Are You Doing Your Self-Worth A Disservice?

You could easily argue that self-worth is synonymous with success. Until you start valuing your time the way you should, you’ll never earn the money you need or portray the professional image necessary to shape your career.

And, yet, if there’s one thing us entrepreneurs struggle with, it’s finding the self-worth balance to make a go of things. When you’re starting, the chances are that you’ll make all manner of mistakes with job costing, and you’ll most often be the person to pay for them. 

Not only does this leave your startup profits flailing, but it also sends a negative message about your services. Services which you’re trying to bolster.

Admittedly, early costing is never easy, and you wouldn’t be the first entrepreneur to undervalue out of self-doubt, modesty, or whatever else. As a general rule, though, it always pays to go up. And, we’re going to look at why.

Your startup profits won’t work with low price points

Starting a business costs big, especially if you want to send quality products/services out into the world. You’ll need to pay for everything from product supplies to your development with courses like those offered by Bradley University. By proxy, charging less will therefore leave you paying more than you’re getting. Add this initial struggle to that fact that it’s much harder to raise prices later on, and you’ll soon find yourself looking down the barrel of a business gun. Don’t let it happen. Start as you mean to go on with competitive but fair pricing that covers your costs and beyond. 

Free work sends the wrong message

Worse than not charging enough is agreeing to work for free, yet this is a mistake that many budding entrepreneurs make. Limiting self-beliefs alone could see you feeling as though you aren’t qualified or recommended enough to charge yet. And, you can bet clients are going to jump on that self-doubt. The trouble is that, ultimately, free work does nothing to help with your reputation. Quite the opposite; those receiving your services for free will soon start questioning why they would ever pay for the same down the line.

There are only so many hours in the day

According to the 80/20 rule, you should be putting in 20% of the work for 80% of the time. Yet, if you’re undervaluing your self-worth, you’re looking at more like 80% of the work for 20% of the time. In other words, you’ll be working every hour under the sun even to get close to profit margins, burning yourself out in the process, and even having to turn down respectable clients as a result. By comparison, charging a decent amount for the jobs you do means you can take on less for the same profits, spend more time on the jobs you do have, and take on further clients when they come to you. In short; you’ll be able to start building a respectable business, but only once you start charging the prices that you should!