How to Price Your Services

Spoiler alert: it's not by how experienced you are or even by how much time it takes you to do the work...

When pricing your services, pinky promise me you'll consider how much time/stress you're saving your client. 

Betcha didn't think of it that way, huh? 

But let's back up a sec. Yeah, it's fair to consider your experience level when pricing your services. I mean, back in college when I was broke-ass-broke I used to get my hair done at the local beauty school...in Waco, Texas. woof...and suffice to say, I got what I paid for. 

Friends would be like, "oh. wow. you got your hair done..." which is a real different reaction than the one you want to get which is people saying, "omg you got your hair done! I love it!"

So now I pay a kajillion times more to have my hair cut and colored --ya know, back when that was a thing we all still did-- and guess what? I don't mean to brag or anything (yes. yes, I do) but I literally have strangers stop and tell me they love my hair. 

The point is: 

my hair stylist knows what the hell she's doing, she charges accordingly, and I'm happy to pay the premium.

Okay, so back to pricing yourself... 

A lot of advice I hear to entrepreneurs offering services is to price based on how long it'll take you to complete the work. Which makes sense on its face, right?

Like, say you're a website designer and you need to earn a net of $100/hour (so you charge $200/hour) and a custom website will take you 15 hours, so you charge $3,000. 

Okay. Good. Great. 

And honestly? When I first got into consulting that's how I priced my services. 

But then something interesting happens: as you get more experienced you get not only more proficient but more efficient in your work. 

This point hit me right in the face not too long ago when I wrote a long-form sales page for a client. It was a few thousand words, took me a couple hours to knock out, and I genuinely enjoyed the process. 

When I sent the first draft to her she was eeeelated. Her reply back was: "thank you so much! You did an amazing job and I can't believe you got it done so fast -- I've been trying to write this one page for weeks!"

NO SHIT, I thought to myself. Here I was, starting to feel a little guilty because projects like these were actually fun and easy for me when it turns out, I'd literally saved this client WEEK'S of her time (not to mention lots of mental space).

The truth is: when I realized I could do in 2 hours work that used to take me 4, I started charging more. 

Sounds cheeky, right? 

But think of it this way: you're saving people precious time and taking away their stress. That's worth A LOT of moolah.

And sure, maybe it only takes you a couple hours to write a sales page or only 8 hours to build a website from scratch but that's because you've spent HOURS upon HOURS of your own time -- refining your skill, educating yourself with books and webinars, investing in courses, and listening to podcasts... 

THAT is what clients pay you for. 

Consider this your permission to stop considering how long the work takes you and instead think about how much time your work saves your client. 

I guarantee you'll start charging more. You're worth it, boo.

p.s. many, many years ago I lived in Bangkok and in nearly a year of living there, I made the mistake --just one time-- of getting my hair cut. There was a major language barrier because my Thai was (and still is) absolutely terrible and when I asked for a cut like Victoria Beckham (ugh. it was the mid-2000s okay? don't judge) I came out looking like a member of BTS (uber-popular K-Pop group, ICYDK). If I can dig up a pic, I'll share it. Promise! It's worth it for the lolz...