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Put A Fair Price on Your Efforts - Value Yourself

Guest post by: Susan Leigh

Article Overview: Sometimes it can be tough to put a price on our efforts, especially if the job took little time, or we know the person well. But in life and in business we have to value ourselves fairly.

Put A Fair Price on Your Efforts - Value Yourself

To charge or not to charge can be a difficult question. When people are self-employed or in a service sector they can feel a little embarrassed at times in charging for their efforts, especially if they know the person or feel that their work has not taken much time.

There was a story of a medical consultant who charged hundreds of pounds for a two-minute appointment. When queried on the size of the bill he replied that it had taken him years to be experienced enough to diagnose the problem in two minutes. We need to remember, when people require our services they are needing our expertise in a particular field, and that it is of value to them.

Think of how free things are rarely valued. We may fight to get the free gift from the cereal packet or queue for the goodie bag, but oftentimes the gift ends up lying on the table until it eventually gets thrown away. Or consider the case of two apparently identical pieces of furniture, one priced a quarter of the other. Which must be the better quality item? Or when out buying a present for a friend we see something perfect but far too cheap, do we buy it or discard it and continue the search until we find something more expensive? If something is free or too cheap we often feel that it is not good enough quality to purchase.

The problem with not charging or charging too little for our work is that it can result in several problems occurring:

- Others do not value us. They may perceive us as a friend who has a useful skill rather than a professional person running a serious business. We may undersell ourselves and our reputation, as our friends may not feel confident enough in us to recommend us to others.

- We may struggle to take ourselves seriously. A professional person has enough confidence in themselves and their skills to price themselves appropriately in their marketplace. Granted when someone is new in their field they may want to take time and practice, make a few mistakes, grow in experience and feel comfortable in what they are doing. At first they will usually offer incentives to encourage customers to come on board, but then they start pricing in a more realistic way.

- We feel disrespected and maybe ultimately resentful if we keep on feeling obliged to work for little or no benefit. We may well feel taken for granted, especially if we need another's help and they charge us for their assistance after we have helped them for free.

Some options around this problem can be:

- Offer a discount for friends. By saying that you are doing them a favour and charging them a lesser fee, friends can feel the benefit of getting a better price than regular customers.

- Say that you will do a good job, but your accountant insists on you charging for your work. Blaming someone else can be a good way of getting round the problem.

- Offer an exchange system. Some therapists will exchange, for example, a facial for a massage. Identify ways around the problem of charging.

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Article Tags: charge, charging, efforts, fair price, job, selfemployed, service sector
Referred by: http://www.bespoke-sales-training.co.uk



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