Are you currently frustrated because you’re landing low-paying clients? I get it. I was frustrated for years and tried every piece of advice that came my way about how to charge more. From endlessly talking about what’s stopping me, to charging more with every new client, nothing worked consistently.
I would hear things like, “It’s all mindset. You just need the confidence to charge higher prices.” And while that’s true, where does the confidence come from? Do we just need to muster enough to be able to charge more? Or was there something else to it?
Then I started doing things differently, and as a result, my confidence grew and I found myself landing larger and larger projects. My fear of rejection has decreased significantly and I no longer fear if my services are really worth what I am charging.
How do you gain the confidence to charge more?
I started by developing and documenting processes.
Processes are a series of actions—sequential, predetermined decisions—to achieve a particular goal.
I began by revamping my entire creative process by learning and implementing a strategy phase (thank you, Chris Do!). From there, I’m developing an on-boarding process, a way to qualify clients, a marketing strategy, as well as processes for projecting expenses and revenue. I even have a system for scheduling meetings (yay, Calendly!). This journey of documenting all the different processes in my business will never end, as they are the basis for scaling my business.
Before getting serious about defining my processes, I would try something new every time a potential client came to me. And while innovation is great, reinventing the wheel is not. I had a foggy sense of systems and processes, resulting in foggy outcomes and low paying work. By documenting my processes, I am able to set my parameters ahead of time, and identify and fix the things that aren’t working, thus, innovating along the way. Without parameters and predetermined boundaries, I was extremely wishy washy in my decision making, which led to me being talked down on price and believing the work wasn’t as valuable as it actually was.
And you know what happened to my confidence as I started implementing better processes and seeing the small wins of my work and communication improve? You guessed it, my confidence went through the roof. And higher paying clients were a direct result of my increased confidence.
Now, these clients didn’t all of a sudden appear. As I changed and became more confident, I did better work (due to my new and ever-improving) creative process, which in turn attracted higher paying clients. And as I said no to clients who couldn’t meet my minimum, I made room for those who could. The result? Charging a higher price (and feeling good about it, too!).
There are times in our life where we must stop and evaluate where we are at and what is holding us back. And there are other times that we simply must start moving forward, and as we do, we will naturally shed those things that hold us back, like ill-defined processes. As we shed the bad, we can start building on the good, and become more confident in what was there all along.
Melinda Livsey
As the CEO and brand strategist of Marks and Maker, Melinda unites ten years of professional design experience with a penchant for thoughtful customer service.
Melinda’s experience with notable names like Oakley, Paramount Pictures and Loot Crate, coupled with her passion for creative thinkers and entrepreneurs, creates the perfect cocktail of impeccable workmanship, exceptional brands and happy clientele. Designer Interview