095 4 Signs You’re Undercharging

If you’ve ever ended a full day of client calls feeling exhausted, a bit resentful, and quietly wondering whether this business is really worth it… this episode is for you.

In today’s episode, I’m unpacking one of the most common and uncomfortable questions I get asked by health professionals: how do I actually know if I’m undercharging? Because pricing isn’t something we’re trained for. We’re taught to care deeply, to help generously, and to put others first. And that’s exactly why so many brilliant clinicians end up pricing emotionally instead of strategically.

I walk you through four clear, tangible signs that your prices may no longer reflect the true value of your work, plus simple awareness exercises you can use right now to break out of the undercharging cycle. I’m also sharing a very honest story from my own children’s nutrition business that completely changed how I thought about money, value, and what people are genuinely willing to invest when they trust you.

If pricing has been sitting in the “I know I need to look at this… but I don’t want to” box, grab a cuppa and listen in. This one might feel a little uncomfortable in places, but in the best, most freeing way.

In this episode, I cover:

• Why undercharging is incredibly common for health professionals 
• The difference between pricing emotionally and pricing based on impact 
• Sign #1: You’re busy and booked out, but barely profitable
• Sign #2: The “price flinch” and the urge to justify, soften or over-explain your fees
• Sign #3: Your prices are stuck in the past while your skills and support have grown
• Sign #4: The emotional and energetic signals that quietly tell you something is off

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Transcript

Sarah Bushell (00:45)
A client recently asked me the question, how do I actually know if I'm undercharging or not? And you know what? It's a really good question. So today's episode is my full answer to that. Because pricing isn't always easy, especially as a health professional, because most of us were never really trained to think this way in the first place. We are trained to assess, to care, to support and put people first, not actually price our services or talk about money or confidently say,

This is what my work is worth. And on top of that, so many of us healthcare professionals are driven by really strong values. We genuinely want to help people and that can make it incredibly hard to charge in a way that actually reflects the depths of our expertise, our time and actually the responsibility that we're holding. So instead of pricing strategically, a lot of people end up pricing emotionally.

They base their prices on what feels reasonable or what they think their clients can afford rather than on the true value of the work that they're doing and the kind of results and transformations that they're helping their clients achieve. But undercharging doesn't just affect your income, it also affects your energy, your confidence and actually how sustainable your business actually is in the long run. It can leave you feel overworked, underpaid,

and quietly questioning whether all this effort is really worth it, even when you know you're brilliant at what you do. So in today's episode, I want you to see clearly and honestly whether that's happening in your business. I'm going to walk you through four key signs that you're undercharging, real tangible indicators, so you can recognize them in your own business.

I'm also going to share a few quick wins and easy exercises that you can do right now to help you get out of this undercharging cycle. And I'm also going to share a personal story about a mistake that I made early on with my own pricing, a mistake that accidentally showed me just how much I'd been undervaluing my work in my children's nutritionist business. It completely changed the way I thought about money. So let's get into it.

Okay, first, let's get one thing clear. If you're under charging, it doesn't mean you're bad at business. It just means that you care deeply and you've been trained to put everyone else first. That's all. Now, most healthcare professionals that I work with are highly skilled, deeply caring and absolutely terrified of being seen as too expensive or money grabbing, money focused individuals.

So instead of pricing based on the outcomes and transformations that they deliver for people's lives, they often price based on what feels reasonable. And this is when undercharging usually happens. Now I'm going to start by telling you a story that completely changed how I thought about pricing in my children's nutrition business. For a long time, I had two versions of a sales page on my website for my Fussy Eating Fixed program.

One showed the full price of my program and the other showed a special discounted price with 50 % off that I used to use inside a funnel for early bird signups. Now, a week before Christmas, I accidentally took down the wrong page. I was meant to take down the full priced version and keep the discounted price live ready for those

New Year, new you parents who often are interested in fixing their children's fussy eating after the nightmare they've had over Christmas. But instead, I accidentally left the full price version live. So then January rolled around which I said is always my peak time, parents tend to be desperate for support after the chaos Christmas brings them. And guess what?

I sold three spots at the full price. Now for years, I've been selling my self study program for £497. And suddenly without even trying, I sold three spots at £1,000 each. It was at that moment I realized just how much I'd been undervaluing my work. People were happy to invest in real expert support for their kids. And my confidence in my pricing had been the only thing holding me back.

Now, just to make it clear, the lesson here is not to charge more and then everything will magically work out. The lesson is that pricing isn't about what feels safe or what you think people will pay. It's about reflecting the true value of the transformation and the impact on your client's life that you're going to deliver. So for years, I've been pricing based on my comfort.

and not on my impact. I'd underestimated just how much people valued the support and how urgent their problem felt and how much people trusted me to get them results. So this isn't about suddenly doubling your prices tomorrow for the sake of it. It's about acknowledging your expertise, about valuing your capacity and remembering that you're allowed to charge in a way that supports you too.

Now, before we dive into the four key signs that you might be undercharging, I want you to ask yourself a few honest questions. If your prices increased next month, would your work suddenly become unethical? Are you pricing for the hours you're working with a client or for the value you bring? Are you charging based on what feels reasonable or what's actually sustainable for your business's growth?

And if nothing changed with your prices, could you still happily be doing this work in three years time? So take a moment to really honestly think about those questions because they're actually really, really important. Okay, now we're going to dive into those four key signs that you could be undercharging for your offers in your business. Let's get into it. So sign number one, you're busy, but you're barely profitable. I'll set the scene for you, 6pm.

You've had a full day back to back client calls, your brain is fried, your voice is tired and you still need to reply to messages and prep ahead for tomorrow. And as you shut down your laptop, you're feeling a pang of frustration because when you look at your numbers, the money that you're making doesn't seem to match the effort that you're putting in. That's a really common sign of undercharging.

If there's little or no room for new clients, but you're still not earning the kind of money you feel you should be every month, then you're very likely to be under charging. It's also quite clear that this is happening when a new client books in and it feels more heavy than exciting. That usually means that your pricing relies on volume rather than value, which is never sustainable in healthcare based work. What also might be happening here is over delivering.

on work, on support, without you really even noticing it. For instance, you might say that your package includes X, but in reality, you're also sending that client extra resources, checking in regularly between sessions, and you don't even think about it because...

Those extras are just who you are. A caring healthcare professional who just wants to help. But you know what? All of those little extras will eventually catch up with you.

Okay, sign two that you're undercharging is the price flinch. So when someone inquires about working with you and you send the price, do you then immediately feel the urge to justify that price and how much is included for what they pay? Maybe even jump straight into how flexible you can be and even mention a payment plan before they've even asked. If any of that sounds familiar, it's a strong sign that you might be undercharging.

Because that little instinct to explain, to defend or to soften your price comes from a place of fear

or from assuming what you think the client can afford rather than what your work is actually worth. Here's a really powerful awareness exercise for you to try just to help with this.

The next time someone inquires about working with you and the cost, notice what happens in your body before you reply. Do you feel steady and grounded or do you feel a rush to explain or soften or justify or chuck in a bonus or even offer a discount? Then the next time you're having a conversation with a potential client and the questions around price come up,

Send your price clearly and neutrally without adding in extras or justifications or assumptions. And just get used to that feeling of trusting the value of what you offer.

Okay, the third sign that you might be under charging, your prices are stuck in the past. If you've been business a little while, when was the last time you actually updated your prices? If it's been over two years, it's definitely time to re-evaluate things. Now, for some, raising prices can feel uncomfortable. So the numbers, they stay the same. You might catch yourself thinking,

Well, I can't possibly raise my prices. It's what people have been paying me for years. But you've got to remember your skills, your experience and the results that you deliver are constantly growing and evolving.

What felt right two years ago might massively undervalue the transformation that you provide people today. Not to mention, if you look back six months or a year or even two years, you've probably added so much to what you offer without even realizing it. New resources, extra support, bonus sessions, your CPD, you will have learned more in that time. All of these little things make your work even more valuable.

And that's why it's so important to sit down and just take stock of everything that your clients are actually getting now and compare it to what you were offering when you set your original price. Chances are the value and the scope of your work has grown significantly, but your fees haven't caught up yet. So I'd encourage you to take 10 minutes and just write down what your offer looked like when you first set the price and what it actually includes now and be really specific about that. And then ask yourself,

If I was pricing this offer for the first time today, knowing everything that I now know, would I charge the same?

And then number four, your gut is screaming that something is off because undercharging doesn't just show up in your numbers. It shows up in your body and your energy levels, your gut, your stress levels, your inner voice. They're constantly sending you signals that something isn't right. It might look like that tight feeling in your chest when another client message pops up and you feel instantly drained or demotivated or

The sigh that you let out before a call, even though you genuinely care about the person that you're trying to help. Maybe it's just a low level of irritability that creeps in at the beginning or the end of the day where small things start to feel really overwhelming and you can't quite switch off from work. maybe it's that Sunday night dread that you get before you hit the ground running on Monday mornings.

It might also show up as guilt-laced resentment. You might notice yourself thinking, this is a lot for what I'm being paid, and then immediately feel bad because you've just had that thought. Now those signals, aren't you being ungrateful? They're not you being negative. If you're constantly feeling these signals, it's not just a bad day. It's not just a temporary slump. It's a clear warning that your pricing strategy needs a serious check-in.

Now, one thing I'd really recommend here is doing what I call an energy order every week. So whether you're working one-to-one with clients or running group programs, just pause after each day and check in with yourself and just ask yourself, did I feel energized or did I feel neutral or drained today? Did the price I charge feel fair after delivering that session? And then at the end of the week, just take a look at the pattern. Your energy is a huge signal.

of whether or not you're undercharging, so please do not ignore it.

Okay, let's quickly recap. Undercharging, it doesn't mean you're failing at business, far from it. Most of us go through this. It's often a phase and awareness is the first step out of it. And my hope is that today's episode has just given you that awareness. If this episode has made you feel a bit uncomfortable, then good, that is a good thing because it probably means that something's clicked, something has sparked inside you and you've realized that something has got to change.

Now, while what I've shared today can help you spot the signs of undercharging, it's not always easy to apply it to your unique situation. get that pricing after all is never a one size fits all kind of thing. So I'm more than happy to chat and help you find that sweet spot when it comes to pricing your offers. My DMS are always open for questions. So I genuinely want you to come and ask. love having these conversations and I'm always open to them.

You can find the link to my Instagram handle in the show notes of this podcast episode. Or you know what? Just send me a WhatsApp.

Bye for now.