“Am I Charging Too Much?” (Spoiler: Probably Not)

If you’ve ever stared at your price list and thought, “Is this too much? Or not enough?” you’re in good company.

That moment of hesitation, the pause before you say your rate out loud, the urge to tack on, “but we can work something out,” is familiar to almost every babywearing consultant I know.

We’re heart-centered people doing deeply personal work, and that can make it really hard to talk about money without guilt creeping in.

“Busy” doesn’t mean “sustainable”

Maybe you’ve been booked solid. Weekends, evenings, every spare moment is filled. From the outside, it looks like your business is thriving…but when you sit down to do the math, your hourly rate after expenses barely hits minimum wage.

If your stress is climbing faster than your income, or if saying your prices makes you want to shrink a little, it might be time for a pricing check-in.

What does it really cost to do what you do?

Far too many of us have never added up our actual expenses: childcare, travel, insurance, materials. We just pick numbers that “feel right.”

And if you burn out and have to go into a different line of work to make ends meet, the families in your community lose out on all you have to offer - and your cumulative experience.

Before setting prices, it’s worth sitting down and getting honest about three things:

1. What does it cost you to run your business each month?
2. What income do you need to live and save without panic?
3. How do, or will, your services and pricing structure add up to that total?

This is how you keep doing the work you love long-term.

Accessible doesn’t mean underpaid

We all believe in this work and passionately want every baby to be carried, and carried well. And sometimes, that passion leads us to underpay ourselves in the name of accessibility.

That might look like a short babywearing clinic, a community walk, or a pay-what-you-can group session through a local nonprofit…something that makes your work accessible without undervaluing it.

Paid work and free work both have a place. But that’s only sustainable with structure and intentionality.

Confidence grows with practice

Many of us rush through our pricing, almost apologizing as we say it.

A ripple effect for the whole field

When one consultant stands in her worth, it makes it easier for the next one to do the same.

Inside the CARRY-ON COLLECTIVE, this is the kind of honest, behind-the-scenes conversation we’re having every day.

✨ This story came from Episode 13 of our private podcast, “The Business of Babywearing,” available exclusively to members of the CARRY-ON COLLECTIVE.