Is what you’re charging congruent with your ‘value’?

Last week I posted this quote on my Facebook page and it seemed to resonate with a lot of people, so it got me thinking about how do monitor your ‘value’?

Anyone starting out in business or freelancing will always have those big dilemmas of ‘what should I charge?’ and ‘will people really pay that?’ and for most people it’s a source of real uneasiness, as money is an uncomfortable subject to discuss.

When you’re an employee it’s easy to figure out what your hourly rate is, but when you’re working for yourself not only do you need to have an income so does your business; you’ll have overheads to pay and you’ll need to make provisions for your tax and national insurance bill.

This is why I think time tracking is invaluable, as even when you’re not working on client projects you’ll still need to work on your business and you need to make sure your charging will enable you do this. Every time you answer an email, take a phone call, write a blog (the list is endless) takes you away from your client projects and the potential for earning.

Time tracking really gives you a true account of the time you’re spending on your business and can show you areas you could either outsource or where you could cut back. I know for a lot of people social media takes up a large proportion of their time, but if you’re not seeing a return on that investment you have to ask yourself is it worth it?

If you’re offering clients ‘packages’ it’s very easy to undersell yourself, even if you say x amount of hours are included, I bet you’ll over deliver on that EVERY time! So even if a client’s on package, I challenge you to time track and see how many hours you’re doing, and how that reflects on your hourly rate and effectively your bottom line!

It’s all these small pieces of the puzzle that should come together and start helping you figure out your value – if you offer potential clients a free 30 minute consultation and wow them with what you can do; don’t then undersell yourself when it comes to what you’ll charge!

I use Toggl to track my time but there are plenty of other online systems available, I just like Toggl as it’s really user friendly and if you pay for the upgraded version you have the ability to put an hourly rate and see in an instant what your ‘value’ is!

So my challenge to you this week is to track your time – then use that information to see if what you’re charging is congruent with your ‘value’!