I know a lot of people think Astrology as a business is this mystical, creative and inspiring work – helping people understand themselves better, work with their natural cycles, discover their soul purpose or ideal career, explore their money potential, helping them to understand and be more aligned in their relationships and so much more.
And it is amazing – I adore it!
But there is also the less shiny side to astrology as a business and that’s what I am going to share with you today so that you can work out if it is for you – and if so you can set yourself up for success.
Readings take time to prepare for
This is the first and most important thing – readings take time to prepare for especially when you first get started.
This is for a few reasons.
Firstly every chart is different and unique and you are doing your client a disservice if you don’t treat it as such.
Secondly, confidence in your abilities and your intuitive hits takes time to develop so initially you’ll likely over-deliver in preparation to help you feel more confident.
These days, I’ve honed my preparation time down to 1-2 hours per session depending on the type of reading and this is due to having good systems, a high level of confidence in my skills, and having standard reading frameworks.
These frameworks actually help deliver a better client experience as they allow me to take clients on a journey that is structured but still has room for my intuitive insights and for the client to ask their specific questions that allow us to go deeper.
My Level 1 Certification students get access to my Business Chart and Natal Chart Reading Frameworks to help them deliver these types of readings in an effective way.
You need to charge appropriately
So this goes hand in hand with the above – if you need to invest 2 hours on average to prepare for a reading and one hour to deliver it – then you should be charging in line with 3 hours worth of work at a rate that feels energetically good for you.
The worst feeling is when you get a sale and your energy contracts because it is not an equal energetic exchange for you – and by that, I mean that you are charging too little for the time and effort involved. That’s even if you make a sale because if you undercharge you will likely energetically repel sales for the reason above.
I talk about pricing in my FREE Astrology Biz Incubator – you can check it out here.
In the next point, I’ll talk about how we can streamline and automate your preparation time!
Automation & System are your savior
Like any other online business, you will need good marketing and communication systems like scheduling software and automated follow-up sequences.
But what really makes a difference is when you build a reading manual – and by that I mean an astrology bible of your interpretations of planets by house and sign, of the placement of the angles, of the different transits, and of specific astrology placements relevant to your work – for example, I have a whole set of specific money related placements and their meaning, I have a business astrology manual for business rather than birth charts, and for my AstroBranding Readings, I have a specific manual for what different placements mean in relation to branding.
When I first started out I quickly realised that there was a lot of repetition in the preparation of readings and it didn’t make sense to type out the base notes over and over. For example, a lot of clients had a Capricorn AC (or rising) and I could write out the interpretation in my manual but then we would dive deeper and reflect on what (for example) Venus on their AC meant or what their Capricorn AC trine their Mars meant.
Students of my Level 1 Astrology Certification are lucky enough to receive my astrology manual when they certify which they can adapt and add to and make their own! This is a multiple hundred-page document and super useful! In the certification, I also provide training on other tools which can automate some of the analysis and save time without taking away from the client-centric analysis and intuitive insights which are so important to quality astrology readings.
I want to make it really clear here – the point is not giving clients a cut-and-paste reading – the point is speeding up the initial analysis, giving them a set of comprehensive notes to refer to, and giving you more time to focus on the intricacies of their chart like their major aspect patterns and their specific questions!
There are a lot of astrologers – so you need to stand out
I don’t want to be training a heap of stock standard Natal Chart astrologers to hit the market.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that – but there is a lot of competition!
What I am interested in is helping you discover your unique astrology magic and how you can blend it with your existing skills, talents, and experience to provide a truly transformational and unique experience for your clients.
For example – yes people can book in for a Natal Chart reading with me, and in the last 12 months it was my highest booked reading type, but I have also blended my existing experience into custom reading types.
My Business Chart Reading uses my own approach to Business Astrology to inform people about the unique energy of their business – its strengths and weaknesses, core purpose, and money potential.
My AstroBranding readings over at my sister business Pisces Creative Co, combine astrology and brand theory to help you create a soul-aligned brand identity.
Hopefully, you can get a sense of what I am getting at! I talk about this more in my FREE Astrology Biz Incubator – you can sign up here.
People don’t always understand what you can and can’t tell them
Clients often come to me with a lack of understanding of how astrology works and what can and can’t be seen in different types of readings.
Part of the issue is how much can be covered in one session.
I often have people coming to me with questions that combine a number of different styles of readings (for example a Natal and a Year Ahead reading) and it is just too much to cover in one reading and would massively extend out the preparation and delivery time.
So I generally go back to the client, explain that what they have asked for is outside of the scope of what they have booked and then give them some options of what I can cover. I also normally recommended they book a second session to cover the items that are out of scope and many clients will do this.
Another option you have is to offer a custom reading that goes for longer but at an additional charge.
I also find that clients will sometimes ask me to look at things that either can’t effectively be seen in a chart or that ethically I’m not willing to comment on.
So an example is death in the chart. Most astrologers will not comment on what your chart says about your death – I mean who wants to deliver that sort of news and how harmful could it be to a client?
Also, death, if it can be seen at all, is more likely to show up in the chart and transits of your closest loved ones who are left behind, than in your own chart.
You need boundaries
Continuing on from the point about this gets down to having boundaries. If you are going to be an Astrologer then boundaries and ethics are really important.
This means getting clear on what you can and can’t do in reading – and what you will and won’t do in a reading. It’s about what can be seen and what you are willing to comment on.
You also need boundaries around how long your sessions go for as they can easily extend out if you let them.
I cover this and much more in the chart reading course of my Level 1 Astrology Certification.
You need to learn good energetic self-care
One of the best skills I learned in my business was energetic self-care. I am intuitive and an empath and early on in my business I had two bouts of really bad Adrenal Fatigue and I honestly put this down to being too open in my energy field which allowed too many energetic attachments from my thousands of clients which ultimately ended up draining me.
I found that when clients were going through an emotional release, which by the way is beautiful and I encourage it, I would feel like I had been kicked in the chest – like all the energy had been taken out of me – their pain became my pain. I’d feel sad and drained for the rest of the day.
This was not sustainable.
I can remember being at a large conference in Mexico back in 2015 and watching the leader and an EFT practitioner handle really intense emotions with such care. I asked my coach at the time – how do you do this without it draining you? I was confused but also realised this was something that I needed to develop.
I then went on my own spiritual journey, I studied Reiki and I learned energetic protection rituals – I learned to manage my own energy field.
I discovered that I could use these skills prior to a client session so that I could be present, compassionate, and helpful without taking on their pain.
I share these skills in the final course of the Level 1 Certification as it is so important for any sort of coaching or healing practitioner.
You will have blocks and fears
If you are anything like I was, and like my clients, you will have a tonne of limiting beliefs, blocks and fears come up about bringing astrology into your business.
This is totally normal and you are not alone.
I cover this in my FREE Astrology Biz Incubator and help you work through and bust your fears so that you can do this amazing work.
It feels amazing to help people
OK so you might feel that I have shared some of the potential downsides of an astrology business – but to my mind, they are not downsides – but they are things you should be aware of and prepare for so that you can have the most amazing Astrology business!
There is literally nothing I love more than doing a reading with a client and hearing them say things like:
// I feel so much clearer/lighter/focused/excited now
// I understand myself so much better now
// It was incredible how you picked up on ……
// I feel so excited to align my business with the insights from the reading
// You made astrology so simple and easy to understand
// You gave me permission to….
Is the reality behind an astrology business worth it? Hell yes!
