You know, that’s a funny word that I never really thought about before I started my small business (and to be honest, for some time after I started too).
Particularly in service businesses (but in product businesses too) you need to assess how much your services will sell for and effectively what value you put on yourself. It’s something that makes a lot of people squirm, because all we really want to do is share what we are amazing at with the world. Putting a dollar value on that is hard.
Sure there are books to help you to come up with an idea or there are people who will tell you that ‘the price is what it is’ or ‘it has to be enough and a little bit more’. But when you’re feeling lost and overwhelmed by this you’re more likely to underestimate what you should be charging.
Part of this journey of small business, for me, is learning to value my skills and being able to offer my services in a way that makes me feel good and the customer feel great too. I don’t always get it right, I’m not even 100% sure what right is, but I know now that as business people we need to think about how this money will support not only our growing businesses, but also our home lives. For this is one amount of money that needs to be split two ways. The money your business grows with and the money that pays for you to live.
I think that as you grow older your relationship with money changes, you understand what it can help you achieve and what it can’t. I think it’s really only with time that you begin to understand ‘worth’ and what it means for you. It won’t be the same forever and there will be times when you need to re-assess – up or down- but it’s an important thing to really take the time to think about for your business, because if it will never make you the money you need to survive it will always feel like something is missing. And if it not making the money you need isn’t an issue, is it really a business or just a hobby?
What do you think? Is worth something you have struggled with? Do you feel I’m totally off base?
You are right on target! When I first started I way undercharged bc I was scared to ask for what I was worth. It’s probably the toughest part of running your own biz!