Why You Should Always Set a Higher Price for Your Expertise
Have you ever struggled with setting a price for your services or skills? Whether you work a corporate job and have to tell your employer the expected salary or negotiate a raise, or an entrepreneur/freelancer who has to find one’s place on the market — in both cases you need to “put a tag on it”.
Yet I’ve seen many cases — mine included — when people found it somewhat arduous to price themselves properly. What is extremely common is undervaluing when it comes to selling oneself. But here’s the news: setting up a lower price out of timidity and unrealistic judgment of your professional might will bring you neither loyal customers nor financial stability.
Here’s why you should start acknowledging your worth and getting paid higher for something you’re an expert at.
Money, power, self-esteem
There’s this saying I’ve once read on the Internet that impressed me:
“If I do a job in 30 minutes it’s because I spent 10 years learning how to do that in 30 minutes. You owe me for the years, not the minutes.”
I remember I’ve read it. Then rubbed my eyes. Then reread it. And then it hit me.
Have you ever sat down and written down what made you the professional you are? Because let me assure you, there’s a lot you did for your development that you most likely later took for granted. Count all the years at the university, all the internships you’ve had, all the online courses you’ve passed, all the test tasks you did when applied for jobs, all the trainings-conferences-master classes, all the powerpoints and speech revisions it took you for a project presentation — insert what describes you because the list is endless.
I’ll tell you a story of losing a ‘client’ when I finally got the guts to ask for the price I deserved. A couple of years ago I took a film producing course. The student group was small, so we all ended up being good acquaintances. In one class, we had to do a PowerPoint on a film company’s productions, and my slides impressed one of my classmates so much that she later asked me to help her out with creating powerpoints — at first voluntarily — at her filmmaking startup.
Some of you will point out my first mistake right here, where it all began: you don’t do stuff you’re good at for free. Maybe for the best of the best friends, but that’s it. For all others, there’s a price — but we’ll talk about that in the next few paragraphs. So I did some dozen presentations for this girl for some time, and as you may have guessed, never asked for remuneration. She started transferring money at some point: mostly it was $4 for 10–15 slides I made.
Four dollars. For a PowerPoint. For which I would carefully design each slide, choose a color palette, and edit everything to the millimeters to be visually appealing.
Now to the most captivating part. This lasted for about a year until I had a breaking point. It was the evening before an exam at the uni — the subject I was preparing for wasn’t easy at all, and I’ve had to read and memorize loads of material on conflicts in Eurasia. She wrote to me asking for another set of slides to be ready asap — I spared two hours the next morning before my exam to help her out. When it came to the payment, I finally breathed out and set the price twice as much she used to pay me. The response was: “Sorry, but right now I can only pay you half. When I figure out my money problem, I’ll get you the other half”
This was when I thought: what kind of bullshit are you trying to sell me?
You can guess how the story ends:
- She never paid me the second half (obviously);
- She also never asked for any more PowerPoints. Ever. We barely even talk now.
The lesson learned? You'll be exploited if you don’t position yourself right to other people and don’t set the proper price for your services.
I never put a tag on my PowerPoint-making skills because I took them for granted. I thought — “Nah, why setting a higher price? It’s such a common skill!”
Wrong! Whatever skill you have, it’s not common. You worked on it to get proficient. It’s not something you were born with.
I’ve had my pinch of salt at underestimating myself. So here’s what I’ve learned from this little professional awakening:
Valuing your experience, skills, time, and effort has a direct correlation with your self-esteem. The reason why you don’t seem to find the courage to set the deserved price for your offer might be connected with your insecurities. Finding yourself thinking “I don’t deserve this”, “I’m not qualified enough”, “It doesn’t even take me much time”, “Who am I to set this price” and so forth is the very indication.
The news is that to learn how to start selling yourself “healthily”, you’ll have to start with addressing your insecurities and self-esteem issues. The good side to it — you can work on your self-confidence and professional positioning simultaneously. No need to wait until you’re completely healed.
Asking for a higher price for your expertise is not only okay, but it’s essentially how you should position yourself on the market. People ready to pay the price you’ve set for the quality they get will find you. There are 8 billion people in the world and approximately as many potential consumers for your services.
There is a hugely misleading thought among young freelancers and entrepreneurs that lower prices attract customers better. Not exactly. Lower prices attract certain types of customers — those who undervalue you the same way you undervalue yourself. Set the price you deserve, and you’ll see how different of an audience will express interest in what you have to offer.
And finally — nothing comes for free, and neither should your effort. Friends and especially acquaintances are no exception to this rule. Just because you’ve developed a relationship with a person doesn’t mean they shouldn’t pay you for your time and skill. Offer them a discount if this would make you and them feel better about the deal, but never let anyone manipulate you into devaluing your hard work for nothing.
