All Time Has Value

What is the number one question I hear day in and day out? How can I make more money? Or What do I charge for my services?

Well, the answer is very complex in some ways, not really complicated in other ways. How is that for a non-answer?

In many ways, the answer depends on what you want, and what value you see in yourself. Amazingly the answer does not rely on what other people are charging for similar services.

Let me give you a common example from corporate America, anyone who has worked in an organization that has multiple people in similar positions, you hear this grumbling go on constantly, I don’t understand why Sally makes more money than I do, I work just as hard or do my job just as well as she does.

Here is the dirty secret, Sally makes more money because she believes she is worth more money, and has been able to convey that worth to her employer.

What is your worth? How much do you charge for your goods or services?

The answer is really an easy thing to calculate mathematically, how much do you want to earn?

Here is the math, I want to make $250,000 this year. I am in a service business so I know from experience, I will bill about 2000 hours a year. So the math is simple, if all I did was services, I would divide $250000 by 2000 and come up with $500 an hour. That is how much I need to make per hour to earn 250k this year. Ok, so my niche market currently doesn’t support $500 an hour so then what? Here are a couple of strategies you can use. First, you must manage your time in an extremely efficient way. This is critical because every one of those 2000 hours you waste or don’t bill for makes your cost per hour increase. So learn effective time management.

Next, put together a package, I earn a lot more selling a service than I use selling time. Selling a service may be a business assessment, or an improvement investigation. For corporate clients, they gladly pay 10-15,000 dollars for a business assessment to learn how to make more money, this service takes me about 3 weeks to complete, (40 X 3 = 120 hours X 500 dollars = $6,000 I picked up some extra revenues there), But the even better part is I can do the site ups and analysis after hours, and cut the time (from my original 2000 hours) from 120 to around 80 hours. This is just one example, and there are hundreds of others out there.

So the answer to how much to sell my services for is simply how much do I believe I am worth, and then convey that worth to your clients, either through service offerings in packages, product quality, or expertise, I know coaches who easily earn 1000 an hour, I know consultants who earn 10000 a day. I know people who make products that earn 400 an hour. Why? Are they better than you, smarter than you, better educated? Probably not, but they have a perceived value of themselves, and are able to convey that to others. They see themselves as premium service or product providers, and don’t waiver. But they also don’t sell their products or services on price, they sell their products and services as value.

Another quick example, a pampered Chef client I have was struggling with her new business opportunity. During our first session, I found she had no goals written down, she wanted to make a lot of money. She was struggling with parties, and was uncomfortable begging people to buy. So we worked on her goals, and helped her develop her self worth. She wanted to make $75,000 a year, and decided she could do 4 parties a month through some marketing methods we came up with. So 48 parties a year she needed to earn a little over $1500 a party. Well we worked on her self worth, and that confidence came out during her parties, and her sales sky rocketed, did she earn her goal of 75,000 no she didn’t but she did earn $68,000 the first year (not bad for a stay at home mom who hadn’t had a job in 8 years). And the most important thing is her income was increasing throughout the year, so as she learned and practiced her techniques, the sales continued to increase so next year her income will be even better.