Day 29: Money and Entrepreneurship
Today I want to talk about something that I see a lot of. Entrepreneurs who want to believe that if they work hard and deliver stellar service it will all pay off in the end.
Now I don’t want to knock hard work and karma, but there’s one thing that also needs to happen. As a business owner you need to value yourself before others (your customers) will value you.
If you take a wait and see approach, believing that if you do what you love the money will follow, you won’t be doing what you love for long. You’ll burn out.
You also need to become comfortable realizing what you provide is valuable (in fact invaluable), meaning it’s probably worth much more than what you think. You then need to begin to ask for what you’re worth.
I work with a lot of entrepreneurs. Most of my clients work for themselves, are creative and many are in the helping or service industries.
They love to help people enjoy life, feel better, grow, and learn.
They tend to be big hearted givers. They believe in the inherent good in people.
They work hard and give it their all. They pour their hearts and souls into their businesses and believe that others will see the value and respond accordingly.
I also notice that many of them walk a tight line when it comes to generating revenue.
They want to make sure they’re seen as reasonable.
They have a lot of thoughts about those that they see in business that they feel are “taking advantage of people by charging too much.”
They don’t want to be “that guy or girl.”
One of my mentors, Brooke Castillo talks about how many entrepreneurs have what she refers to as a (Business that you work hard at. Job + Hobby = Jobby)
It’s a business that doesn’t generate enough income to pay yourself. You may be working very hard but you are not able to support yourself on what you bring in.
As an entrepreneur, nobody wants a jobby. Why? Because it isn’t sustainable. Without money it will not last.
One thing that I see that most if not all of my clients have in common is a disconnect between what they offer and what they charge. They tend to set their value and prices based on overhead expenses and cost of product or services being provided, which is a type of “mark up”, rather than perceived value.
The question to ask yourself is how is value determined? Who determines whether or not something is valuable?
Consider the following example:
Haircuts:
Option 1: $9.99 at SuperCuts, $60.00 at the neighborhood salon, $700 at a specialty salon.
I’ve tried all 3 and valued each for different reasons at different times in my life.
Option 1: When I’d waited too long to make an appointment and my person was booked, or I was growing my hair out longer, I paid $9.99 and just had my ends trimmed to even things up every now and then. Creativity was not necessary.
Option 2: When I had a shape that I liked and was wanting to get my hair cut more regularly, I found a salon that did a decent job and was easy to book a week out. $60.00 was worth it to me to maintain a cut that I liked.
Option 3: Back when Japanese straightening was a thing, I once paid $700 to have my hair cut and straightened. It was $100/hour and took them 7 hours to do my hair (really!) I was headed on a vacation to humid Hawaii and would’ve paid just about anything to make my hair easier to care for while on vacation. I didn’t want to deal with the frizz and the humidity and the water. The time saved by using this process was priceless.
I felt good paying at all three pricepoints. Why? Because I liked my reason for each. The value was different for each.
For option one, I valued the low price and ability to walk in without an appointment.
In option two, I appreciated going somewhere that they knew my name, had studied how best to shape my crazy curly hair and the attention to detail that they gave.
Option three was about convenience. I valued the time it would save me while on vacation that I could then spend with my family.
The service provided was the haircut. The value was what I gained each time, and the benefit I recieved. Value is individual to each person.
As business owners, it’s not our job to decide what our products value is for anyone. It’s not our job to decide ahead of time what our clients can pay. Their budgets are none of our business.
it’s our job to set our prices at a place that allows us to run a profitable business rather than a jobby. That ensures that we will be able to offer our services for years to come.
It’s our job to show up and do the best that we can no matter what we charge. Overdelivering on value always. It’s just more fun when you are actually getting paid for it.
Thoughts like “what if I seem selfish? what if people think my prices are ridiculous? I want to help people that don’t have as much. I want to reach the masses.”
If you have judgments about “people who have money, rich people, how people spend their money”, there is no place for that in busines. Noticing those judgements and working through them will help.
What people choose to like is individual. I love chai tea. I would probably pay waaaay more for a delicious cup of chai than most people. More than friends that don’t like chai that much.
There is no such thing as reasonable amount. If you’re goal is to only reach people that want to pay as little as possible, becaue it feels more “helpful”, your business will suffer. When you make more money in your business, you can actually help MORE people.
There’s nothing selfish about that.
Money is now one of my favorite areas to coach people on. I’ve done so much work on this area myself over the past few years. If you’re a creative entrepreneur who’d like to earn more let’s jump on a call. There’s still six months left to this year, let’s make that time work in your favor. If you’re ready to take a look at your money beliefs and how they are holding you back, book a free session with me today. ~Shaun
