5 questions to ask so you can confidently raise your prices

If your business isn't working the way you expected, it's not because you're bad at business. It's because no one ever taught you.

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We were trained to master algorithms in medicine, but when it comes to revenue teams and growth, we were never taught anything. We weren't even told to figure it out. We just assumed somehow we'd know. Like it would magically make sense.

But it doesn't.

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Hi docs. Welcome to the Entre MD podcast where it's all about helping amazing physicians just like you. Embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms.

I'm your host, Dr. Umna. Well, hello. Hello. Welcome back to another episode of the On Tremd podcast. As always, super pumped to be in your ears and I really want to say thank you. Right. I know I say this maybe quite a bit, but I really, really mean it. Over the last seven days, we had over 6,000 people, or rather 6,000 downloads of the Entremdy podcast. And I am just so appreciative of everyone who takes the time to listen to send me a PM and say listen. I listened to this episode and this is a change that I made and your podcast has really made a difference to me and people who start businesses, people who hire, people who raise their prices, people who do all these things. And I'm just beyond grateful. So thank you. Thank you for listening, for sharing, for reviewing, for posting on social media, for all, all of that. You are one of the most critical parts of this movement because you are introducing doctors to what is going on here and you're creating these really big wins for yourself. So thank you for doing that. Thank you. And I want to say also a really big thank you to everyone who's reviewed the On Trendy Method book. And if you haven't bought A copy. Please go get a copy. It is an amazing book. It's a roadmap. It's easy to read. Many people have completed it on page, you know, plane rides. Many people have started. Like, I couldn't put it down until I finished it, you know. And I want to give a shout out to Rome, who left a review on Amazon and left those five lovely stars that, you know, I love and says, amazing, A must read. And then Rome goes On to say, Dr. Una is a rock star and this is a must read for any budding physician entrepreneur. Thank you, Dr. Una, for creating such a wonderful book and resource and thank you. And thank you for sharing a review on Amazon again. It really helps us get the word out. I'm so grateful. You got a lot out of it. And yes, we're going to make sure that physicians know that this is out here. And this is a must read. Okay? So if you haven't gotten your copy, get it. If you have, invite someone else to go get a copy and read it. Okay? All right. I was working on this, you know, the session that I'm going to have with the doctors in the entremity business school in a few days. And really I was going to be showing them the top three ways to maximize your profits. And while I was working on it, you know, one of the areas really is increasing your profit margin. And, you know, one of the things you can do for that is raise your prices. And I know that when it comes to raising prices, there's a lot of sometimes guilt around that, sometimes shame around that. There's a lot of resistance. And I wanted to unpack that. I figured, hey, you know, I'd come share this piece with you and, you know, talk about, you know, five questions to ask so you can confidently raise your prices. And you may be in a space where you're like, I don't want to raise my prices and all that, but I just want to invite you to listen to this with an open mind. And we're going to tap into the way entrepreneurs think, and sometimes it escapes us as physicians, but this is going to be. This is going to be really good. So, so open mind. Okay, so five questions to ask. And the first question really is, what is the cost of delivering my service or my product? Right. But what is the cost of delivering my. My product or service? And the reason why this question is so critical is a lot of times I find that people don't realize that all their numbers are related. Right. If you remember, I did an episode, businesses, math okay. And you want to go listen to that episode. The numbers are all related, so you can't just choose a price. There are many factors that go into choosing a price, and one of them is, well, what is the cost to deliver this service? Right? And if you don't know what that cost is, you can't really determine the price because the price has to be such that you. You get a profit. Otherwise the business disappears. The top reason why businesses go out of business is that it's cash flow problems. Right? And so if that's the case, then cash flow is something we need to pay attention to. It's not something that can kind of be running in the background or what will be will be. No. Okay. So if you don't know how much it costs, then you cannot determine how to create a profitable pricing structure. All right? And so say you are a concierge doctor or you're a DPC doctor. How much does it cost to run your office? How much does it cost? And that's how much it costs to run your office, how much it costs to pay you. All of that woven in. So when I'm delivering services, how much does it cost me per day to deliver services? How much does it cost me per patient? Right? That is a question that you have to have. Otherwise, you could create a pricing structure that ensures that you go out of business like it's guaranteed, because every day you're losing money, okay. Or it sets you up where you do something that I've seen where in its established form, the owner of an established business is needing to do locum to pay the bills for the business. Right? Like the business should be taking care of itself. Like establish. Right. In the beginning, you're going to have to do some things, that's fine. But in its established form, okay, if you are somebody who is, you know, a coach, then the question is with the way I've set it up. Because sometimes people will say, well, I want to have this really nice welcome gift, and I want to have these really nice workbooks that I mail to everybody. And I really want to. And those are all good, right? There's nothing wrong with them. But the thing is, you have to factor all of that in when you're determining your prices. Am I doing it in such a way that I would either not make a profit or I'll make a tiny profit? Right. That is not enough to do anything for me. Right. Okay. If you are someone who's doing events, this is a place where I see it a lot, A lot. Of people going to events, planning to lose money on the events. They're like, oh, yeah, yeah, we just do this, and ultimately we will get a return on investment. But you can look at the cost of pulling it off, and you can look at how much you want to charge and make sure. I mean, like, you may decide, I just want to break even. Okay, fine, but make sure you. You break even, right? Or you're like, no, this needs to be profitable, right? Then what do you need to do? Do you see what I'm saying? Like, so you need to understand the cost of delivery. Without that, you don't know what a profitable price is. So that's number one. Number two. Number two is what is your revenue goal for the business? Right? Again, people are like, well, I don't really care about that. I just want to help people. It doesn't work that way. We live in an economic world. Business is an economic sport, okay? And so you have to know the numbers, all right? And so what is the goal? Because if you say, well, I want to make a hundred thousand this year, or you can add a zero, I want to make a million this year, or you add a zero, you say, I want to make 10 million this year, right? Then the question becomes, how many times do I need to do this service or deliver this product to hit that number? Then you can decide, do I want to play a volume game where I price it lower, but I know that I'm going to need to attract a lot of people, or do I want to play a pricing game where I charge higher, knowing that I'm going to attract fewer people, but this is just the way I want to do it without understanding the equation doesn't work. Business is math, okay? Business is math. And so what is the revenue goal? So I run, you know, I run this kind of business for this year. I want to hit $200,000 in revenue, but I've priced my. My thing at $100. Then do the math and decide if that's what you want, right? And. And you say, well, it's not. It's. It's not on. It's unethical. I shouldn't just want to make the money and all of that. And again, business is an economic sport, okay? We have to get more comfortable, a lot more comfortable talking about money. We have to get a lot more comfortable charging what our services are worth. We have to get a lot more comfortable doing the math and making business decisions, right? Okay, so what is the revenue goal? Then? Do the math. Like, so to hit this number, I need to do X of this. All right, then decide if that's what you want to do. And there's no right or wrong. Right. You see, I'm giving all the options. You get to choose. But you want to know how to think this is about. How do I think strategically about this? Okay, so that's number two. Number three. Number three is, what is the market paying for this? Okay. What is the market paying for this? And it doesn't mean you're going to go based off what the market is doing. No, you can choose to go higher, lower, you can choose to do whatever you want. But we're physicians. You want people to make informed decisions. Right. And so I want you as an entrepreneur, to make informed decisions. And when you look at what the market is paying, you're not just looking at the bottom number, you're looking at the top number. You're looking at the whole spectrum. Right. And so for this kind of service, how much do people charge? Again? So say you're a dpc, concierge, those kinds of things. How much do people charge? Well, I've looked, and it's anywhere from $30 a month to $500 a month to $2,000 a month. Like, just look at the whole range, because your brain will like to tell you, people don't pay this much for that. And it's not true. 99% of the time, it's not true. Right. So the same thing as a coach. Now, it doesn't mean you just go make up numbers that don't match the value of what you do. No, but you need to know. You need to know what people charge for this. Right? You need to know. So, for instance, as a coach, you know, I'm just throwing this out here for you to think about. Doesn't mean you need to do anything about it. But you need to know, do people charge 100 grand a year for coaching? Yes. Do people charge a million for a year? Yes. Like, do you see what I'm saying? Like, now are you going to charge a million? Maybe not. Maybe not right now. But the point is you. You have to know. Okay, so what do people charge? Do your research. For my thing. How much do people charge for events? It's anywhere from free to 20,000, 40,000. Like, all kinds of fun stuff. Like, just take a look. Right? Take a look. What does the market pay for this? All right, so that's the third question you want to ask. And just answer. And really, I would treat this like a game. I wouldn't make A big deal out of it. I'll just answer the questions. You know what I mean? Like, just answer them. It's a game. You don't have to do anything. Okay? All right, so that's number three. Number four, what is the value you offer? Okay? And it's very important that you're not thinking in terms of hours. Like it will take me X number of hours to do this. That's not what you're thinking about. You're not thinking about how easy it was for you to do it. That's not what you're thinking about. You're thinking about the value. Okay? What is the value I bring when I do this? And so let me say, for instance, you are somebody who is in the weight loss world, and you help people lose weight and eat right and reverse chronic disease or at least reduce the burden, reduce the amount of medication they have to take. Okay? Now, you may think of it in terms of process, right? So I see them for their appointments, I see them twice a month. We do some things about their diet and all of that. We manage their medication. Da, da, da, da, da. But that's not the value. That's your process. The value is, well, I get to live without medication. The value is I just saved ten grand a year on medication. The value is I reduce my risk of amputation, right? I reduce my risk of heart disease. The value is that I just extended my lifespan. The value is I'll be able to attend my granddaughter's wedding and dance with her. That's the value. Okay, let me give you an example with what I do, okay? So what I do with entrepreneur business school, for instance, is I help doctors build six, seven and multiple seven figure businesses, right? So that's. So that's what we do. Now, what is the value? The value is not, oh, you know, I meet with you weekly in a group coaching session. It's not the monthly challenges, it's not the private Facebook community, it's not the retreats you have access to and all of that. That's my process. Those are powerful things, but that's my process. When I'm thinking about value, I'm thinking about the person who has wanted to start a business for the last 12 years, something that has been a dream of yours for over a decade, and you're finally able to do it, right? The value is you've always wanted to own your own practice and now you do. And now you're your own boss, and now you're controlling how much you earn. The value is that you Always wanted to retire your spouse. And you're able to build a business that was able to provide enough revenue for you that you had one person, one parent at home with your kids and taking care of them, especially because both of you were gone so much during your training. The value is that you wanted to quit on your business. It was doing really well, but it was driving you. No.

Nuts.

And you're like, I'm done. I'm just going to sell this and get out of it. This is crazy. And you fell in love with your business again, and you've grown it by 40%. So you have that, and you're still your own boss, and you're growing it, and you're building your time off and all of that. The value, right? The value is you are able to build a solid team so you have your time back, so your marriage is better. Your relationship with your kids is better. Do you see what I mean? Like, you're playing the value. The value is you've been in a place where you've always been undervalued. Undervalued and told that, you know, you. You. You sucked at bringing in revenue. You are not pulling your own weight at your job and all of these things. And now you're in a place where you've built your own business and you're your own boss, and you're leading an incredible team, and you have such amazing results that your industry acknowledges you as an. Not just as a physician, but as an entrepreneur as well. The value is you've always had this mission, like, I have a mission. I want to help physicians build profitable businesses. You've always had a mission. And now, because you've learned how to build a business system around your mission, you have the freedom to go all in on your mission. So do you see what I'm saying? So it's not the process, but it's the value. Okay? The reason why you look at the value is because what you charge for your services should always be less than the value you bring. It may take you an hour. It may take you 30 minutes. It may be simple. It may be difficult. It doesn't matter. If the value is higher than your prices, then your prices are ethical. Okay? So you have to be clear on what that value is, and nobody will articulate it for you. That's a job you need to do yourself. Okay? All right. So that's number four. Number five. Number five, this is a really important question. Am I in the people's pockets? Okay. And you will know if you're in the people's pockets. If you say things like, I don't think they can afford this, well, you don't know, okay? And now am I being insensitive to the fact that maybe there are people who cannot afford what we do now? But again, business is an economic sport, okay? It's an economic sport. And I've talked about this multiple times on the podcast, that there is a charity and there is a business, and you don't want to mix it. They're two different things. And so by all means, have your charity arm, right? Build your business, build revenue so it can fund your charity. But you cannot run a business like a charity, okay? And even with the charity, you have to, like, one way or another, you're figuring this money thing out. Because with the charity, if you're going to have a huge impact, you're going to learn to raise money. Like, the money is coming up one way or another, right? You're going to need to raise money to care for those people. But just to decide out of the goodness of my heart, I'm just going to do good for everybody. No, I mean, like, if that were possible, there'll be no problems in the world because so many people want to do good, right? But one of the best things you can do if you want to be someone who does good, is for you to learn and figure out this money thing. So again, let's come back. Are you in the people's pockets? And so I'll give you an example. You know, I had, in my office, I had a patient who had an outstanding balance, and this outstanding balance was under $300, okay? So it was like, you know, let's say it's $290. $290. And she's making a fuss, and she's like, she. She can't pay it. And, you know, are we saying we're not going to see her? And all the things. And all the things. All the things. And so finally, they're like, we can see if you pay half, but there's going to be a payment today, okay? So she paid. And just to be clear, this was not like something super urgent, like, you know, the kid was having an asthma attack and about to pass out, okay? So she pays half of her co pay or her outstanding balance. And then when I get into the room, she says, oh, I need you to talk to my daughter, because I just paid for a cruise for seven of us to go to, and it's $900 per person. And she decided she's not going now, the person telling me this story, first of all, I didn't ask for this story, right? I came in to take care of something medical. But the person telling me this story just had a full on 20 minute battle with my front desk over $150. Right? But she just paid for a cruise for seven people, $900 each. And one of the people was even like, I don't think I'm going. And so I could have been in her pocket, my front desk could have been in her pocket and said, oh, she, there's no way she can afford this. You know, it's a lot of money. How do you know? Get out of their pockets. Get out of their pockets. Okay? So that is a really important question to ask. Like, am I in their pockets? Am I in there? Okay. And if you are, you want to, you know, like, slide out. Slide out of their pockets. Okay? And just your price is what your price is. And you can always. And we can, we'll probably do an episode on this. You can always work out, well, this is what I want to do for people who truly cannot afford it. But you cannot determine who cannot afford it because of course they're going to tell you that they can't. Right? But you can create a charity arm. Just don't confuse it. There's a charity arm and there's a business. You run your business like a charity. It will go out of business. Okay? All right. So what I really want you to do is I want you to, you know, like, I hope you've been thinking the whole time, but I want you to think about these questions. And a lot of businesses are in place where the best thing they could do for their business is raise their price, is raise the price, raise the price. And, you know, there's so many things that happen when you raise your price that are good for, I mean, it's good for you as the entrepreneur in the sense that your profit margins are better, your cash flow is better, you're able to afford a better team so you can deliver even better services. And then, of course, for you, your returns are better.

Okay.

But also for your clients or also for your patients. Because when there is skin in the game, the commitment level is so much higher. So much higher. And the results that they create are so much bigger. Okay. And so sometimes you would have heard this phrase that the transformation is in the transaction. And it's true. It's true. And for most physician entrepreneurs I've met, I mean, yes, we need to build profitable businesses, but our driving force is not the money. And a lot of times the driving force is helping people get results. And if that's what you truly want, you want them to have skin in the game. Okay? When I for. For the coaching that I do, I pay a lot for coaching, and it's always something that's a little bit of a stink, okay? And because of the level of investment, I show up for my stuff, I get stuff done. I overcome my limiting beliefs in a hurry. I overcome things like, oh, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. Well, you want to get results you don't have, so you're going to have to do things you don't want to do. And my goodness, you just paid, like, a gazillion dollars for this. The least you can do is listen to what they're telling you, right? And because of that, my results are so much bigger. And so I just want you to embrace this concept. And, you know, you need to raise your prices, then these are the questions to ask and answer, and these are the questions that will help you look at it and realize that raising my price is an ethical thing to do. It is a strategic business decision, and it creates a win, win situation. A win for my clients or my patients, and a win for me. Okay? So answer the questions, and if this is something you're like, man, this is good. I want you to think that this is a fraction of what we're going to be doing in the entremity business school next week. And this is what we do. Okay? And so if you've been a listener to the podcast for a while and you're like, you know, toeing in and like, I'm thinking about the entremity business school, I want to invite you to stop thinking and make a decision today. Like, come join us. Okay. Ontremd.com business it is a place where you will be able to build the business that will give you the freedom to live life, to practice medicine on your terms. I know it looks really dark out there in the physician community, but the truth of the matter is the people in the entremd business school are the physicians who are leading the change in the business world. They are leading the change. There are doctors in there who have crushed six figures, cross seven figures, cross multiple seven figures. There's some on their way to eight figures. There are doctors in there who are owning their voices. They're the people you'll see in the New York Times. They're the people see doing TED talks. They're the people you'll be seeing speaking at events. In fact, there's some events, you look at them, four or five of the speakers are from the on Tremd business school. These are the doctors who are negotiating like bosses as intrapreneurs. Negotiating for scribes, negotiating for time off, negotiating for four day work weeks. These are the doctors like there is. Think of that community that gets to. That gets to be your community. Unbelievable. Okay, so entremd.com forward/business. Go put in your application. We would love to have you. And regardless, I want you to go apply these things. I want you to raise your prices. I want you to do it confidently and I want to watch you. I want you to watch your business soar. Okay? And as that happens, let me know. Send me a PM. I'm Dr. Una Chukwu on social media. I would love to celebrate it with you. Okay. All right, so I'll see you on the next episode of the Ontremity podcast.

Hey, if you love listening, listening to the Entre MD podcast, I want to invite you to join Entre MD on Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and.

That is to thrive.

Just head out to entremd.com forward/ondemand and I love to have you join us.

See you on the inside.