88 I How to Price Your Myofunctional Therapy Services Without Undercharging

Are you undercharging for your myofunctional therapy services without even realizing it?

Hi friend,

If you've ever priced your services by comparing them to an hourly hygiene wage, this episode is for you. Most of us grossly underestimate what it actually costs to run a business, and we undervalue what we bring to the table. Nobody sits dentists or chiropractors down and tells them what they can and cannot charge, and nobody is doing that to you either.

In this episode, I walk you through the real reasons you might be undercharging: not accounting for self-employment tax, business overhead, and your own benefits and retirement, not knowing your true "nut" (what you actually need to bring home), and carrying a belief that keeps you from setting prices that reflect your value. I also share why your customer will always mirror what you believe about your own prices, and how to build the kind of practice you actually want instead of the one you think you're allowed to have.

This one's for the myofunctional therapist who is tired of doing the math backward, starting from what she thinks people will pay instead of forward from what her business actually needs.

Grab your ☕coffee and your courage — and let's dive in!

Xo,
💙 Carmen

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Transcript

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Welcome And Pricing Promise

SPEAKER_00 2:13

We grossly underestimate the cost of running a business. Okay? Also, um the value that you bring. So we tend to undervalue what it is that we do. If you're a burned out, bored dental hygienist who knows that you can't do this forever, or you've already taken myofunctional therapy training but feel stuck on how to actually start, grow, or simplify your business, welcome my friend. You're in the right place. I'm Carmen, a dental hygienist who once sat exactly where you are. This podcast is for women who don't want more information. They want transformation. They want clarity, consistent clients, predictable income without building a business that takes over their life. They also want support while they do it. So if you're ready to stop spinning, start moving, and finally make sense of what comes next, grab your coffee and your courage, my friend. Let's build a business that works for your life, not one that runs it, so that you can build a life that you're genuinely bonkers about. Because that's my superpower. Well, hello, friend. Welcome to the episode. It's gonna be a good one because we are talking undercharging and how to price your services without undercharging. So I like to tell you guys why I decided on this topic, or you know, kind of what brought it about. And the big why behind this one is that so many women, probably myself included, when I started, um we grossly underestimate the cost of running

Why We Underestimate Business Costs

SPEAKER_00 4:18

a business. Okay. Also, um the value that you bring. So we tend to undervalue what it is that we do. And obviously, if you've never run a business, then you have no idea. I didn't when I started. So by the end of this episode, I am going to be giving you permission to price your services so that you can make an honest living. And the reason that I always bring this up is because, like, think about the dentists or even chiropractors. My mind always goes to them because there's 10 of them, 20 of them in your town. I mean, they're on every corner. So, do you think that when they open their business that somebody tells them what they can and can't charge? No, they probably have to figure out what they need to earn to be able to make a living before they can, you know, sell their services. And so that is a biz uh biggie. So the first thing that I want to start with is that nobody teaches you really the brass tacks about pricing. So depending on your clinical training program, some of them don't even include any business. So I completely get that. When a lot of you guys take your training somewhere else and then you come to me for the business training, you have none. And I get that. Um, there are some programs that just kind of touch on it. So in my program, in the training program that I took, uh, was a 12-week training program. And she just kind of taught like it's not just the therapy side, you know, the the 30 minutes that you're doing therapy, it also you have to prepare, you have to send a report, you have to send whatever. So she taught us to basically double it. If you're giving, uh if you're doing a 30-minute session of therapy, then you would figure out an hour of your time, okay? And so a lot of you guys are pricing your services based on what you need to earn in hygiene. One of my own students just recently said, oh my gosh, this is so much more than I earn in hygiene. You know, but she was comparing hour to hour. So a lot of them will tell you that. But what they are not helping you understand is what you need to run a business. So the first thing I want to say is 100% of every dollar that you earn is not yours. And I might be talking to you because you might be in trouble. Okay. You or you might already have been in trouble. And what I mean by that is when it comes time to write Uncle Sam a check and he says, Hey, you owe me $20,000, like has happened to me, and you don't have it because you haven't saved for it. Now I was in a different situation because I run my business by the profit first system. It's what I teach. Every single one of my students reads the book and they open the checking accounts. Um, so I was prepared. Okay. Writing those big checks to Uncle Sam doesn't bother me because I have saved for it. So every dollar that you earn has to go to paying you. It has to pay your business expenses, it has to pay your taxes. And also, if you're following the profit first system, and then there's a small portion that we call profit. So, like my company, because we don't have any debt, I get a quarterly bonus. If you do have debt, then that small percentage goes to helping you pay off your debt. It's like 5%. I mean, you can set it at what you want. Um, but you set up these allocations based on percentages. So the whole thought process is like you have your income account, which is like your Thanksgiving serving platter. Okay, so all the money goes there.

Profit First And Tax Reality

SPEAKER_00 8:23

And then before you have a chance to do anything about it, you get paid, you save money for overhead expenses, you save money for taxes. So that is, I think, probably the downside, the bad thing number one coming out of a lot of training programs. So if you're undercharging or you're charging low prices just to get business, you might end up with a huge double whammy at the end of the year because not only have you not earned an honest living, but now you might have a big tax bill. Okay. And I ask me how I know this, because a lot of you guys who I'm coaching and teaching, you're paying the IRS on a payment plan. Okay. Next, you can't compare to an hour of hygiene. Okay. Again, business overhead, um, paying your own benefits in retirement. Okay. So if I was setting my prices close to hygiene, and I'm not taking into consideration my overhead, my lighting, my equipment, my computer, all of that stuff, but my benefits, okay. Nobody pays my health insurance but moi. Nobody pays my retirement but this girl, okay. If I want to take a vacation, I'm not getting paid. So I have to cover my benefits. I cover my insurance, my life insurance, you know, that kind of stuff. But also self-employment tax. So a lot of you guys don't know this, and I just pulled it up. Um, self-employed. So when you work a W-2 job, your boss pays part of your uh employment tax and you pay the other part. So self-employment tax rate is 15.3%. Um, if you work for a boss, he they pay 7.65% of that. So essentially half of it. So when you are self-employed, you pay your own taxes. I gotta earn more money to pay my taxes. Okay, 12.4% of that goes for Social Security, 2.9% for Medicare. And then when you work for somebody, they um will withhold 6.2% for Social Security, 1.45 for Medicare. So the biggest thing there is when you're setting your prices, you have to take into consideration that nobody goes into business just to break even. Like, you know, I talked about the chiropractor in the dental office. They want to make a living. And nobody

Know Your Monthly Nut

SPEAKER_00 12:13

is saying that they have to just scrape by. Okay. The third thing that will keep you from undercharging is knowing what your nut is. Okay. What do you have to have? I've talked about this time and time again. Everybody is going to be different. So when I have somebody ask me, what do you think about my prices? I will ask them, like, what do you have to earn? You're somebody who only needs to bring home $3,000 a month is going to be different than my company that needs to bring home $11,000 or $12,000 a month. And that's not just my business expenses per se, like internet and computer costs and that kind of stuff. But that nut includes paying my taxes, funding my retirement, um, making sure I have PTO, you know, time to be off without getting paid. That needs to be covered. And that is the nice thing about how I teach finance in the Profitable Milefunctional Therapist is if you do it and you follow it, you have all that figured out. Okay. So that's why it sounds like I might technically only need to earn, like if I sat and wrote down what I needed bill-wise, okay, which is what I recommend you do. I might have listed it all out and it might only be $10,000. But if you look on my um my profitable practice spreadsheet, it might say that I might that I need to earn $11,280. That is taken into consideration. My self-employment tax, tax withholding, my retirement, that kind of stuff. So I love it. I love that that type of finance system because it's a no-brainer. So you're saving for your expenses out of every dollar makes a big difference. So you won't undercharge. If I have to charge $5,000 a year to meet my bottom line, then it does not make me make any sense for me to charge $4,000 a year. So that's how everybody's pricing is going to be different because of that. And we're going to talk about money mindset. Oh, next. Next. Do the mindset work to believe in your prices. So, and then I'm going to just throw the fifth one here so we can talk about mindset altogether. The fifth thing on this list to keep you from undercharging is keep in mind what kind of practice you want to build. So, Dr. Bienemann was my first big mentor in myofunctional therapy. And I still remember the day standing in his office when he said, Carmen, this is beautiful. You're just starting out, and you get to build the type of practice that you want. Meaning, like, so if you think about it from the dentals, the dentist standpoint, I don't care who you are, you cannot argue with me on this one. Somebody who is building a, I'll say a Medicaid practice, low price, or or like maybe even a corporate type of practice where you can get a cleaning for $29. I'm sorry that they're not even breaking even on that. Okay. So a very insurance-driven, um, high volume office versus a cosmetic premium fee for service office where you work with less people and the people that you work with are higher quality. So that he really instilled that. He told me that, and it just really instilled the belief in me that I always like to use the example about a great pair of jeans, okay, that that just make your butt look fantastic. Y'all know what I'm talking about. You're not gonna find that on the end cap at Walmart. Call me crazy, but you're not. But maybe you might at Bloomingdale's. Okay, that's my own personal example. But the Walmart jeans, 25 bucks. Okay. The Bloomingdale jeans that I fell in love with that did everything and nipped and tucked and did all the right stuff, 150. So that's what I mean by that. So when we talk about mindset and building the type, like what type of practice that you want to build, one thing, belief is a big thing. So a lot of you guys, I coach you on the unstuck calls, I coach you in my own programs. You are scared to set your prices at what you need because of what somebody else is gonna say to you, what somebody else is gonna tell you you can't charge, what somebody else is gonna tell you the going rate is. Who cares? There is no mayor of my own town, and that human has no idea what your nut is. They

Build Premium Practice Belief

SPEAKER_00 17:33

have no idea how many hours that you have to offer clients. Okay. If you have 10 hours a week to work with clients versus somebody who has 20, their pricing is going to be different. And it's also none of their business, really. But the other thing is, is what is their money mindset? What is their belief? Do you want a premium practice? Do you want to work with one $5,000 client or do you want to work with five $1,000 clients? Because let me tell you, those five $1,000 clients are a pain in the butt. They're going to drain you. You're going to put more effort into them. They just bite, that's just the nature of the beast. That's how it works. But you take somebody else who values, who sees the value in what you're bringing to the table, they pay, they're not late, they're not asking for discounts. They're just like, okay, here's my money. When can we start? That's your easy peasy dream customer. And it's going to help you not, if you have the mindset, it's going to help you not undercharge for your services. And so a lot of you guys do need to start there. Your customer is going to mirror your belief and your prices. Okay. I have no problem telling you that my done for you program is $13,000. No problem. Does everybody want it? Nope. Does everybody see the value in it? Nope. But I had seven people in one month last year that saw the value in it. Okay. Okay. Um, when I raised my prices to $5,000 a year. Can everybody afford that? No, it helps weed out the ideal right customer for you. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt when somebody is right for me because it's not about price. It's not. Okay. All right. So I think that is helpful. Okay. What I tell you to do is sit with your prices. Why did you choose that? Why did you create a program with that price? Okay. Um, I talked recently about a student of mine. We were coaching and she had a year program for a kid. She had a six-month program for a kid. And then when I asked her clinically, do you feel like you can make a difference for a kid in six months? And she said no. And then I asked her, so why are you setting up a six-month program? Because it was easier for her to say that price rather than the bigger price. And I saw right through it. I knew it. And I told her, you have to work on that because you are a mirror to your client. And if you do not believe in the prices, if you do not believe that somebody will pay you for your service, they won't. Okay. They're going to feel that. So, friend, I hope that is helpful when it comes to prices. There is, um, when you're setting up a business, it is not just the price. Okay. You've got overhead, you've got self-employment tax, you've got taxes, you know, on your earnings, you've got maybe a new computer to buy, you have expenses. Think about the chiropractor in your town, think about the dentist. Nobody's telling them. Sure, they have software or they have consultants that tell them what the going rate in the area is and kind of where they fall with their prices, but ultimately nobody is telling them. Nobody is telling them, and nobody is telling you. And the odds are that you are undercharging, okay? Especially if you're comparing everything to an hourly wage. If you're used to making $50 an hour in dental hygiene and now you're doing Mayo and you're thinking, oh my gosh, this is going to be $60 or $70 an hour. That is not all of yours. Um, I had another student who wanted to set her prices at $45 a session. What? No way. I said, girlfriend, you if you're following the profit first system, you might get $20 out of that. Maybe $25. No, thank you. Okay. So don't turn it into an hourly wage thing. Uh, and I would venture to guess out of anything that I have said to you, the mindset piece is where you need to do work. Okay. Because your money story, what somebody else's telling you about their money story, could take you to the bottom. Okay, so do the work. My friend, that's it. What do I want you to do with this information? Uh, I want you to check your prices. Okay. If you're listening here and you are not stuck and you are rocking and rolling, check your prices. You probably need to raise them. Um, if you're not earning what you want to be and you want to help have help figuring that out, I encourage you to join the Trained But Stuck Bootcamp. If you are listening to actually, I lied. You can't. Boot camp is over, but the cart is still open. So if you are listening to this uh IRL, the boot camp or the cart is still open for the Profitable Myofunctional Therapist. Get in that program because you are going to do all of the things. We're going to set prices. You're going

Fix Your Packages And Prices

SPEAKER_00 23:03

like it's all the things. Okay. All the things, all the help you need. And uh, and also you're going to get some belief work and some mindset work. So that uh is a rep. Now, if you aren't trained yet, you can't get into the PMT, but you can get into Learn Myofunctional Therapy in 60 days. That's your clinical training, and then you will have that done, and then you will be ready to go into the next cohort of the profitable myofunctional therapists. So that is a rep, my friend. If you listened all the way to the end of this, you're still struggling with your prices. Okay. So join me inside the profitable myofunctional therapist. Um, go look at your prices, look at your mindset. I will be back soon and we will keep talking about starting, growing, simplifying, and AIing, your myofunctional therapy business. I hope you loved today's episode, friend. I pray that it lifted you up, motivated you, and taught you something. If so, would you stop right now and go to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review? And lastly, make sure you've joined the profitable myofunctional therapist Facebook community. Links to all the goodies can be found wherever you're listening to this podcast. That's it for now. Cheering you on, my friend, and we'll chat soon.