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- [00:07]
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Welcome to the Doula Darcy Podcast. I'm your host, Darci, a business coach for Doulas, and I love helping my fellow doulas master the art of marketing so that they can grow their businesses and help more families. On the podcast, I combine my decade of experience in Advertising with 14 years as a doula to empower other doulas with the marketing strategies and mindset shift gifts they need to attract more clients and create successful, fulfilling doula careers. Whether you're just starting out as a doula or you're looking to take your doula business to the next level, you're in the right place. Let's go.
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Hello everybody. I want to give a shout out on this episode to all the agency owners, doula agency owners, and all the doulas who are working for agencies. And I want to just cut to the chase and say, stop complaining about the percentage that a doula agency takes from the rate that you're paid. I see this complaint all the time coming up in the doula groups on Facebook and I just want to educate you on why the agency takes a cut and why they take, you know, a significant cut. Now, I will say I do see some posts about agencies that are taking like 45 or 50%. That's a little ridiculous. I'm talking about the standard 25 to 30% that doula agencies take. And what inspired this for me is that the other day in our agency owner office hours so every other month in my doula village, we have one office hour session specifically for agency owners. And in the last one I was really marveling at how amazing all these agency owners are, and we were having some conversations about tough situations that they were handling. But one thing that comes up in almost every session is that they all aspire to. They're all really inspired and really passionate about paying their doulas. Well, I will say that none of the agency owners in my doula village are out to screw and I would probably nationwide, worldwide. They're not out to screw doulas. They're not out to gouge clients or gouge doulas. Everybody's heart is in the right place and can we all just come to everything from that perspective? So anyway, during our conversation on our agency owner office hours, a couple of the doulas were dealing with some really hard situations. And and first of all, it's really nice to have this space to come and throw these situations out and talk it through with me and a bunch of other doula agency owners from across the US And Canada this is a really powerful place. And I just. They all were so inspiring the way they were trying to. So some were having an issue with a client that just was not accepting boundaries that had been put in place. And then another was dealing with an independent contractor who was not showing up on time and not following through and just making things hard. I don't want to say too, too much, but just making things hard for the client, making things hard for the agency owner. And in all situations, these agency owners are trying to find the best sellers solution. And so that's one of the reasons that an agency owner takes part of the, let's just say the commission. The other thing is in the world we live in, we all have a choice. Once you turn 18, you can go get a job or you can go be an entrepreneur. And both have benefits, both have cons. So going to get a job is great because all you have to do is show up and do a pretty good level of work and you're going to get paid. But as you go out to be an entrepreneur, you've got to do so much work you've got to do. There's a lot of risk to starting your own business. There's a lot of freedom too, which is great. But no guaranteed you're going to get paid even if you do excellent work. So it's the same with working for an agency. When you as a doula, go work for a doula agency, you have the privilege of just getting to show up and be a doula. You just get to go do the fun part of the job. You just have to get the client's address or be on. I mean, yes, you have to be on call, like all that stuff, but you don't have to handle any of the contracting, the negotiations, the interviewing. You don't have to be working to provide the background checks and referrals and what am I trying to say? References. You don't have to deal with getting the references for the clients. You just show up and do the work. So that gap right there, that is why the agency takes part of the fee. They are handling all that aspect and the invoicing and the costs of what the softwares you're using to keep track of clients, you know, customer relationship management softwares, invoicing softwares, honeybook, all the stuff that agencies pay for. And again, as the independent contractor, you're earning a portion of the fee for your work and the agency's owner and the agency is earning the other portion of that fee. And I think that is Totally valid. And I just think more doulas need to understand that you, it's like you, you do, you have a job, you get to just show up, perform well, and you will get paid with none of the risk, none of the overhead, none of the, I won't say none of that, but like way less stress. So that is the little rant I wanted to go on to help doulas understand why agencies take a percentage. So the other thing I wanted to talk about on the podcast that came up in this agency owner office hours is we were just talking through, you know, some of these owner agency owners were up against some hard situations and in for both of them, I said, listen, you have to go have some hard conversations either with the client or either with the independent contractor. But a short, hard conversation now is going to benefit you and your business and your future clients in the long term. So let's just give a base example. If you have an independent contractor who's horrible, who is always late lying to the client, not doing a good job, I don't know, lying about their credentials, or just, you know, just a bad doula, you have to make the hard decision to fire her and let her go and then deal with trying to handle your commitment to the client and find backup or go in yourself and do whatever you need to do to fulfill your contract with the client. And yes, that stinks. And yes, that's hard, but, but it's not as bad as trying to be nice and continuing to let this bad doula work for you and run your business into the ground that you're not going to help anyone if she gets you so many bad reviews that you have to close up shop. So same with, you know, there's so many examples, and this goes for even non agency owners, like when you're having issues with a client, that's just not honoring the boundaries that you laid out in your contract or is just being really difficult. And you know, there's a balance between like the customer's always right and providing a service to the client that, that they require, but also just sticking up for yourself and doing what you need to do. And so sometimes you do have to have a hard conversation with a client and again, having a hard conversation with a client early on, or maybe this is in the interview, you're getting some red flags and you have to be like, oh no, we're not able to work with you. That tricky conversation might save you six months of a horrible working relationship. I will just say that, I was going to say you know, agency owners have, they're, they're managing a lot and they deserve to be compensated for that. And, but this little scenario goes for all doulas as well. If you're a newer doula, working for an agency is such a great place to start because like I said, you get to just show up and do the work, get some experience under your belt, get some, build some confidence, just really get out there and do some doula work without having to worry about the marketing, the contracting, the invoicing, like all that stuff. And then if you want, and then if you want to just do that forever, great. Or if you want to eventually start out on your own after you've built up your confidence, after, you know, maybe you work for an agency while you're making your website and while you're getting your name out there on your own, it's a great option, so don't overlook that. And then to wrap up, I just want to say bring this back to getting a regular job versus starting your own doula business or starting your own doula agency. It's tough, but to start your own business. But I think obviously the benefits far outweigh the risks you have to take, the fear you have to overcome, the inner work you have to do to become a successful entrepreneur versus the safety of having a job, a regular job, a regular paycheck. But maybe, maybe, but definitely a lot less freedom over your time and or even just what you're doing for work. I always give the example of an accounting job in a cubicle versus getting to go out and be a doula and going to a birth or helping a new mom in the their home. Like that is way more fun than sitting in a cubicle and ask me how I know. I sat in a cubicle for 10 years before having my kids and becoming a doula. So all this to say is I see you all out there working so hard and I just want to shout you out, cheer you on, encourage you to keep going, encourage you to have the hard conversations now that will maybe save you a lot of time, energy and money down the road. And if you are an agency owner and are looking for this kind of support, this kind of camaraderie, this kind of guidance and inner circle of other doula agency owners. Like, come join my doula village. I can't tell you how awesome the every single agency owner office hours session that we have is, but this one we just had in particular, you know, everybody at by the end of the call was like, oh my gosh, you guys, thank you so much. I'm feeling so much better about this. Talking it out with people who get it is powerful. Just like a new mom. Just like anything else you need, you need and I talk about this all the time, but you need an inner circle of contacts who are working at the job that you are having. And that's what I think is the one of the hardest parts about being a doula, is that what you're doing? We don't have co workers, you know. Yes. When you have a cubicle job, you have all your buddies in the cubicles around you. You have people to commiserate with, you have people to ask questions about to. You have people to just have, you know, chitchat with. As doulas, we don't really get that unless we make it for ourselves in our own communities. Like having, you know, when I, 15 years ago was just starting out as a doula, we all met for just a bunch of doulas in town. We just met for coffee once a month and it was so nice to just chit chat. But this is why I created my doula village. It's a chance to on zoom connect with doulas from all over. And side note, you can join if you're not an agency owner as well. We have two other office hours sessions every single month for non agency owners. So I just think it's so important and so valuable and, and I think this is also on my mind because tomorrow I am heading to Maine to kick off our May main Doula retreat for 10 my Doula villagers. And it's always actually on this office hour session somebody was asking me like can you just tell us what the main retreat is like? And I said it's just the best. It's like office hours on steroids because were 10 doulas living in a house together for three days. And it's just magic. And we don't have to cook and we don't have to grocery shop and we don't have to clean and we don't have to take care of any kids and we don't have to take care of any clients. And so then it feels like we have an extra six hours every single day for ourselves and we're looking at the ocean and we're taking walks and we're working on our business and doing all the things. But, but it's just so, it's really. People always say that some of their favorite parts about the main retreat are like the side conversations in the kitchen at breakfast or late at night on the couch or you know taking a walk on the rocks. So I hope you all have a doula bestie and if you don't start looking start reaching out in your community inviting people for coffee. Just invite them all. Like let's all just get together and chat. It really makes it so much better.
- [15:14]
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Thank you for tuning in to the Doula Darcy podcast. I hope you found this episode valuable and I'd love for you to join me on the next one. Let's keep the conversation going. Shoot me a DM on Instagram thedula Darcy or join my free Facebook community community the Doula Marketing Group where we dive deeper into growing your doula business. If you enjoyed the episode, please take a moment to rate and review the podcast on your favorite platform. Your feedback will help more doulas discover the show which in turn helps more families find the doula support that they need and I believe that that is how we save the world.