Episode 168: Why I Don’t Believe Designers Should Charge Their Worth

It’s time to dive into an unpopular opinion—it’s time to stop charging your worth. Before you stop reading or listening, hear me out. When we tell people to charge their worth, we’re equating our worth to a monetary value. Truthfully, you’re worth is priceless. Your services are not. Let’s charge for our work rather than our worth. Stop Tying Our Worth to Our Prices When we focus on charging what we are worth, we tie our value and our self esteem to our pricing. Then, when we get rejected based on our pricing, we feel defeated and take it personally. This leads to a real struggle with having confidence in ourselves, which leads to a lack of confidence in our skills. The truth is you’re not being rejected based on your worth, your services are being rejected for other reason: budget, service offerings, etc. Charge What the Market Will Pay When charging what you’re worth, you’re not considering what the market is willing to pay for that service. We stop thinking about our ideal client and their budget, and focus solely on our own profits. We have to think about what your ideal client is willing to pay for the work that you do. We have to leave the emotions at the door when it comes to pricing our business. The best approach you can take to doing this is letting your market decide your pricing by letting them use their wallets. This means we need to break up with the idea that your worth is based on their wallets. What does your work offer to your ideal client? Once we remove you and your emotions, you can sell the transformation that your work provides. So what does your work offer to your ideal client and what would they be willing to pay for that transformation? Taking your worth and removing it from your pricing allows the transformation your offer to your clients through your services speak for itself. Rejection Hurts We’ve all been there—we’ve heard every excuse in the book on why we weren’t hired. Want to know a secret? You don’t have to feel bad when someone doesn’t hire you. I know, easier said than done. It’s disappointing and hurtful when you get passed over for a job, but you do not have to let that reflect what you are worth. This simple mindset shift is a game-changer in your business. After someone says thanks but no thanks after a sales call, I know they’re not saying no to my worth. They’re saying no to the transformation that I could provide for their business. Start Charging for the Value Your Work Provides Want to learn how you can actually earn more as a graphic, brand, or web designer WITHOUT trading your time for money? In my totally free training on how to 3x your income as a designer, I cover the three most common mistakes that are keeping you stuck and keeping you from experiencing consistent income. PLUS, I share how to kick these mistakes to the curb for good! Grab your free seat, and I’ll see you there. 😊 FOLLOW ALONG Brand Strategy Podcast