Suzanne Muusers

Entrepreneurs - Get paid what you are worth - Stop under pricing yourself!

You’re a struggling entrepreneur.  You find yourself booking a lot of pro bono jobs hoping to get further business. You're speaking for free.  You're writing for free. 

People often seem to ask you for advice and you give it willingly, for free.  You wish you were more financially successful and you can’t understand why there isn’t more left over at the end of the month.  What if your problem isn’t that you haven’t saved enough?  What if you aren’t charging enough?

Everybody does it

I often meet entrepreneurs who are under pricing themselves. I find that this is the main issue that my clients have in common when they start coaching with me.  My clients are usually working too many hours and wishing they could find more lucrative jobs.  They want to delegate the less desirable aspects of their work, but they can’t afford to hire someone.

When you’re just starting out in business you’re eager to make the sale.  You want to please your clients and have them come back again and again.  So you under price your product or service.   Prices that are too low often translate into long hours for little pay resulting in not earning enough to provide a roof over your head.

Let’s look at the reasons we do this: 

·        It is often our subconscious belief system telling us we’re not worth it.

·        We may be afraid that if we raise our prices we will lose clients.

·        We may feel it is immoral to charge what we are really worth.

·        Some people may not believe that there are clients who will pay them more for their services.

4 Ways to change this:

·    Calculate your overhead.  You may be surprised to find out just how much you need to pay the bills.  Calculate your rent, insurance, phone, retirement plan contribution, taxes, equipment and any other costs of doing business.

·    Do research and find out the pricing range for your type of product or service.  You don’t want to be out of line, but you don’t want to leave money on the table either.  Find a pricing level that you can be comfortable with.  How much do you need to earn to be very comfortable?

·    Think about the things you may need to change in order to earn more income.  Do you need to invest in further education, more training, better equipment, better software?

·    Once you’ve set your prices, don’t apologize.  State your price with confidence!  If you can’t say it firmly, your clients won’t believe you.  Practice in the mirror until you can speak with confidence about your fees. 

Remember that it's difficult to compete on price.  Entrepreneurs that under price their products or services are the ones that go out of business.  Try to compete on quality and service.  Realize that if you do take low paying clients, they might end up being the most difficult to work with.  Remember that you can always negotiate down with your prices, but rarely up.  Many entrepreneurs charge a rush fee if the client expects the work to be done immediately.

Take the steps and actions necessary to raise your prices and begin to enjoy a better quality of life.

©Copyright 2007| Suzanne Muusers | All Rights Reserved | http://www.prosperitycoaching.biz/ 

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