Can you ‘get right’ with $100? How to understand what charging more for your time really means
What’s the value of a buck? Or, better yet, what’s the value of $100?
It wasn’t until I started charging $100 an hour for my time that I “got right” with myself in my business. Until then, I felt nervous & unsure. I often felt resentful of my clients to whom I gave my all. Most disappointingly, because the investment was so low, I found my clients often did nothing with what I suggested.
Bumping up my price to $100 solved a lot of problems and helped me to “get right” with money.
But my prices didn’t stay there long, by January of this year, I had decided to double those prices to $200 per hour with a minimum 2 hour commitment.
What would someone pay you $100 per hour to talk to you about?
— Danielle LaPorte, author of The Fire Starter Sessions
I’ve talked before about how my family had very little money growing up. I’ve also talked about how somehow my mom never managed to say “that’s too expensive” to me.
The value of a dollar has been very real to me throughout my life. The idea of one hundred of them lined up neatly representing an hour of my time seemed entirely unreasonable.
Besides, my previous employer made it quite clear that my time was worth much less than $13 per hour.
I suspect that this is true for many people. If having $100 left over at the end of the week or even the end of the month seems like freedom, I’m talking to you. This isn’t reflective so much of how much you, your partner, or your parents make – it’s reflective of how you use money.
How you understand the value of $100 is reflective of the relationship you have with money.
And you can’t truly know what people would pay you $100 per hour to talk to them about until you come to terms with your relationship to that $100.
When $100 represents feeding your family or not, or having cable or not, or making the full mortgage payment or not, it is near impossible to assign that value to your time. However, when you cross the line into service provider, business owner, maker, or artist, you begin to realize that “or nots” are not the name of the game.
There simply is no “or not” associated with your time. Your time represents possibilities: more clarity, more time, more beauty, more travel, more pride, more space, more organization, more strategy. Instead of being a choice between having or not having, there is the possibility of so much more than what is paid for.
$100 becomes a gateway to greater things.
What “greater things” will someone gain from talking to you for an hour?
Do you see how [those things] are worth a Benjamin Franklin?
Want to get right by that $100? Here are two ideas:
1.) Invest in something for your business (coaching, an ebook, a course, a service, etc…) that is $100 or analyze a previous investment. Keep track of how that investment improves your work.
Does it help you get your work done faster?
Does it make you $500 in one month?
Does is improve your customer service?
Does it reduce your stress?
Analyze that true transactional value of that $100. Was it worth the money you gave up? Was it worth the investment?
2.) Buy a $100 dress or sweater or pair of shoes. Wear it constantly for 6 weeks. Consider the difference between that purchase and a $15 Target version.
What’s the wear & tear like?
How’s the comfort level?
What’s the style quotient?
Would you wear it 3 years from now?
Analyze the true transaction value here. Would you rather have this $100 piece or 7 Target pieces?
Neither of these experiences are fool proof. The value of your time isn’t either. But extending these examples over time, the value of $100 becomes more & more clear.
There is often a greater exponential benefit in spending $100 than in spending considerably less.
That’s why $100 has to be the minimum. On top of all the cost-of-living, cost-of-doing-business equations, I think you’ll find that charging $100 per hour for your service (or labor) is the bare minimum others expect for good results.
Charge less and you signal that you offer inferior results.
Now free is a different story.
Charging nothing is disengaging. People don’t know what to expect. They’re caught off guard.
Offering your service for free gives you a chance to find your $100 offer. You can practice with the idea of delivering superior results. You can see the value of your service (or labor) reflected back to you.
So how comfortable are you with 100 big ones? Please share your experience with money & time by leaving a response below.
Profit Isn’t a 4 Letter Word: What does a passion-driven entrepreneur need to know about the art of earning?
Money and I have a sordid relationship. Don’t worry, we’re pretty cool now. She won’t mind if I talk about her like this.
For most of formative years, my family didn’t have much of the stuff. My single mom employed herself as a seamstress. She was constantly busy but not rolling in the dough. Still, despite earning very little, we were never without stuff.
I had instruments, summer camps, piano lessons, a computer, and even a car.
She figured out how to get me what I needed without incurring massive amounts of credit card debt. We lived frugally but always got we wanted passionately.
She also taught me to save like a mo’ fo’. From my very first gig umpiring a softball game to my last part-time job in a jewelry store, I put half of every paycheck in my savings account for BIG purchases (trip to Austria, anyone?).
Money came & went.
After college, I got stuck. I started equating money with time, tasks, and responsibility. I saw inside the belly of a retail beast and began to believe that if I earned more money, certainly others would lose money.
I began to assume that I was truly worth the $13 per hour they paid me.
I assumed I would never be worth more.
At the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey, this was a burden I carried. I assumed my worth had been set. What I soon learned is that your personal worth surges out of you even when you don’t expect it.
Your personal worth doesn’t always show up in money – maybe it will take the form of gratitude or influence – but it shows up. It’s our job to claim that worth as the dollars & cents we need to earn to experience the world and to improve the world in the ways we desire.
Abundance of personal worth begets abundance of financial worth. It’s your choice how you use it.
An example:
Yesterday, I dropped about $400 at a craft show. It’s the third year I’ve attended this show and it’s by far the best show I go to every year. I love the people who vend. I love the people who show up.
But the last two years, I held scarcity in my heart when I attended.
This year, I came ready to spend. While $400 may or may not seem like a lot to you, it still represents a lot to me. And while I was a bit sticker shocked at what I had done at the end of the day, I felt damn good embodying abundance. And I felt damn good extending my abundance to those I purchased from.
Also, Lola now has a week’s worth of clever indie t-shirts to wow the kids at summer camp.
For the vendors I purchased from yesterday, I changed the world a little. I reinforced the uniqueness of their ease. I shared a smile with my debit card that told them they were worth more than the sticker price.
No, increasing consumption won’t fix our problems but having a better relationship with money might.
* * * * *
In case you haven’t noticed, our relationships to money are changing. Fast. Furious. And unexpectedly.
No longer are finance, law, and medicine fields that guarantee stability, profit, and growth.
Artists – of all kinds – are finding money to be easier to come by, abundance amidst recession, and demand despite saturation.
Your relationship to money is no longer determined by your previous experience with it, your college degree (or lack thereof), or time in an industry. Our ability to earn is instead based on our own view of our unique talents.
Capability doesn’t determine cash flow.
But passion might help determine your profit.
At the Selling Your Soul event in NYC on Thursday, Danielle LaPorte (or, as I affectionately refer to her in my noggin’, DLP) and Marie Forleo provided (at least) 2 important sparks about our relationship with money. One, a question: What do you really mean when you say “I can’t afford it?” And two, a statement: we all have “money stuff.”
Much of my success as an entrepreneur has not been about having the best widget, the fastest fingers, the smartest brain, or the most intuitive spirit. Gaining influence, earning money, finding my niche, and producing my art has largely come as a result of working through my “money stuff” and understanding what I mean when I say “I can’t afford it.”
Let me say again, having a 6-figure business isn’t about being the best. It’s about understanding your relationship to money.
Having a 6-figure business isn’t about producing more than anyone else, having more clients than anyone else, or having a monopoly on your message. It’s about understanding the art of earning.
Scarcity in earning is directly related to scarcity in spending, investing, hiring, and giving.
What I meant when I said, “I can’t afford it:”
I meant I wasn’t worth it. I meant I couldn’t earn it. I meant I made bad decisions. I meant I didn’t value myself.
What I mean now when I say, “I can’t afford it:”
I don’t see it as valuable to me. I don’t need it right now. I don’t want it. I made a choice not to have it.
Making money can be so easy.
My come-to-Jesus moment with money was when I truly discovered how easy it is to earn what you need when you work for yourself. What is easy to you, what comes naturally & beautifully to you, is ugly, difficult, and downright nasty to someone else. That is the source of value.
What is easy to you, what comes naturally & beautifully to you, is ugly, difficult, and downright nasty to someone else.
That’s the source of value but it’s not the end. Value flows forth from your alignment with your purpose and your relationship to those who identify with your purpose. Your purpose is the beginning & the end of the transaction.
What you do – the work that is paid for – may be meaty, but it won’t seal the deal.
The art of earning is offering your valuable bits for sale. The art of earning is finding your purpose scattered throughout the experiences of your life and business.
There is no need to paint a different picture or construct a different model. Take your “easy” talents, your insane passion, your drive, and purpose and box it up for sale.
Nota bene, parts of this equation often missing:
- Ease
- Talent
- Passion
- Drive
- Purpose
- Package
- For sale sign
Money need not control you. You need to control it. Money need not determine your experience. You need to earn money to determine your own experience. Your gain need not mean your customer loses. Your gain needs to be others’ gain.
What does a passion-driven entrepreneur need to know about the art of earning?
So very many things… but I’m specifically curious about what you’d like to know. I want to help you strengthen your relationship to the dollars & cents you & your business needs to survive & thrive in the changing economy. I want to help you find profit in work your soul craves.
This conversation is part of my purpose. And I’m on fire about it.
——
Update! While the conversation continues (and will for the foreseeable future!), my first contribution is all shinied up & put together. The Art of Earning is a digital guide all about making money beautifully. It’s a deconstruction of our hang-ups around the topic of cash, profit, and earning potential. It’s also a reconstruction of a new money paradigm for artists-of-all-sorts.
The best part of all is that you can name your own price. And frankly, that’s a celebration of my own confidence in my earning ability, a party to which you are oh-so invited.
Click here to learn more about The Art of Earning!
“Art of Earning” will help you heal your beliefs about money and start getting into a really loving relationship with moolah and your mojo. It will teach you how to be a Goddess of your own Abundance. The world needs this!
– Goddess Leonie | goddessguidebook.com | author of the Business Goddess ecourse
observations on what it means to coach & be coached
While I was struggling with “stuck” in my dead end (officially now) job, I can remember saying to my mom, “Maybe I should get a life coach.”
It was around 2007 and life coaches were being featured everywhere in the media but, as of yet, I still didn’t know any. She told me I didn’t really need one (mom, you know I wouldn’t change anything… but I’m going to say you were probably wrong on this one!). And I left it at that.
Although it was about this same time when I also had a conversation with her about being a consultant. I had no idea what that meant other than forming strong opinions and telling others what to do. This sounded gooooooood.
Once I started working towards my own business, I realized that coaches & consultants were everywhere (and are not at all the same thing). Some offered to work with you in the short term, some in the long term. Some offered to coach your life, others your business. Some offered complete packages, others more nebulous outcomes. Some were accredited from various organizations, some were not.
As my business grew & evolved, some coaches became my very good awesome friends. And more & more, coaches became a part of my audience.
And then it happened… coaches wanted to be coached by me!
This. freaked. me. out.
How do you coach a coach? Honestly, I’m still not sure. I just do what I do – and I love every minute of it. But I’ve learned a lot through coaching coaches (and many other types of creative business owners!) and I thought it was time to share some of that learning.
Demystify this whole procedure a bit.
Note: for the purposes of this post, I’m using the word “coach” to describe anyone who offers a service that involves working one-on-one towards the purpose of making what you do better & more fully you and who doesn’t just tell you what to do.
My own brand of coaching is interrogative, right-brained business strategizing. Yes, I just made that up. You’ll see what I mean if you keep reading! I am not a life, career, wellness, marketing, or brand coach. I coach business owners to find a) their passion-driven purpose and b) the profit in that purpose. Other coaches do other things. And I love them for it!
Without further ado, observations on coaching & being coached from a coach with no credentials other than success (her own & others).
Third party perspective is one of the most important things you can invest in.
I know a lot about myself & my business. I know most of the things I should be doing, even if I don’t do them. I have a good idea of where I’m headed, where I’ve been, and all the steps in between.
However, what I don’t know about myself & my business is what it looks like to someone else. I’ve learned through being a 3rd party perspective and from hiring 3rd party perspectives, that there just is no way to objectively look at yourself or your business “outside your self.” Our assumptions, inner dialogue, expectations, and past experience will always get in the way of seeing things how others see them.
The job of a coach is to help you strip those things away.
For example, I did a one-on-one Firestarter Session with Danielle LaPorte in February. Through a series of questions & then sharing her observations, Danielle helped me understand a core belief of mine was no longer true. In this case, I believed that I was synonymous with my other website, Scoutie Girl.
At another time, with a different course of action, that might have been true. But it was true no longer. Scoutie Girl is a product of this business of “me.” All of my other goals (regular speaking gigs, book deal, more coaching clients, etc…) wouldn’t happen until I owned up to “me” as my brand, business, and full package.
Of course, once I had that realization, I saw that this was how others had been seeing me for a very long time. I was late to the party. My party!
The second half of this realization – lest you forget – is that 3rd party perspective is an investment. Good coaches cost good money. They will also give you much of their time & demand yours in return. You will also invest a good bit of emotional capital with them. If you’re not willing to invest, you’re not ready to be coached. And you probably aren’t really ready to reach that goal you have in mind.
It’s okay to not have the right answer. My client always has a better one.
When someone gives you their money, it’s easy to allow yourself to think it’s because you have the answers. Heck, I love to have the answers and I love to dole them out.
But the clients who get the most from me and scare the pants off of me are the ones for whom I have no answers. They’re the people who are already rocking what they do, who have a good idea of where they’re going, and know who are they are. But something isn’t clicking.
My job isn’t to “click it” for them. My job is to help them click themselves.
I ask questions they’ve been avoiding. Or questions they haven’t even thought of. I challenge their assumptions. Then all at once – or sometimes much much more slowly – they realize an answer for themselves. And I think to myself, “why didn’t I think of that?” Then I remember, it’s not the answer that’s my job, it’s the question.
There are few things more powerful than an unexpected question.
In a coaching relationship, your job as the client is not to ask questions but to provide true answers.
Of course, asking questions is good too! Just be prepared to get answered with another question!
Sure, I can strategize & tell you what to do with the best of ’em. As a business coach, we will come up with ideas & realizations that require me to set aside the coaches hat & put on a strategist or consultant hat. But that part of my job is really secondary to helping you discover the truth about your business for yourself.
Coaching isn’t fast.
Because so much of what I do as a coach is stripping away tired assumptions and helping you find your own best direction, it’s not a fast process.
Of course, I value my clients time & money very, very much so I never waste time. But it’s entirely possible to start with one outcome in mind and, several sessions later, have a whole new, invigorating outcome in mind.
It’s also possible that the true breakthrough from a session comes days or weeks after the fact. It took me weeks to really understand what was going on in my Firestarter Session. It’s taken me equal time to digest the Pitch Perfect session that I did with Dyana Valentine. I worked with Tara Mohr on some more general life coaching and I’m still feeling my way through the questions she asked me.
Yes, I try to give my clients something really meaty to take away from each session with me. But it’s the things that linger and ripen that end up having the most impact.
When you enter a coaching relationship, it’s important to be open to that fact.
My experience with coaching & being coached is my own. It’s also an ever-evolving experience. While I wholeheartedly believe these observations to be true, your experience may be different.
It’s also important for me to say that I wholeheartedly believe in accredited life coaches, like Michelle Ward. The purpose of this post isn’t to say I have all the answers (that was clear, wasn’t it?) even though I am self-taught & experience-driven, it was to share my observations.
Have you been coached? What are your observations?
Are you thinking about hiring a coach? What are your questions?
What results are you creating?
Results. I love ’em.
Results often seem elusive. Despite the promises of info products, programs, courses, and blog posts, we are often left resultless. Maybe we don’t have all the same questions but we have plenty of new ones in their place.
Results are key. They help us meet our goals. They buoy our spirit when things get tough. They prove to others we’re not insane.
Results are becoming uncommon. “Daily grinding” often doesn’t produce results. Daily grinding produces distraction, complacency, and circular productivity. Are you really working towards an end? Or are you just working towards tomorrow?
Check.
Feeling stuck comes from ingesting. Creating a result comes from digesting.
Consider how you feel after you indulge in a lovely carb binge. Sedentary. Lazy. Heavy. Bloated.
Consider instead how you feel after you indulge in a delicious spinach salad with oil, lemon juice & all your favorite fixings. Buoyant. Energized. Ready.
Carb binging is ingesting – the focus is what’s going into your mouth and not what’s coming out the proverbial other end. It’s all or nothing on the intake and just nothing on the output. The pleasure comes from stuffing yourself more.
Eating fresh, clean food allows you to digest. You experience both the pleasure of every bite and the pleasure of feeling ready for what the world will throw at you. You are fueled.
When you truly digest your research, your work, and your analysis, you are able to create results.
What results are you creating right now? What results do you need to be creating?
***
Accelerate your results. Accelerate your success. I invite you to join me in the lab for my FREE Prototype Challenge. Results everyday, guaranteed. Click here to get started.
whispering at a party: why email marketing is essential for your business
Let’s pretend we’re at a party. You mingle politely. You ask a few nervous attendees about the weather and what they grabbed off the buffet.
Slowly you make your way to one side of the room. Alone.
You ask a question, quietly, to the room. You wait for the response.
No response comes.
Maybe a few friends walk over to make sure you’re okay. They’re visibly concerned.
You shrug your shoulders. You expected to start a conversation, to get a response, to engage people. Instead, you got silence.
This is what engaging your tribe with indirect media looks like. Indirect media is Twitter, your blog, Facebook (most of the time), radio advertisements, video marketing, etc… It’s indirect because it requires some perfect circumstance: your tribe has to be reading, listening, viewing, consuming at exactly the right time.
It’s awesome. But it’s also hit or miss.
Email marketing is direct marketing. It’s a way to connect to your tribe, on their own terms, in their inbox.
Growing your list is growing your tribe.
To start any direct email marketing, you must first start a mailing list. I recommend Mail Chimp but there are plenty of other (if not nearly as cheeky) services. You cannot blind copy a bunch of email addresses in Gmail – nope, sorry, just don’t do it.
In growing your list, you are growing your tribe. You are gathering together a community who is interested in hearing what you have to say about your business, your products, and how those products relate to their lives. You aim to build your list quickly but with a keen eye for bringing in those who are likely to be your customers.
You don’t need to entice the dude who found your website searching “cheese doodles.” Unless, of course, you sell cheese doodles or cheese doodle accessories.
I grow my tribe by offering subscribers a freebie. I offer them something that is representative of what they would get from me if they did buy something and I make sure it’s representative of what I’m going to be offering.
Here on this site you can find my freebie to the right as a graphic ad. Click that (no, really, click it) and you’ll find a nice little opt in page for my list. Sign up there and you get my Spacious Goals Guide.
On Scoutie Girl, it’s a little different. I have both a graphic ad and an opt-in form called the ViperBar at the top of the page.
Your business may benefit from offering a free consultation with subscription or maybe a coupon for 10% off a first order. You may simply state that your goods move FAST and that prospective customers better get on the list to make sure they don’t miss the best stuff.
Look around the web and you’ll see all manner of email list enticements, opt in forms, and prizes at the bottom of the proverbial boxes. The takeaway here is that there is no “right way” to grow your list. You can experiment with any combination of tactics & tricks but, in the end, it’s what works for you and your visitors that will be the most impactful.
I’ve grown a list of over 5,000 subscribers in less than 8 months. Those 5,000 subscribers are connectors, mavens, discussion starters, research assistants, trend setters, and influencers. And they’re customers. They are my tribe. We are in conversation.
They let me know what is working. And they let me know what’s not working. I listen as much as I broadcast. Actually, I probably listen more than I broadcast. They are my lifeline.
This ain’t your grandma’s newsletter.
Back in the day, newsletters were cut & paste together with paper & glue, run off in an edition of a hundred, and slid underneath office doors. This was expensive. And so newsletter compilers would jam as much information as possible onto the paper.
Email is fast, cheap as dirt, and much more effective. So instead of calling attention to 10, 5, or even 3 action items, the best email updates showcase one – and only one – call to action.
That means you ask people to attend an event, like you on Facebook, buy a product, check out the Spring collection, register for a teleconference, or leave a comment. But that’s it. Just leave it at that.
Given choices, we get overwhelmed. We delay action.
Your emails should trigger immediate action.
One. Thing.
You can also offer blog posts by email using one of the email subscription services. Again, I love talking monkeys. This gives you most of the impact of email while allowing you to concentrate on one marketing form at a time.
Tara, one thing?!
Good, you were paying attention. Here’s how you write about one thing.
You write your email like you were writing to a human being. Not like you would write it to a corporation full of people who don’t care or an organization of people who have better things to be doing.
Write it with clarity, humor, warmth, and love.
Don’t worry about tactics or strategies. They come with time. Worry about writing as yourself, as the face of your business. Write with confidence and humility.
And above all, make sure it’s clear what that “one thing” is, m’kay?
Pick what’s most important to your business right now. Invite your subscribers to click, comment, connect around this one thing. You’ll have immediate results in the form of dollars, feedback, and conversation. You’ll know what’s working and what isn’t. One. thing.
But… can I?
It’s a common to wonder what an “opt in” really means. Does that mean I can email them about just about anything now? Maybe. Sort of. Do you really want to?
I make my opt ins broad but directed. I do manage multiple lists so that I’m sure I’m reaching the right people each time I send out an email.
But I also send out emails that don’t have much to do with the original thing someone signed up for. The unifying factor is, of course, me.
Your subscribers are opting to hear from you. If you have something to say and you think there’s a remote chance they’d be interested, say it. You’re probably right.
And yes, you can make offers via email. You can ask people to buy your products and sign up for your services. You can suggest an affiliate promotion. You can encourage people to follow you on Twitter.
If it benefits your business, you can put it in an email. And you probably should.
– – – – – – –
Want more on email marketing? I have a 30-day course that proves… email marketing doesn’t have to suck.
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from passion to profit: how to find the “we” in earning more
I started my business with about $80 that I put on my personal credit card so that my husband wouldn’t see the bill.
That was what it cost for my first web hosting plan. I don’t think I spent another dime on the business for a few months. Nothing more substantial than a fiver here or a ten spot there, that’s for sure.
By necessity, I did everything myself. What I didn’t know how to do, I learned or ignored. It was about 5 months until I started to bring in more that a few dollars per week.
That was the summer I bought Scoutie Girl with a loan from our local credit union. The 2 block walk with the check from my house to Jan‘s was exhilarating. I felt like I walked there a wannabe and walked back a real business owner.
That very real exchange of money kick-started my drive to grow the business. This wasn’t about some cash on the side anymore. It was about profit. Passion-driven, profit-earning business building.
The very first month the site was under my management, I brought in more ad revenue than ever before. I also created a fall advertising package that earned more in a month than I had at my previous full-time job. I was making a profit!
Of course, that was the first time I felt uneasy about the money appearing in my PayPal account. It was the first time I really questioned whether it was okay for me to be pulling in a profit in a way that was just so much fun! I got really uneasy about “me” and my skills.
That initial exchange was also a dive into the deep end of collaborative business relationships. You see, my business is not an island. Nor is yours.
Over time, I came to understand that making a hefty profit isn’t about “me,” it’s really about the “we.”
My profit is part of the community’s profit. My growth is part of the community’s growth. My success is part of the community’s success.
There is no room in microbusiness for a business that is not part of the greater whole.
You’ve heard it said that “you gotta spend money to make money.” I would argue that the flip side is true as well:
You gotta spend money because you make money.
The more money I make, the more I can let flow back out to other businesses that support me: my assistant, my coaches, my technologies, my designers. The more I profit the more sustainable those other businesses are.
I increase my expenses as my profit increases because, each time I do, I gain freedom, security, and support. My business no longer relies upon my ability to get stuff done – now I have a team to fall back on, to trust.
Without profit, there is no team. Without the team, I can’t profit.
If I try to hoard my profits, I end up becoming overwhelmed & disillusioned. And I owe a ridiculous tax bill.
You can’t DIY yourself to sustainability. And you can’t DIY yourself to freedom.
The road between passion & profit can feel like a greedy one.
Who am I to earn money from something that comes so naturally?
Yet, earning a substantial living from your passion allows you to support others in their own passions. The cycle is generous and unending.
Profit isn’t only about “me” – profit works best when you consider the “we.”
{image credit: emdot}