 10000% do not have to use those to be successful, just so we’re clear.

To create your own personal system, ask yourself:

  • How do I currently attract new clients?
  • What works? What doesn’t?
  • How can I maximise what works, and eliminate what doesn’t?
  • How can I streamline this into a reliable system that delivers new potential clients to me in an easier, more efficient way?

Over to you: How can you put these methods into practice in your own business, right now? Share your wisdom in the comments below!

With love,