Owning your work (and honing your work)

Nobody expects you to be an expert on day one. And there are a whole lot of motivating memes out there about not comparing your chapter one to someone else’s chapter six to keep you plugging away with a positive attitude, building something great from the ground up. But also, if you’re just making the transition from knowledgable and helpful friend to bona fide business professional, then there comes a moment when you have to own your work. And charge for it. And I’m here to tell you that’s OK too.

Although it comes really naturally to some people, to most of us small business owners there’s a lot of emotional baggage tied up with the issue of how much to charge. Because however you come at it – charging by the hour or charging by the output – there’s still the inevitable moment of putting yourself out there, telling the world that what you can do is valuable, desirable and worth actual money. 

Therapy is really expensive, so let me cut to the chase for you. You’re not an imposter. Nobody is looking to call you out as a fake. If you take yourself seriously, so will other people. If you talk yourself up, other people will listen and believe you. 

You’d be amazed at what other people don’t know and can’t do for themselves. Whether it’s because they don’t have the knowledge, the skill set, the equipment, the time or simply the desire. And that’s where you come in and it’s also where your value lies. So in amongst all the crippling self doubt and the little voice in your head telling you that £100 is a lot of money, you must never forget that if you are truly going to own your work then your work deserves to be paid for.

Now all this isn’t to say that you can’t continue to refine, improve, build on and yes, hone, your work. But don’t forget that you also need to refine and hone your price point too. Because the better job you’re doing, the more you should be looking to charge. Because after all, no one expects to pay the same for the newbie on chapter one as they do for the expert on chapter six.

Own it, hone it and charge for it.