My current fee range starts at $250 CAD or USD (depending on the currency in which you earn your living) for a 50-minute session. On new client calls, I share that my range is between $250 and $350.
Thinking about money in terms of a fee range that relates to our mutual needs and sustainability allows both of us to be considered in the fee-setting process.
You choose whatever is best for your sustainability and you tell me. No explanation requested.
I encourage you to check in with the range of your needs (essential to more resourced) and how well they are met by the finances and other financial resources in your life in order to choose your fee.
We will revisit your choice of fee on a yearly basis.
If you want support for choosing your fee, here is some guidance that can help you connect quickly with how well your needs are or are not covered.
Moon phase guidance for choosing a fee
Moon phase details
These ideas below amplify the concepts above.
They’re not a list of criteria that you must meet, but rather examples of what a person in the particular moon phase of financial resources might be experiencing.
New Moon: I stress about meeting basic* needs & don’t always meet them.
- I have no or limited expendable** income.
- I have debt and it sometimes prohibits me from meeting basic needs.
- I rent or have unstable housing.
- I own/lease a car but am not always able to afford gas or I have limited access to a car.
- I am not employed.
- I qualify for government assistance programs.
Quarter Moon: I have stress about meeting basic* needs, but still regularly meet them.
- I have some debt.
- I am employed part-time or underemployed.
- I own or lease a car but am not always able to afford associated costs.
- I have limited access to healthcare.
- I have limited financial savings.
- I have limited expendable** income.
- I have to actively save in order to take a vacation or time off.
- I have had to take off work for caregiving tasks.
Half Moon: I’m able to meet all my basic* needs
- I may have debt, but can meet basic needs.
- I might have some financial stress about future needs.
- I own my home or rent a higher-end property.
- I own or lease a car.
- I am employed or self-employed.
- I have access to healthcare.
- I might have access to some financial savings.
- I have some expendable** income.
- I can take an annual vacation without financial burden.
Full Moon: I’m comfortably able to meet all my basic* needs and have resources for more.
- I may have some debt but can meet basic needs.
- I own my home or another property.
- I own a car.
- I’m employed or don’t need to work, or work only because I want to.
- I have regular access to healthcare.
- I have financial savings.
- I have investments.
- I have an expendable** income.
- I can always afford to buy new items.
- I can afford to travel for pleasure and take time off for rest/recreation.
*Basic needs includes food, housing, transportation.
**Expendable income might mean you can buy a coffee/tea at a shop, go to the movies, buy new clothes, books, and similar items regularly.
Another way to look at making fee choices
Inspired by the work of Embracing Equity, here is another way of looking at making fee choices:
Your financial resources might be in the new or crescent moon phase if you…
- are supporting dependents
- have medical expenses not covered by insurance
- have immigration-related expenses
- are an elder with limited financial support
- are an unpaid community organizer
- are a returning individual who has been denied work due to incarceration history
- experience discrimination in hiring or pay level
- are descended from enslaved people or an original inhabitant of the land you’re on (in the US they say Native American, in Canada we say First Nations or Indigenous folks)
Your financial resources might be in the half or full moon phase if you…
- regularly travel, engage in recreation activities, or subscribe to arts or sports events
- work part-time or are unemployed by choice
- have access to savings, family money, and resources in times of need
- have a relatively high degree of earning power due to level of education
- have investments, retirement accounts or inherited money
If you choose to continue reading below
Because I’m working for liberation in the world, and thus in my living and working, I’m called to step out from behind the opaqueness that surrounds “professionalism” and into human-to-human transparency.
As far as fees go, that means making visible the world of reciprocity (see The Serviceberry) where what we do affects one another.
In sharing the information below, I’m trusting we all want to live in an ecosystem of both giving and receiving.
Not in equal measure, in a tit-for-tat cycle, but in balance with the whole. I envision a world where where, when every person contributes to the best of their ability, there will be a pool of plenty from which every person can then receive resources based on their needs.
A world where, perhaps most importantly, we can all be clear about our needs without that meaning any person receiving information about our needs believes they have an obligation to fulfil those needs. I think that’s the only way we can make room for everyone to have needs, guilt-free, and for those needs to be received with care.
Please do as I request only if you can do so with the joy of a little child feeding a hungry duck.
Please do not do as I request if there is any taint of fear of punishment if you don’t.
Please do not do as I request to buy my love, that is, hoping that I will love you more if you do.
Please do not do as I request if you will feel guilty if you don’t.
Please do not do as I request if you will feel shameful.
And certainly do not do as I request out of any sense of duty or obligation.
-Marshall Rosenberg, founder of Nonviolent Communication
Relating my fee range to the moon phase model
If I followed the moon phase model more fully, my actual fee range would be from $250-$500.
My fee range starts at $250. If I had a full schedule of client appointments, this would be the quarter-moon fee range that supports me in meeting my most basic needs, the essential cost of “keeping the lights on” so to speak, in my life and business.
The half moon fee would be around $350/session and the full moon fee would be $500/session. But in reality there is no full moon fee to which I would say no.
This range moves through the moon phases representing the amounts of money that will more and more fully resource me.
Being more and more fully resourced on a personal level means access to financial resources for things like time off work; massage, medications, therapist, meditation teacher.
But as I’m sure you know, as a business owner yourself, everything we do in our so-called personal life resources us as entrepreneurs.
On a business level, being more and more fully resourced means: continuing education trainings, membership in an entrepreneurship community, virtual assistant, etc.
I am deeply grateful to the Trauma of Money for informing my approach to setting my fees and to money in general. The inspiration for this material is from The Green Bottle and Embracing Equity as well as the many other practitioners who have adapted and used the Green Bottle material.
If you’re curious, more insight into the finances of an independent practitioner will be linked here once the post is written.
