© iStockPhoto/mattjeacock

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

© iStockPhoto/keeweeboy

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:

1. 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
2. Taking the Steps – covers the 5 steps that are needed to overcome underearning
3. 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!

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.

In the book Love is the Killer App – How to win business and influence friends by  Tim Sanders talks about about what it takes to be a lovecat. A lovecat is someone who isn’t afraid to be a nice person a.k.a a great human being and still be successful.

Being a lovecat isn’t just about being nice. A lovecat consists of  knowledge, network and compassion.

Offer your wisdom freely. Give away your address book to everyone who wants it. And always be human.

The 10 must read books for aspiring lovecats are:

1. The Experience Economy
2. Corporate Religion
3. The Inventor’s Dilemma
4. What the CEO wants you to know
5. The Tipping Point
6. The Circle of Innovation
7. The Art of Happiness
8. Love
9. Simplicity
10. Leading the Revolution

Being a lovecat isn’t easy but what is the alternative?

I finished reading Hugh’s book a few days ago. It’s been in my pile of “to-read” books for awhile now but I got through it in two hours. It was a great read and I highly recommend it to any one with a new idea or a creative person who doubts their abilities.

The following quote is one of many that are interspersed through Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity

Great ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That’s why good ideas are always initially resisted.

According to Hugh the book condenses as follows

Work hard
Keep at it
Live Simply and Quietly
Remain humble
Stay positive
Create your own luck
Be nice
Be polite

His advice as he mentions “isn’t rocket science” so why not give it a whirl. I got a chance to chat briefly with Hugh at the event in New York and he was nice, very gracious and even asked how the widget was working on my site. Fame doesn’t seem to have gotten to his head and over a million downloads of the manifesto that lead to his book deal don’t seem to have made him a prima donna. We should all be so lucky when we achieve success.

Follow him on Twitter @gapingvoid

I recently read My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire by Michelle Goodman based upon the recommendation of a friend. I have to say I thought that after read a bunch of other books about freelancing and doing it for over 5 years I didn’t think I was going to learn a lot. Not the best attitude to have, but I read on average 5 books at once so I don’t like to start a book unless I’m going to finish it.

The guide covers everything from creating a business plan, developing a marketing strategy and dealing with clients. Most people skip creating the business plan because they think it needs to be complicated and long. Well that need not be the case. The author discusses why having a business plan is important i.e. for clarifying what you are doing, why you are doing it and also can you make a living at it.

The section on pricing in the book is worth the cost of the book. Figuring out how much to charge is one of THE biggest challenges most people face. I know I still struggle with it. I want to be fair to the client but I also need to charge what my services are worth. Someone will always want the cheapest price they can get for a job but usually I know that person is someone I am not meant to serve.

If you are new to freelancing or just need a kick in the butt to straighten out your business this book is a must read. The section about contracts is great too. If you know any good contract attorneys send them my way!

Michelle blogs at anti9to5guide.com or follow her tweets @anti9to5guide

The quote on the front cover of Now, Discover Your Strengths claims that the book is a

revolutionary program that shows you how to develop your unique talents and strengths – and those of the people you manage

Well I don’t manage people often so the part about managing people wasn’t that meaningful to me but still intriguing. All that sounded great but how was I going to learn anything about my strengths. Well each book comes with a unique code that works only once online…so sorry you can’t borrow my copy…you then go to the testing website and complete the test. I’m sure the cynics will say that’s a nice way to sell books. If you’ve ever completed the Myer-Briggs test or any sort of personality test you are already familiar with the types of questions tests like these ask.

Strengths Defined

“First, for an activity to be considered a strength you must be able to do it consistently. And this implies that is a predictable part of your performance…The acid test of a strength? The ability is a strength only if you can fathom yourself doing it repeatedly, happily, and successfully.

Second, you don’t have to have strength in every aspect of your role in order to excel…excellent performers were rarely well rounded. On the contrary, they were sharp.

Third, you will excel only by maximizing your strengths, never by fixing your weaknesses. This is not the same as saying “ignore your weaknesses.” The people we described did not ignore their weaknesses. Instead, they did something much more effective. They found ways to manage around their weaknesses, thereby freeing them up to hone their strengths to a sharper point.

I really loved how they described constantly trying to fix your weaknesses as just “damage control”.

According to the authors most people think that with “enough practice almost everything is learnable”. I have to agree there are some things I have a natural aptitude for and others I don’t. I always know when I’m doing something that doesn’t come naturally. I am sure you have had the same experience. It’s like having teeth pulled without being put to sleep. I’ve had that done and I don’t recommend it!

There are 34 themes in the StrengthFinder profile and the book goes into detail about each one. Plus there are stories below each about people with those themes. In case you’re curious here are my top 5 strengths:

1. Empathy – Can sense the emotions of others
2. Connectedness –Believe things happen for a reason and that we are part of something larger than ourselves
3. Restorative – Love to solve problems
4. Individualization – Intrigued by the unique qualities of each person. Impatient with generalizations or “types” because you don’t want to obscure what is special and distinct about each person
5. Command – Desire to take charge. Share opinion.

Honestly I wasn’t exactly thrilled with my results when I first read them and even more so when I returned to the book and read the following.

There is one obstacle barring your progress: Your own reluctance

Two words popped into my head after I read that.

“Bite me!”

Then I kept reading.

I think I am going to focus more on my strengths rather than “damage control”. Why frustrate myself with a losing battle? Like we say in Trinidad – “It’s like spinnin’ top in mud”. You get nowhere.

Being empathic makes me a better user experience designer and so do all the other strengths I have. I always thought picking up on others feelings was kind of weird but after working in Bellevue as a teaching artist and computer graphics instructor with an autistic student. I better saw its value. I got a hug our last day of class. Not an easy thing to have achieved. And he made some money! One of his teachers bought his creation.

On page 130 of the book the authors write

…those things that “you can’t help but…” – are not mundane, commonplace, obvious. On the contrary, your instinctive reactions are unique. They make you different from everyone else. They make you extraordinary

Everyone doesn’t see the world the same way. Honestly it would be boring if we did. Now go discover your strengths!