Money Talk: Learning the hard way. Cost vs Value
Money. Urgh, the topic that everyone starts to feel quite squirmy about when mentioned - the topic that you almost have to feel you have to apologise about bringing up and you awkwardly mutter quickly at the end of a conversation. Alas, without money - your business does not exist, so we learned the hard way to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.
In the beginning, we felt guilty about charging people for our time. Complete madness, we know. As a start-up studio, working with fellow start up's we knew how tight money was - plus, in most cases we really just wanted the job (at any cost?!). So we'd flex and stretch ourselves, working on projects that we'd massively undercharged for. At the start this didn't seem so bad, at least we had 'some' money coming in and we were building up a portfolio and reputation. As the early months started to turn into early years, and we were still squeezing ourselves financially to fit this frankly laughable pricing scale we'd created, we were starting to feel burnt out - working flat out, yet somehow earning one of the lowest wages we'd earnt in our careers. We felt stuck. Our prices had meant we could work with some inspiring small businesses, but they also meant our business was unsustainable. We knew many of our clients struggled to cover the costs as they were...what would happen if they changed?! We'd lose them.
Our story is, unfortunately, unremarkable, especially among female business owners and contractors. It is something that money coach Ray Dodd brings up time and time again.
If our business was unsustainable as it was - it had to change. We had no choice, and it all started by us shifting the way we viewed ourselves. We were charging ourselves out like a cookie cutter service you'd buy off the shelf, a workbook you'd buy or an app you'd download. A certain price for a certain outcome. We quickly learned that this was wrong, no project, person or brief is the same, and we shouldn’t cost them as such.
We’d also neglected what we brought to the table. 15 years worth of stuff to bring to the table 15 years of mistakes, learning, developing, honing, refining, and growing. 15 years of interpreting a brief, building relationships with clients, presenting our work, honing feedback, thinking creatively, and delivering results. We have and add value. So when you work with us, you're not just paying for 5 days of our time, you're also paying for that 15 years of experience.
This always brings to mind a great story I heard about Pablo Picasso whilst reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (a strong recommend). Towards the later years of his career, Pablo Picasso was in a restaurant alone in Spain. He sat drawing on the napkin on the table. Once he had finished he went to leave, scrunching up the napkin and shoving it in his pocket. Seeing this, a woman said, "Please, can I buy that off you". He removed the napkin, uncrumpled it, and kindly obliged, "Sure, that will be $20,000". The woman was taken aback "but it only took you seconds to draw". "No," Picasso said, "It has taken me 40 years to do that".
There will always be clients who won't understand the importance of the value you bring, and there will also be clients who simply can't afford you. That is ok. I say that simply, but it's still a very raw lesson we are learning. You do not have to win every job. You should not win every job - because if you 1. change your process to meet another or/and 2. change your price to meet another, the only business you are hurting is your own. This is where trust and belief have to come in. Trust that the right people will understand that value, and believe in your worth.
We have been incredibly lucky to work with clients who do just that. Charging what we are actually worth has freed us up creatively. We’re no longer falling over ourselves to jump onto the next project to just about earn enough, running head on into burn out. We have time and space to actually think and explore a project, to do good work, and to look after ourselves.