You should NOT be selling your TIME!
As creatives and service based businesses, you should NOT be selling your time.
Do not charge hourly rates EVER – because that does not take into consideration your talents, your skills, your investments on education, your years of experience, your total value!
What you are selling is your talent and a final creative product, that will meet or exceed our client’s expectations!
You need to price your work accordingly.
It’s all about the VALUE – not the hours.
You are not being paid to work really hard, nor are you being paid to struggle to get the assignment right.
Your client is paying you to DELIVER GREAT WORK on time, every time.
You may think to yourself – but it’s so easy for me and I can do that like in half an hour, how can I possibly charge so much?
Because they can’t do what you do.
They don’t have the skills, the experience, the knowledge or years of know-how to get the job done the way that you can.
That is what they pay for.
To not have to spend 20 hours doing it themselves.
You are solving a problem for them and it’s worth money honey!
And yes, over time, you will get faster at completing projects or services for them, and yes, it will also be easier for you to produce better quality work for them over time because you are getting more familiar with their company, their messaging, their market and audience.
But all of that will make you MORE VALUABLE, not less so.
So do NOT discount. Holy shit NO!
If anything you should raise your rates every year or as the value goes up and you become even more of an expert.
And, before you start filling your head with the whole ‘I’m not worthy’ or ‘who am I to charge that much’ bullshit – STOP!
First of all, you are so more than worth any number you come up with, but secondly, it’s not about that anyway.
Of course you’re worthy and of course you know you’re good at what you do.
But it is also about what you are giving them. Excellent service, your solving their problems, you give them an outcome that they can’t do themselves.
And… when you can deliver better and stronger work and doing it faster – then you should BE PAID EVEN MORE!
So, never ever EVER sell your time for money.
Sell your value and then deliver that value!
xx
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I am putting together a master class or possibly group program for creatives and designers – to give them the loving ass-kicking they need to level up their design or creative business!
Do you want to charge more?
Do you want more clients?
Do you want to increase your value?
Do you want to take on more work and get paid handsomely for it?
Do you want to know how to scale and grow your business so you can sit by the pool drinking pina coladas while the work gets done?
Do you want access to the strategies and templates and all the things that you could need to level up your creative biz?
If yes – then please message me here – I’d love to know what you want to know or learn and if you are interested in such a program.
thanks xx
Steph Zahalka is the founder and CEO of Jungle Branding Co., a premier award-winning brand agency based on the Gold Coast Australia, serving clients across the globe.
Recent winner of the prestigious Female Entrepreneur of the Year Stevie Award 2020, Steph is a brand strategist and designer who has been featured on the cover of a nationally recognised ‘women in business’ magazine (GCGIB) and regularly appears on podcasts and events around the Gold Coast as a speaker, panel expert and interviewee where she reveals her unique process for building a wildly in-demand brand for ambitious entrepreneurs, modern CEOs, influencers, thought leaders, and service-based business owners.
Steph believes that, when done right, branding is the door to connecting with your people, your audience on a deeper level. Human to human connection that makes your audience ridiculously obsessed with not just your brand, but YOU and your vision that ultimately makes a positive impact on the world.
