Why You Need to Charge More Than You're Comfortable With

Jun 16

The Four Seasons Math

My wife, Amy had not even finished her certification when she got a job at the Four Seasons.

She was still a student. A hundred hours into whatever the requirement was back then, and the hotel brought her on as a massage therapist.

This was the first modality of her somatic healing practice.

Before she started her business that would eventually change our lives and before it nearly end our marriage.

Before I learned how to help her by taking business, marketing and entrepreneurship classes and reading every book I could get my hands on.

This was just Amy, still in school, watching and listening.

She talked to the other therapists at the hotel. She asked about their work. Their training. How much they made as full-time employees. And she compared what they earned to what the hotel charged the clients for those same sessions.

The math did not add up. The hotel was billing clients a premium rate. The clients were getting, by Amy's assessment, mediocre work. The therapists were taking home a fraction of it.

So when she graduated, she set her rate at $150 an hour.

That number was three times what her instructor charged. Her instructor had years, maybe a decade, more experience. Her instructor had the credentials and the reputation and the established client base.

Amy had none of that.

But $150 an hour was also about 25 percent of what those same clients had been paying at the Four Seasons for sessions that, in Amy's opinion, were not very good.

She was not competing with her instructor. She was competing with the hotel.

And she was charging a quarter of their price for work she knew was better.

That was the first time I saw what happens when you charge more than you are comfortable with.

The Resentment Nobody Talks About

Most martial arts gym owners charge too little.

They do it for noble reasons.

They want the art to be accessible.

They remember being a broke student themselves.

They do not want money to be the reason someone cannot train.

And then a strange thing happens. Slowly. Over time. They start resenting their own students.

The student who complains about the mat condition. The student who asks for a discount on an already low rate. The student who shows up late, trains halfheartedly, and treats the gym like a drop-in center.

Every interaction starts to feel like a loss.

The owner cannot name what is happening.

They just know that something feels off. They are tired. They are frustrated.

They are working harder than ever and the numbers are not moving.

Here is what is happening: every sale feels like a loss because the exchange of value is out of balance.

The student is getting world-class instruction. A clean facility. A community. A place to belong. Physical and mental transformation.

The owner is getting $99 a month and a slow burn of resentment that they cannot explain.

This is not the student's fault. The student did not set the price. The owner did. And the owner set it too low.

When you charge too little, you rob yourself of the ability to feel good about the transaction.

Every month that membership payment hits and you think,

"They are getting way more than they are paying for."

That thought, repeated across a hundred students, becomes resentment.

Resentment becomes burnout.

Burnout becomes a gym that closes or, worse, a gym that stays open and feels dead inside.

Charge more and something shifts.

You look at your students differently.

You feel grateful for them because the exchange feels fair. You go out of your way to keep them.

You reinvest in the experience because you have the resources to do it.

The price you set does not just affect your bank account. It affects your relationship with every person who walks through your door.

What People Actually Pay For

Here is what I learned from the marketing classes I was taking while helping Amy build her business.

People do not pay based on what something costs you to provide.

They pay based on a handful of things that have almost nothing to do with your overhead:

How they value themselves
How much value they perceive they are receiving
Who you are focused on serving
Whether you are solving a specific issue they face
Whether you are making their life easier, better, and happier

Notice what is not on that list:

Your rent
Your belt rank
How many hours you spend on curriculum
How hard you worked to earn your black belt

None of that sets your price. The market sets your price based on perceived value.

Amy understood this before she ever hung her shingle. She was not selling massage. She was selling what the Four Seasons sold: a premium experience that makes you feel taken care of. She just charged less than the hotel and delivered more.

Your gym is not selling martial arts classes.

Your gym is selling confidence to people who have never felt strong.

Community to people who have never belonged anywhere.

Discipline to people whose lives feel chaotic.

Peace of mind to parents who want their kids to grow up with grit.

That is worth more than $99 a month.

The Professor With Broken Equipment

I know a professor. BJJ Sixth dan. Decades of training.

A small dojo with equipment that has been held together by tape and hope for as long as anyone can remember.

The mats are thin. The equipment is older than most of his students. The space is cramped and there is never quite enough room when class is full.

He is a phenomenal martial artist. He is also stuck. He cannot raise his rates because he is terrified of losing the students he has.

And because he cannot raise his rates, he cannot replace the mats.

He cannot buy new equipment.

He cannot expand into a bigger space.

He cannot afford to bring in other instructors or host seminars or do any of the things that would make his gym better.

So the mats stay thin. The bag stays old. The space stays cramped.

And his students, the ones who do stay, eventually leave for gyms with better facilities. Not because the instruction is better.

Because the room feels like the owner has given up.

He has not given up. He just never gave himself permission to charge what he is worth.

You cannot provide premium value on a discount budget.

The math does not work. If you charge cut-rate prices, you get cut-rate resources.

Cut-rate resources mean a cut-rate experience.

And that experience drives away the exact students you are trying to keep.

What Happens When You Charge More

Here is what actually changes when you raise your rates beyond what feels comfortable.

You become more grateful for your customers. When someone is paying you a fair price, you want to earn it. You show up sharper. You prepare more. You follow up. You remember their name. You notice when they miss a class. The exchange feels honest and you rise to meet it.

You reinvest in the business. With the added revenue, you take classes to know more. You buy better equipment. You upgrade your mats. You use services that provide additional value for your students: email service providers, nutrition programs, supplements, hosting outside experts for seminars. Every dollar that comes in above survival becomes a dollar that makes the gym better for everyone.

You attract a different kind of student. This is the part I still cannot fully explain, but I have seen it play out in too many industries to deny it.

People who pay less complain more. People who pay more do more work, need less help, and get better results.

The student who negotiated a discount is the student who shows up late. The student who pays your full rate without blinking is the student who takes notes. The discount student emails you at 11 p.m. about the mat schedule. The full-rate student asks how they can help clean up after class.

I do not know why this happens. Maybe paying more makes people take themselves more seriously. Maybe it filters for people who are ready to commit. Maybe there is some deep psychology around self-worth and investment that I am not smart enough to unpack. But the pattern holds.

And here is the bonus: even when you do get a difficult client, the added income gives you more resources to handle them. You can afford to spend extra time. You can afford to go above and beyond. The math works in your favor either way.

The Position You Take in the Market

There is one more thing that happens when you charge more than your competition.

You stop being compared to them.

When your rate is in the same range as every other gym in town, prospects compare you on features. Schedule. Location. How nice the locker room is. Whether you have parking. They treat you like a commodity because your price told them you were one.

When your rate is higher, the conversation changes. The prospect stops asking "which gym is cheapest" and starts asking "what makes this gym different."

A higher price is a signal.

It says: we take this seriously. We believe in what we do. We are not for everyone.

That last part matters. The goal is not to convert every person who walks through the door. The goal is to convert the right people. The people who will stay. The people who will bring their friends. The people who will become the culture.

When you charge more, the wrong people self-select out. They see the price and move on. That is a feature, not a bug. The people who stay are the ones who value what you do. They are easier to serve. They get better results. They stay longer.

How to Do It

Start with one number. The number you are comfortable charging. Write it down.

Now look at it.

That number is too low. Not because you are not worth it. Because you have been taught that martial arts should be cheap. That making money from your art is somehow impure. That if you really cared about your students, you would charge as little as possible.

That thinking is a trap. It keeps you broke. It keeps your equipment broken. It keeps your gym small. And it keeps you from reaching the students who actually need what you have.

Now set a new number. One that makes you a little uncomfortable. One that makes you think, "I do not know if anyone will pay this."

That is your number. Charge that.

Here is what you do with the margin:

Replace your mats. Your students' knees will thank you.
Take a course. Learn something that makes your instruction better.
Buy software that helps you communicate with your students between classes.
Host a seminar. Bring in outside expertise.
Hire an assistant instructor so you are not doing everything yourself.
Put money aside so you are not one slow month away from panic.

Do those things and your gym gets better. Your gym gets better and your students get more value. Your students get more value and they tell their friends. Their friends join and pay your new rate. The flywheel turns.

Charging more than you are comfortable with is not greedy. It is generous.

It is generous because it lets you build a gym worth training at.

It is generous because it lets you show up as your best self instead of a resentful, burnt-out version of who you used to be.

It is generous because it lets you serve your students for years instead of shutting down in year three because the numbers stopped working.

The professor with the broken equipment is not helping anyone by staying cheap. He is just slowly going out of business while his students train on mats that hurt their backs.

Back then Amy set her rate at $150 an hour before she had a single client. She was uncomfortable. She was nervous. She did it anyway. And that number gave her the resources to build a practice that changed lives.

Years later, with a full roster of happy satisfied clients and a waiting list, she charges $500/hour.

Your number is higher than you think.

Charge it.

Charles Doublet