Quality has its price.
Never sell yourself short .
Have you ever found yourself in situations where family and friends have approached you with the expectation that they are entitled to discounted “friend prices” or even free services? (Yes, I know, I could never ask that of a professional).
A few thoughts that will hopefully help you to never sell yourself short and not damage your relationships.
Self-employment brings a lot of freedom — the people surrounding you know what you are doing, and hopefully they want to support you. At some point of your self employment business and private life will mix. Now we need to be careful and cautious to not lose out. In my own experience, private projects almost always come with deficits on our side. You either lose money or damage your relationships.
If you’ve found yourself in such situations, you have probably also tried to approach it rationally and talk transparently about your efforts and costs in order to find common ground.
If so, you’ve probably already noticed that it can quickly lead to discussions. In extreme cases, they either try to get even more out of it or even question your performance. Just because you know your people personally, the threshold for discussions is also much lower.
Alternatively, you can of course “silently” hope that it will return to you in some form — isn’t that a given?
I wish it were that straightforward. Unfortunately, nothing will come of it. All you (and only you) are left with is an uncomfortable feeling that you will have to swallow for better or worse, because you haven’t educated them. Your “help” will probably be seen as a “favour”, despite the fact that you have invested X hours of your valuable time.
By keeping your head above water financially with your unique creativity and skills, you have limited resources. You are not a machine. Every minute you work on “good-will” projects, you lose energy, revenue or even both.
“Friendly prices” are often “requested” as lower-priced options. But true friends should be supportive to one another. Particularly if they want to get you on board as a professional.
They surely appreciate your work — but is this also worth paying for?
👉🏼 Don’t be afraid to talk about money. Stand up for yourself. You are worth it.
👉🏼 ALWAYS clarify the costs in advance and leave nothing to chance. If it’s too expensive for them, then they need to go somewhere else. Because you are worth it!
👉🏼 Never ever justify your price to ANYONE. You have your reasons and that has nothing to do with the people surrounding you — and oh yes — YOU ARE WORTH THE PRICE!
👉🏼 “Good billing keeps good friendships” is the motto. — without any exceptions.
👉🏼 Friendship means being there for each other. If YOU don’t get anything out of it, don’t do it. Because you are worth more.
Professional, high-quality and individualized creativity can have its price in EVERY situation. Especially in times of generative artificial intelligence. Genuine, man-made, customized creativity is more valuable today than ever before.
So one last time in the canon 🔊 You, your time and your skills are absolutely worth it ❤️
Did you like this post? Let me know if you did! Leave a comment and a 👏🏼
Do you share this view, or do you have a completely different opinion? I would be very happy to read about it 🙏🏻
See you soon!
~ greg
I will never send more than one email per month, I promise!
