“How much should I pay you?” Most of us get hung up whenever clients ask that question. Here’s how knowing your worth can help you get around it.
“How much should I pay you?”
I guess that’s where most of us get hung up. When clients ask that question, the next thing going through our heads is, “How much should I charge?” “Should I overcharge this client?” “What should I tell him?” “I need money, let me charge him xxx amount.”
A common one is to charge low at first so you can get a repeat client.
The truth is, knowing your worth is dependent on you and no one else.
How much do you think you know about what you do? Do you think you’re worth $2,000 or $100 for your service?
Are you good at what you do? This is not about what you think but about the results you help get, because clients pay for results, not efforts.
The $500 Story
I always like using examples and illustrations to buttress my point, so here’s a story to help you understand more about valuing yourself as a service professional.
Joanna is a graphic designer with three years of experience in the field. She has worked with quite a few advertising agencies, helping them with logo designs, brand guidelines and so on.
Now, with a baby on the way, Joanna and her husband agreed that it would be much better for her to stay home and raise the child for some time.
However, Joanna is not the idle type. She loves her work, and still wants to stay relevant in it. After discovering that she could run a graphic design business from home, she decided to set up shop.
With a fully furnished home office and a really round tommy with a baby due to be born in 4 months, Joanna felt it was time for her to get started. As someone who had done contracts from branding and ad agencies, she knew the importance of having a personal brand. So she registered a business and got a professional website designed for her business.
She also understood that to be really respected online, she needed to make a name for herself. She needed to be an authority. And after much research, content marketing was a primary way to achieve this. Well, she didn’t have any problem writing anyway.
Three short months later, after marketing her blog and teaching people what she knew, a potential client contacted her.
This client was the founder of a small finance tech start-up who needed a logo design for his software. Previously, in the corporate world, Joanna never got paid per job because she was on a salary.
Now she was faced with giving a price for logo design. Should she charge $100 being that this was just her first client? Should she charge $700 being that she’s pregnant and would need some money for the baby?
How much would a standard logo design be?
If you were in Joanna’s shoes, what would you do? Overcharge? Undercharge? Or tell the client you’d do it for free since you’re just starting out online?
First, ask yourself what the industry standard is for your service.
What you don’t want to do is charge a client 10 times more than what even the highest paid in the field charges. You’ll appear as money hungry.
Also, it’s important to know beforehand the standard price for your service. This way, if you’re going to charge higher, you’ll know how to explain the reason to your client. Probably it could be that you use better software, you get better results, or you’re an authority in your field.
Next, ask the client for his budget.
This always works. Now, a lot of times, clients may not tell you their budgets. However, those who actually want to pay for good work would. They’re not scared of paying you too much, especially if they’ll get the value of their money.
Asking the client for his budget helps you fix your service in a good range.
In the story above, the budget of Joanna’s potential client was $500 for the logo design. Knowing this, she could do three things:
- Reject the offer because it’s below her rates.
- Realize that it’s above her expectations and accept it.
- Negotiate with the client to increase the budget because it’s below her rates.
Until you feel you have a standard price for your service, when asked for a quote, request for the clients budget first.
The danger of saying your rate first is that it could be below the client’s proposed budget and you’d have rendered a good service for a smaller price. That’s bad for you.
Another danger is the client may perceive you as too cheap and might question your service – whether he’ll get the result he wants or not. This may cause him to look elsewhere.
You don’t want that.
The good thing about building a service business is that you have no fixed prices. As you increase in expertise and knowledge, your service worth also increases. And it increases to a point you’re comfortable with.
However, staying stagnant in knowledge and expecting clients to pay you top dollar won’t work.
If you want more financial value, you have to become a person of value to yourself and your clients. Tweet this.
The Advantage of Having Your Own Brand
In Joanna’s case, the client came to her. She didn’t need to go about pitching potential clients who needed logo design services.
Having her own brand alone put her above other designers who pitch. It gives her the authority to command a price of her choice. And it also gives her the right to reject clients who can’t pay for her design services.
As long as you keep going out and pitching for clients, your service can never have a high worth.
And having clients come to you to request for your services shows that people actually need what you have to offer. And the more people (potential clients) request for your service, the more your worth increases and the higher you can charge your services.
Just don’t get too greedy:D.
Like Joanna, you can get clients to pay you your worth. You can become a voice in your field, regardless of what it is and have people come to you for a need. What you need is your own brand – a brand that people can talk about. A brand that allows you charge above industry standards.
So get started today.