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Small Business Tip: Your Self Esteem Determines Your Profits

Written by: Ingrid Cliff

Article Overview: Money is the last great taboo in society. These days you can ask someone their political views and you will generally get an answer. You can ask someone their religious affiliation and they will tell you. You can even ask them their favourite sexual position and most people will giggle and then come up with an answer. But ... ask them what their credit card debt is or how much they earnt last year and you will get embarrassed mumblings or silence.

Small Business Tip: Your Self Esteem Determines Your Profits

Money is the last great taboo in society.

These days you can ask someone their political views and you will generally get an answer. You can ask someone their religious affiliation and they will tell you. You can even ask them their favourite sexual position and most people will giggle and then come up with an answer. But ... ask them what their credit card debt is or how much they earnt last year and you will get embarrassed mumblings or silence.

We are happier to talk about anything else – except money! How weird is that in a society of such openness?

So while we are talking about money and taboos – here is another one. Your earning potential as a mompreneur is directly related to your self esteem. You will only earn to the level of your personal confidence level.

To give you some examples – a wonderful and highly skilled person I know helps small businesses plan for their business. She is an accomplished author and has decades of experience in growing small businesses. Recently she helped one person write a strategic plan for their business – she spent a few hours talking their plan through with them and wrote up the end plan for them. She only charged her client about $250 for the work. Her client was ecstatic about the results.

The same day I heard about this person, I had lunch with a much less skilled consultant. He is big on talk and small on technical skill. He facilitates strategic planning workshops for small businesses. The only difference is he stands up in front of a group of 2-3 people to help them create their plan and he does not write it up for them at the end – he leaves that for the client to do. His fee - $9000. His clients are ecstatic about the results.

What is the difference? Is one person truly worth over $8500 more than the other person? Is one product truly $8500 better than the other? If you put the two plans together will you see any differences?

The answer is no – the only real difference is one person believes they are worth $1167 per hour and the other believes they are worth $40 per hour. That is what they are paid.

I see this a lot with freelance writers and designers. Their fee schedule will often vary depending on their emotional state. If they are feeling strong and confident they will charge one set of fees and if they have had a knock-back then they will charge another set of fees.

If someone asks the question “is that really the fee – can’t you do any better than that” they will automatically give a discount or reduce their fees.

If I had to make a blanket statement it would be that most small businesses undercharge rather than overcharge their clients. We get caught up with the idea that we MUST make this sale at all costs, and settle for much less as a result.

So here are my top 10 tips to help turn this around for your business if you are in an industry where you can set your own fees.
1. Write down your schedule of fees. Now add at least 10% more to compensate for your self-esteem undercharging. Print off your price list and keep them by your phone.
2. NEVER give quotes over the phone – always email or post back a written quote so you can truly consider all of the work that will go into the job and quote accordingly (include everything in your costings - travel time, thinking time, research time, petrol, phone calls, your years of experience).
3. If a client is a “pain” add in a PIA loading (pain in the ass) to their quote. You know some clients are going to cause you stress – impossible deadlines, wanting long deep meaningful chats that chew into your time or slow payments. Factor this into your quote if you can’t say no to taking them on as a client.
4. Never quote on a day when you are feeling flat or “less than”. You will undercut yourself.
5. Practice saying “my scheduled fee for this is ...” and then shutting up. This is for those times you break tip 2.
6. Do your research on the industry. Being the cheapest person working in the industry is not a badge of pride if you can’t afford to feed your family.
7. Be clear when you will discount – for example if someone pays in full up front or the person belongs to a charity you believe in (and not because someone just asks you). Could you imagine going to McDonalds, placing your order and when being told the amount saying “can’t you do any better?”
8. Write out at least 100 reasons why you are worth the price you charge.
9. Get testimonials from your clients – review them often and you will begin to see the difference you make to people.
10. Ask your friends and your business coach what they think of your fees and listen to their feedback. And yes – this is breaking the first taboo of not talking about money.

Remember – your self esteem determines your earning potential.

Related Articles
  High Self-Esteem Isn't Always Healthy?
  Self Esteem + Self Confidence + Self Respect = Self Worth.
  Creating Successful Results with High Self-esteem
  Building Employee Self Esteem for Bottom Line Results
  The importance of self esteem

Article Tags: confidence level, credit card debt, decades, earning potential, lunch, mompreneur, openness, personal confidence, political views, religious affiliation, self esteem, sexual position, silence, skilled person, small businesses, strategic plan, taboo, taboos, talking about money, technical skill



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