charging for your psychic gift

[Briar Rose]

There's an excellent Tarot reader near me that charges $100.00 an hour at one place. At another she is $25.00 for 15 minutes.

I got gifted the $100.00 reader by a friend, and what she said came true, and everything was correct.

However, I couldn't afford to pay that! So if I wanted to go back bad enough I would opt of the $25.00.

I guess it depends on the reader's experience or how accurate you are.

I know I got some free readers here on AT (very grateful) and they were so correct about everything!!!!

You could gradually increase over time.

 

[Kenny]

One thing I would also say is think about tax!

I know here we have VAT so if you charge £1.00 per hour would you add 17.5% on top of or would you have already added it into your bill.

The advantage is though that all your decks/books/bags and such can be claimed on business.

 

[Guiding Cauldron]

wow

ty all so much! this has been very interesting to read teh comments on.

All very helpful but especially Kenny ty. I totally forgot about the bloody tax! i know how could i we get taxed on everything lol Also the great tip on writing stuff off for buisnes purposes.

well i think i will get a biusness license just to be safe and legite and do the write offs like you said. i know the tax man will want his share but i will feel comfortable that way. i also like the donation example as a start off to give a chance to all. then perhaps after time start to charge a regular ammount per reading.

honestly thanks for all the help, its been wonderful. bright blessings xx

 

[Kahlie]

The reason this sticks in my head is recently i went to a mind, body , spirit show and most people there i thought were chargeing huge amounts of cash for a reading, or consultation. It just struck me that if these people are truly gifted why charge so much? Sorry if i didnt make myself clear on this front

Probably they charged a lot, because most fairs ask between $75-$100 for a table. Just for a day. One way or another they have to get that out of their Readings. As well as gasoline and other expenses.

I prefer not to stand on some fairs because of that. What they ask for a table is often insane... I do stand on some fairs but they don't ask table fees or at least reasonable one's!

Kahlie

 

[tarotkey]

Regardless if you charge or not, insurance is a must, and to protect yourself further, you should incorporate or become a Limited Liability Corporation. Anytime you provide a service that people come to you for, you are accepting liability. If you are driving to a give a reading and you hit someone you are liable.

If it happens while you are conducting business, then your company is responsible and the business insurance you must carry will cover it. Not being insured, and not being incorporated makes you personaly responsible. Your personal insurance carrier may not cover you if they find out the accident happened while you were conducting business. There goes your house.

It's scary out there. But accidents do happen and people who are the nicest people in the world one day become crazed sue-happy predators the next. Unfortunetly that's the cost of doing business. So when you charge, figure in a percentage to cover such overhead.

 

[thinbuddha]

I suppose i'm a lil miffed because I have a firm belief that if your truly gifted in any of these areas the main effort should be to share and help other people, not make exorbadent amounts of money.

I suppose that Speilberg shouldn't be able to make large amounts of money from his filmmaking because he is "gifted"? Robert Deniro? Barry Bonds? (OK, bad example). All of these people have "gifts"- but they all (yes, even Barry) worked very hard to develop these gifts into something bigger.

To piggyback onto the old saying about teaching people to fish..... you can gift them with a wonderful fishing boat, but you can't gift them the effort they will still have to exert to catch the fish. Somewhere, the "gift" stops being a gift, and it becomes a craft.

We could argue the merits of our society (with people starving while others make millions or even billions). But given the greater structure of our economics, people should be able to make money with their craft- especially it they are particularly gifted in their craft.

-tb

 

[ArwenNightstar]

This may be totally in the wrong spot but I wanted to ask people here what you think is a decent wage to charge if your doing a tarot, oracle, or any other divination method for a reading.

When you speak of a decent wage, you go into the area of "what do I think I need" for me.

Here in Denver there is a set $1 US a minute if you are reading at fairs with other psychics. You can set whatever you like for your price, but you will be hurting yourself if you go over that.

I charge per spread and it averages to about $1.5 US a card.

I think charging for readings is a good thing and is equivalent to a barter system which is how people used to be paid.

Those people could say things like "don't charge" because they were having their base needs met.

 

[shemsu sutekh]

"Professional Tarot" by Christine Jette has an entire chapter on how to "convince" yourself that you're good enough to get paid It's good stuff.

Just remember that you're charging for your time and your skill, and Tarot readers as a whole tend to assume the worst of their abilities. Charge for your time and your skill. You can always give yourself a raise later, but if you do, you'll lose some of your clients. And chances are, those clients were only going to you because you were so cheap. It's better to start out at the price you're comfortable with living at. You avoid the hassle of haggling with people who get used to your discounts.

 

[Grizabella]

I used to cringe at the dollar a minute thing, but then someone said something that made sense to me-----they weren't charging any more than a woman would pay to get a nice set of nails done. Now, that made sense to me for some reason. A tarot reading is a luxury--like a set of nails is a luxury. Or to some a necessity like nails are a necessity----but at any rate, it made sense to me, so now I'm not so averse to that.

I'm thinking of having a booth at the one festival we have here in this small town every year and if I do, I have yet to decide what to charge. The last two years there has been another reader there and she charged something like $40 for a reading but I don't remember how many minutes it was. At any rate, I suppose in order to keep peace between her and me if she's there this year, I'll have to figure out what's in keeping with her rate. Maybe I'll start a new thread about this.

As for charging at all, I don't see anything wrong with charging if you feel you're at the level of proficiency where you can go pro. If you don't want to charge a set hourly rate, then putting out a little jar for tips is a good idea. I think that's something that will even out---there will be those who will or can only pay from little to nothing, but then there are those who will pay very generously over the amount you might expect someone to.

 

[bigcaat]

Regardless if you charge or not, insurance is a must, and to protect yourself further, you should incorporate or become a Limited Liability Corporation. Anytime you provide a service that people come to you for, you are accepting liability. If you are driving to a give a reading and you hit someone you are liable.

If it happens while you are conducting business, then your company is responsible and the business insurance you must carry will cover it. Not being insured, and not being incorporated makes you personaly responsible. Your personal insurance carrier may not cover you if they find out the accident happened while you were conducting business. There goes your house.

It's scary out there. But accidents do happen and people who are the nicest people in the world one day become crazed sue-happy predators the next. Unfortunetly that's the cost of doing business. So when you charge, figure in a percentage to cover such overhead.

Are you talking about insurance for something that might happen to a person while you are reading for them in person? How about if you read only by phone or email?

Caat