When it comes to asking for money for one’s services or goods, some people have no trouble at all, and some find it the most uncomfortable part of business processes.
Lucky you if you were brought up in a culture where self worth is not tied to your bank balance. The Romani peoples (Gypsies) see money something they can make come to them with little more effort than their use of words (marketing anyone?) and use it to forge closer bonds to each other through celebration and festival. Their lifestyle is foreign (duh!) to us non-Gypsies, and their use and pursuit of money can be abhorrent to us. Asking for money for no effort is begging isn’t it?
For most of anglo western society money is seen as part of the person. The starving artist may be producing the most wonderful of creative efforts, but will be looked down upon because they cannot support themselves through “proper” means. Perversely the rich are also viewed with distrust because no average person could get that rich by legal means can they? We become tied in moral and self-worth knots when we come to the moment where we put a $ sign on our goods, or our time or labor.
I watched a video recently of a person I respect, a person who can name their price for their consultation and teaching services, but when they came to saying the price for their newest enterprise, they hesitated. It may have only been for a nanosecond or two but it was noticeable. This guy is not shy, has tons of cash anyway, yet tripped when it came to naming his price. It was an odd moment.
Lisa, Barb and I have yet to have our final pricing discussion for the Secret Women’s Business Network teaching area, but we will be talking about what this is worth to our clients and NOT about what we feel we are worth (in the secret depths of our minds *wink*). There is a lot of time and expertise going into the creation of the SWBN and the experience we will be providing will be worth every penny.
Planned and executed my exit from the corporate world. Walked away with a 6 figure payment to boot.
HI Allison,
I signed up to hear more about SWBN today. I’m eager to see how you do.
Pricing decisions are among the most complicated ones we make in business.
When I worked in oil and gas, independant gas stations would price their fuel by using a relational strategy. That is, their pricing guideline was based on what others were doing around them.
So each morning Joe station owner would walk outside, take a look at what Shelly’s Shell Station across the street was doing with their fuel prices, and adjust their prices according to a scale (for instance +1 cent if their brand was perceived better than Shell, -2 cents if their brand was a discount brand.
I use this pricing model now. I find my closest competitors content-wise. Then I choose to be the premium service providers. I’ll price myself a little higher, and pule on the value.
Instead of trying to get the money that I think I’m worth, I try to create an excellent value, then convince my customers that THEY are worth it!
Good luck with your new venture
Donna
Thanks for dropping by Donna and for your interest in our project!
Love reading your stuff and the advice is very much appreciated