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Charge what you are worth

Written by: Jane Francis

Article Overview: One of the biggest challenges facing many women in business is setting their price and asking for the money.Charging what you are worth is not as simple as setting a price and sticking to it because, in countless small ways, we can still manage to sabotage our best efforts without even knowing we are doing it.

Charge what you are worth

One of the biggest challenges facing many women in business is setting their price and asking for the money.

Charging what you are worth is not as simple as setting a price and sticking to it because, in countless small ways, we can still manage to sabotage our best efforts without even knowing we are doing it.

Sometimes it is our body language that betrays us, other times it's our choice of words or the way the subject is changed and the question of price is side tracked.

Many of us have been brought up not to talk about money. Money is a taboo subject and because we don't like to talk about it, we avoid it. But if you want to claim what you deserve, it's no good saying: I hate asking for money. If you are in business, you have to talk about money and price -- and mastering this skill is essential to success.

Price is often the first thing a customer wants to know, and the last thing the seller wants to discuss. If you have something to sell you need to get comfortable selling value.

There are many reasons women don't charge what they are worth -- for some it is a lack of self belief and confidence. Sometimes the cause is ignorance, they simply don't know their true value or they undervalue what they do. For others it's a misguided sense of loyalty to their customer, or a sense of social justice where they feel the need to subsidize their customers at their own expense. People pleasers find it particularly difficult unless they have the sales skills to communicate their true value to the buyer.

Part-time workers and lower paid women have the most to lose by not charging what they are worth. Getting 'warm fuzzies' from giving your customers a really good deal does not pay the bills nor does it improve your long term prospects. If you find you are giving yourself away or discounting heavily on a daily basis, when will you ever earn it back? If you accept less than you are worth today, you will have to earn more tomorrow, so you will never catch up on yourself.

Each time you ask for less than what you know you are worth, you reinforce your own doubts about your self-worth, digging yourself deeper into the rut.

And each time you ask for less than what your customers know you are worth, you teach them to undervalue you. You signal to your customer your availability to be exploited. "Here I am, going cheap! Be my guest -- help yourself to the profits."

When you give your customer an extra dose of time you gift them with a portion of your life, belittling the value you place on your life. Don't you think that, since time is your life, you should guard it more preciously?

Women are often their own worst enemies, holding themselves back with their own internal doubts and fear of success. When you do decide to charge what you are worth, here are some of the 'scary' things that might happen to you:

• You risk drawing attention to yourself; you might get called greedy.

• You may start to earn enough so you can quit struggling -- but are you ready for that change in your lifestyle and identity?

• You could make people jealous of you. Your success could ostracize your family and friends; they might think you've become a different person.

• You might have the chance to live your dreams -- but dreams are rarely the same in reality. Maybe you'd prefer to live your life wanting, because then at least you keep your dreams.

If you are not already charging what you are worth -- ask yourself why aren't you? Where's the fear and what's the pay off? What do you have to gain by charging less than you are worth?

If you do resolve to change remind yourself how much you to have to gain -- it is possible you will find the rewards to your self esteem even more personally gratifying than the financial returns.

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Related Forum Posts
Seminar attendance - I read through most of these posts and the first thought that popped into my head Andy already posted. Charge a fee to register, that will be refundable at the end of the seminar. This will ensure they show up and STAY for it.
Offer Credit instead - I'm not sure if ChrisH was referring to this but i'll state it more expicitly .. Charge upfront and offer a refund of double the value back in "Credit" towards your Product or Service you have for sale at the end of the event.
Re: Reached 2 year mark and not sure what to do next - I apologize if my questions weren't very clear. - Is there a basic formula for letting us know what the magazine is worth in a ballpark number? -- Is it damaging that we didn't start with working capital right away? Is the condition of our company pretty good if we're at break even point? --- To determine the value of the company, would I be able to include 2 years worth of sweat equity based on the industry pay rate for both myself and my partner? We have someone interested in "buying into" the company but I'm not sure how to determine our value... or simply say that the amount in the bank is hat we're worth. Which isn't much. Thank you again!
Re: How Much Is Your Website Worth? - Is it talking about domain or the whole website? I check my site and it said it is worth $390. But in reality if I want to sell my site it is worth more than $100,000 based on my current earning per month.
Re: Free Online Learning - Hey Mal, Looks like a pretty cool resource. Definitely worth looking into as their courses are free. I like David's idea... if we could get approved for our own training programs that would be a great way to build our trust and get people interested in what we have to offer. Of course, you would need a complete interactive course built around the training. Not sure what all exactly that would entail, but maybe it's worth looking into.


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