Friday 21 August 2009

What's The Right Price?

How much do you charge for your services?

How comfortable do you feel talking about money with clients or potential clients?

Are you happy with how much money you end up with at the end of each month?

Consider these three questions, and think about how you charge.

If you are not reacting positively to all three of these questions, you may not be charging the right price.

Pricing can be a huge challenge in any service business. Think about it, you are asking people to pay for your value.

Yes you are completing tasks for them, but really your value comes down to what you bring to the table. So how do you prove how valuable you are?

First, you have to start believing it yourself. Here's an exercise for you. I call it the Skills Inventory.

Take a sheet of paper and start to write down all the things you know how to do in business. I found this easiest to start with my first job (yes, it was a long time ago!) and move forward. Think about the systems you have used, the things you have done and write them all down.

Then think about the other things you have learned as well - did you manage people? did you take training courses?

This is meant to be a super comprehensive list of the things you know how to do. It will likely take more than one sitting to get everything down on that paper. Don't leave anything out!

As you compile your skills inventory, you will start to see the training, experience and skills you are bringing to each and every client you work with... it's your VALUE!

Only when you know your value, can you charge properly for it.

So what's the right price to charge your clients? That's entirely up to you.

You select the type of business you want to operate. You choose when you will work. You know how much you need to earn. And you also know what your expenses are.

So you determine what the right price is for YOU.

Many VAs I know ask what the going rate is for stuff. I say it's irrelevant. You need to decide this for yourself and then get comfortable charging it.

Conversations about money are easy when you know what you are worth, and can articulate that to clients and potential clients.

Try it for yourself - and let me know how you feel after you do your Skills Inventory! It's an exercise I love to do (it makes you feel really good!)

And once you are feeling great about how much you are worth, join me for this week's free Back to Basics training call: How To Find Clients (and then join me weekly for these awesome free training sessions!)

Tracey D'Aviero is a veteran VA and Founder of Your VA Mentor. Tracey trains and mentors professional women and men who are brand new to the VA industry or who have been struggling to make their business successful. Her mission is to educate professionals on how to build and grow successful and profitable virtual businesses in the VA industry by implementing systems and smart principles. To get information about Tracey's upcoming programs and free resources,