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I’ve been reading lots of posts about how much to charge for creative services. And what I have learned is that there is no right answer. No one price works all the time. There is no magic number.
Would be nice if there was but we’re not living in wonderland.
I recently completed The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money
by Ilise Benun—author, consultant and national speaker, the founder of Marketing Mentor.com and the co-producer of the Creative Freelancer Conference. The author does a great job of breaking down the money game for creatives. The book is divided into 3 sections, and peppered with stories from creatives as well as advice from other experts.
Money is an emotional issue for a lot of people.
This book asks you to question your beliefs and assumptions about money plus why you aren’t getting what you believe your services are worth.
Favorite Quote:
Some creative professionals seems to believe that the problem with their pricing is them, either that their prices are too high or they aren’t good enough at selling. One creative said, “I don’t know how to turn prospects into customers. I need to learn how to close clients better.”
That may be so, but sometimes, you are not the problem. They—the clients—are.
If you’re not talking to the right people in the first place, it doesn’t matter how you “close” or what you say; the price won’t be right because they can’t afford your services.
Read that last sentence again. They can’t afford you…not magic…not every client is a good fit not even if the project is the most amazing..awesome…change the world thing on the planet. Every client thinks their project is amazing. I’d avoid people who aren’t enthusiastic about what they want you to work on in the first place! If you choose to cut your prices decide why and how it will serve you down the line. Otherwise decline gracefully and if you so desire refer them to someone else who might be a better fit.
Money isn’t the only deciding factor. Chemistry between you and the client is important. Work styles that don’t match before you sign the contract aren’t going to change later. In fact they might get worse.
What You’ll Learn From This Book:
- How to think about money – pricing strategies, setting your prices, positioning your price
- How to talk about money – broaching the topic of money with prospects, talking price, negotiating, getting paid (very important), closing the sale
- How to manage it – dealing with requests for proposals, profitability
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It is no secret that when it comes to wages that women on average make less than men doing the same job. Back in my programmer days I once worked for a company where my salary was several thousand dollars less than a man who had less experience that I did. I actually used to help this man debug his code on a regular basis. He was pretty frank about being clueless. This post isn’t about man-bashing…so relax…
Since the Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963, the wage gap has been closing at a very slow rate. In 1963, women who worked full-time, year-round made 59 cents on average for every dollar earned by men. In 2009, women earned 77 cents to men’s dollar. That means that the wage gap has narrowed by less than half a cent per year!
A recent White House reports notes that women’s gains in education and increased participation in the labor force have not yet translated into wage and income equity; at all levels of education, women earned about 75 percent of what their male counterparts earned in 2009.
It would be easy to say that all the blame lies with men. But that would be over-simplifying the issue. It certainly isn’t only an issue that applies exclusively to women either. Underearning is a disease. You can blame the recession if you want but there are a lot of well-known businesses that have started in recessions and are still around today for example Trader Joes, FedEx, GE and Hyatt. Or you can say there are no jobs but I know a lot of people who have thrived not starved in the current economic downturn.
If you’ve never heard of Barbara Stanny, she’s the daughter of the “R” of H&R Block. That alone would make you assume she knew alot about money but she didn’t. Check out her financial journey on her website.
I heard about her book – Overcoming Underearning®: A Five-Step Plan to a Richer Life
from a friend about a year and half ago. I’m a book junkie and I will consume any knowledge necessary to get me to where I want to go. I’ve read A LOT of books on personal finance but besides Women & Money and Secrets of the Millionaire Mind I’d have to say this book like no other reminds me that money like any relationship is a mind game. If you think you don’t deserve it or have negative beliefs about something odds are good that you will live into that story.
Until I really believed I deserved what I was asking for in salary I didn’t get it. I started saying “no” to jobs when I didn’t have prospects and usually a job that paid better would come along as soon as I let go of the crappy opportunity. And when I did say “yes” to jobs that didn’t feel right I usually paid the price in the health department.
Underearning has little to do with the amount of money you make. But it has everything to do with your attitude. An underearner is anyone who earn less than she needs or desire despite her efforts to do otherwise. – Barbara Stanny
Barbara’s book is broken down into three sections:
- Getting Started – illustrates how to use the book in order to get maximum impact and help you figure out what your barriers are to earning what you desire
- Taking the Steps – covers the 5 steps that are needed to overcome underearning
- Ensuring Success – helps you create a plan for continued success and how to track your progress
Overcoming Underearning is a doing book. If you just read it you will not get much out of it. Don’t borrow it from the library either. You want to be able to go back over the exercises to see how much you’ve changed!
The reason most people don’t make what they should isn’t because they aren’t capable of doing so. It’s because they don’t truly believe they deserve it.
One of my favorite quotes says it best…
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure…” – A Return to Love
Being broke isn’t fun….people who say they don’t care about money usually are broke. Stop dimming your light, get out of your own way and go make some money. For no other reason than you deserve it!
I recently finished reading Emotional Intelligence 2.0
. The authors claim that emotional intelligence is more of an indicator of success than IQ. The book has a test you can take to determine your emotional intelligence. The results are grouped into two different categories 1) Personal Competence – Self Awareness + Self Management and 2) Social Competence – Social Awareness + Relationship Management. Once you’ve taken the test you can get tips on how to improve the areas where you received a low score.
The book is worth a look if you are interested in the topic of Emotional Intelligence but also read Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. You can never know too much about how your feelings and emotions and those of others impact your success or failure in business and in life.
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