Worth

I’ve had many conversations with business owners who have asked variations on this question... By “giving away” our knowledge and expertise on social media, are we doing ourselves or our profession a disservice?

Short answer is no.

Longer answer is N-O.

“But how does that gel with charging my worth?” is usually the next question.

1. Charging your worth is about valuing the services you are selling in your business, valuing the time you’ve put into training in your profession, valuing your years of experience, valuing the financial risk you carry as a business owner, valuing the power of your reputation ... and not being afraid to charge for your services at a rate that is respectful of all of these things.

2. Giving it away ... Providing freely available content on social media or via your website (etc) is a great way to offer value to your broader community on a grand scale. You as an individual, even your business as a collection of individuals, can’t possibly service EVERY SINGLE PERSON on the planet ... but that’s exactly the potential you have on social media - providing freely available information that is helpful and potentially life-changing to every single person on the planet. That’s a feel-good thing, right?

3. AND by giving away so much of your knowledge and expertise and experience via blog posts, videos (or whatever floats your boat), you will feel more comfortable with charging appropriately for the more ‘bespoke’ services you offer to your direct clients. And those clients get to know your service and whether it’s likely to be right for them because they’ll have seen some of your free content. Win win!

4. BUT this does not mean you are a charity! Know the difference between 1:1, 1:Few, and 1:Many. Charge appropriately for the direct client-to-client or business-to-business work you do. Provide exciting (to you and your audience) free content to your broader community.

5. And most of all, have FUN with it. Be rebellious, be entertaining, be informative.

Much love,

Tess x

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Dr Tess Crawley

Tess is an Australian clinical and forensic psychologist with over 20 years' experience in such diverse areas as community mental health, the prison system, perinatal mental health, university lecturing, and private practice.

Tess has a PhD in clinical psychology, has published one business-related book and is in the midst of writing a second. She is also a former actor, which some say explains a lot! In fact, she met her husband of 30+ years while they were involved in a Melbourne stage production of Macbeth (also explains a lot!).

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Charging Your WorthAre you charging enough for your services?

I'm still amazed every time I speak with a professional who is undercharging for their services. And the reality is, if I accused them of undercutting their professional colleagues, they'd be mortified. Because that's not their intention at all! Usually they are coming from the best of heart-centred places - wanting to help people. But then when I dig a little there will also be some unhealthy money attitudes that come to the surface.

Not feeling worth as much as their colleagues. Or feeling that charging more would be "greedy". Or fearing that charging a sustainable fee would kill their referrals. I've worked with enough business clients now to know that these well-meaning approaches to fees usually underpin financial stress, overwork, and burnout.

By charging appropriately, we help MORE people in the long run because our business is more likely to be sustainable.

By charging appropriately we support our profession as a whole to earn a decent income, remain solvent, and ultimately draw more people to enter into the profession.

Again, more people helped!

So the next time you're feeling lacking in confidence to charge an appropriate fee, imagine how many people are helped when our businesses remain viable.

Think of how many people are helped when more people are drawn to work in our professions.

And then think about how you'd feel if you were accused of undercutting your colleagues. Not your intention, but it has the same effect.

Think about it.

 

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tess-bw-1

Dr Tess Crawley

Tess is an Australian clinical and forensic psychologist with over 20 years' experience in such diverse areas as community mental health, the prison system, perinatal mental health, university lecturing, and private practice.

Tess has a PhD in clinical psychology, has published one business-related book and is in the midst of writing a second. She is also a former actor, which some say explains a lot! In fact, she met her husband of 30+ years while they were involved in a Melbourne stage production of Macbeth (also explains a lot!).

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