Money on My Mind, Part 2 – Why Are You So Scared of Making Money?

Why Are You So Scared of Making Money?

Why are you so scared of making money?

Today is part deux in my two-part installment on making money in your business. As I discussed earlier this month (If you want a re-cap visit this website on Running a Profitable Business), your business only has one job: to make money. As simple as that sounds, the reality is that so many people, I have seen at least in my line of work, have this aversion to making money. Let me make my thoughts on the topic crystal clear. I love money. Looooooove money. I love making it. I love that feeling of paying things off in my business, getting out debt and then watching my business grow to a sustainable place where I truly feel accomplished in what I’m doing. I don’t do what I do to get rich, that’s never going to happen, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to charge what I’m worth and never apologize one second for it.

Stop feeling bad about what you charge for your product or service!!

I do not know of a single business class or MBA professor that is going to say to someone, “OK. So when you start your business, make sure that your prices are super low since you’re just getting started.” Do you hear how crazy that sounds? Yet, it happens all the time and in many different professions. This brings me to my first theory about why people have an aversion to making money.

“I haven’t been doing this long enough.”

I hear this one a lot. You don’t think you have enough experience to charge a larger ticket price for your service or product. Please get this idea out of your head because it is toxic and only makes you think less of yourself and your skills. If I open a bakery, or a coffee shop, or a massage therapy practice, do you really think I’m saying to myself, “Alright Anne. This is your first week in business. So let’s make sure our croissants, coffee and massages are way lower than the folks down the street because we want everyone to know that we’re new.” Again, do you hear how foolish that sounds? Stop it! Those croissants are f-ing delicious and if you don’t charge an appropriate price for excellent quality, people are going to think there is something wrong with you. Customers are just a wary of underpriced goods as they are of overpriced goods. If you have the skills to be doing what you are charging money for, you clearly have worked hard at it and therefore are fully capable of charging what it is worth. I’m going to write more about charging what you are worth in a future post, so I’ll just leave it there on this theme for now.

“I’m only doing this part time; it’s not my full time job.”

I hear this one a lot too. And your point is??? Why does that matter? If you have this amazing skill and you are charging money for it, why does it matter how often you perform that skill? If your wedding cakes are just as amazing as the baker in the next town, then why should you charge a fraction of the other baker simply because you don’t make as many cakes? NO! Your cakes are the bomb! Now, I’m not saying that you should copy other people’s pricing; that is definitely not the way to make money. Your business might not have the same expenses as your competitors and you need to know your cost of doing business inside and out. What I am saying is that there is absolutely zero reason why you should feel the need to charge significantly less money for a part-time service.

Why Are You So Scared of Making Money by Anne Schmidt

In addition to the stories we tell ourselves inside our heads, I also blame an even bigger factor for why people feel bad about making a certain amount of money for a product or service. There is no industry standard telling you what you should charge. If I want to buy a KitchenAid mixer, whether it is from Target or Williams Sonoma, I know what I’m going to be paying is going to be consistent across the board because there is a retail price for this product no matter where you get it. This is easy to do in the retail industry but so much harder to do in the service industry when what a lot of what we do is creative and subjective.

This is definitely the case for my industry. The PPA (Professional Photographers of America) is not telling their members what they should be paid. So we come up with these arbitrary numbers that make no sense, and before you know it we’ve got skilled photographers in the same regional markets charging anywhere from $1,500 – $5,000 to shoot a wedding. How is the client supposed to make sense of that? They don’t. And now we’re confusing the entire industry about what is “good” photography.

Photography is just an example. Insert any service profession and it is the same thing. I understand how hard this is to do when there is no starting point number, but this is why you need to have a firm grip on what it costs to run your business and what is a sustainable price to charge for what you do. Remember, you’re not just making money for right now; you’re supposed to be making money for the future as well. Business owners need to save for retirement and assisted living communities, reinvest in their business and… oh… pay themselves! But luckily finding an assisted home doesn’t have to be that hard. You can start designing healthy assisted living homes early so you’re prepared when the time comes.

As women, we often make a lot of excuses for things. It is a dirty thing that gets ingrained into the brains of smart, capable girls who slowly start to doubt themselves as they grow older. I want to tell you right here and right now to stop making excuses in your business. You have an amazing skill, one that you deserve to be paid a fair price for. You should never, ever be ashamed to make money for what you do. If you find yourself in a financially challenging situation, consider taking out a cash advance milwaukee loan.

Remember, your business only has one job: to make money. Like we discussed earlier this month, if you’re not willing to do what needs to be done to be a legitimate business, then you simply have an expensive hobby. Now, go make some Benjamins!

Photo Credit: Ervins Strauhmanis via Creative Commons.

Anne Schmidt

Anne is a professional wedding and portrait photographer, mother of two and recent Texas transplant (her heart is still in Maine). When not photographing very awesome life events she can be found wrangling small humans (only her own, she promises), cooking her favorite recipes, brewing beer with her husband and desperately trying not to own everything Kate Spade emails her on a daily basis.

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