Are you ready to start getting paid more for your work?
Watch this video.
The way we think about money and how we price our products is easily
one of the most complicated parts of starting and growing a business.
Some of you may not even want to face the truth that a huge part of
your success is hinged on your mindset.
Because it's scary to think the only thing getting in your own way is yourself, right?
You can't blame anyone else anymore.
I've been there myself and it's an ongoing journey and I've learned over the years
how important it is to address your money mindset
if you want to build the business of your dreams.
The moment I realized how much value I bring to people through my products,
my business reached a whole new level,
and I want to share some ways that I shifted my money mindset to get to that point.
Hi, my name is Mei Pak and I help artists, designers,
and creatives make a full-time living selling their handmade products online.
In today's video. I want to talk about a topic that can make a lot of those
creative business owners a little uncomfortable.
And that is the mindset we have when it comes to money and pricing our products.
You may or may not realize this already,
but we all have our own unique relationships with money.
Yes, you can have a relationship with an inanimate object.
You have certain things around money and this is all stemmed from your childhood.
Maybe you were raised to think that money is the root of all evil,
that rich people were bad people, or
“More Money, More Problems.”
I've talked to so many people that don't like money.
You know what happens if you don't like money?
Money doesn't like you.
It's not your fault if you think this way,
and it's not your parents fault either.
But I have to say though, I feel like Hollywood doesn't help
because they're always villainizing rich people.
Anyway, my point is: once you start to see that how much money you make
is directly related to how you feel about money,
everything will change for you.
So let's start with Tip Number One:
How to Price an Item.
A lot of us are used to thinking of pricing
in terms of time exchanged for money.
But my advice to you is to start basing your prices on the value
your products bring to your customers, rather than how long it took you
to make it.
Think of things in your very own life
that bring you value
Things like your microwave, refrigerator, car,
your cell phone, are all things that make your life easier,
more comfortable, and convenient.
Imagine what your daily life would be like without those things!
And ask yourself
how much you’d be willing to pay to have them back in your life.
Chances are you’d happily pay for them,
even if they are expensive.
And you know,
most of these things are made in China for pennies to the dollar.
It's not about time spent making the item,
it's about the value it brings to people.
Use the same mindset when you price your own products.
But I know this can be tricky for some of us,
because we're thinking our products
don't give people that much value.
Well, if you are thinking that,
just know that's got something to do with your self-esteem as well.
And once you feel confident about your work,
it will be easier to see the value your work brings.
Let's move on to Tip Number Two.
I'm sure we've all been told to Price What You're Worth.
But how exactly do we measure worth?
Well, we're told that to measure our worth
by taking into consideration our experience
or our educational history.
This concept works in the corporate world
and maybe to a certain degree in the Fine Art world,
but essentially by this logic, if you didn't go to college,
you're supposed to have low prices,
even if you're crazy good at what you do.
Does that sound fair?
I don't think it is.
This type of advice is a trap that makes you attach your worth
by society standards to your price.
On the other extreme,
I've seen people charged exorbitant prices
for accessible commodities
that are pretty low in value.
Yeah, there are a lot of coaches out there
who tell their clients to charge a lot
so you attract an affluent audience
and get paid more while working less
and because you're worth everything.
It sounds like a nice fairytale,
and yes, a lot of that is true,
but kind of out of context.
Your educational history can
for sure help you in creating an amazing product,
but unfortunately, in this online business space,
your master's degree alone is not something
most people will find important.
It's about how you use that Master's Degree
to create something people actually care about.
So your history alone does not affect
how you choose to price your products today.
Again, chrge based on the value you bring.
Now on to Tip Number Three.
When it comes to pricing, Confidence plays a huge role.
In fact, they go hand-in-hand.
Pricing too low is an indication that you're not confident in yourself
or the value that your products bring.
And potential customers.
at least the ones that are really looking for quality,
can pick up on that.
The truth is:
you can price
as high as you want or feel is fair,
regardless of whether or not your competition prices as high as you.
The key here is to justify your prices to your customers.
And you can do that by providing proof through fantastic photos,
5-star customer reviews,
a great website experience,
top-notch customer service,
and quality packaging.
Providing these important details shows potential customers
that you're the real deal,
giving you several opportunities to gain their trust,
and giving them several reasons to see the value
you do actually bring.
Don't just charge higher prices because
you know your products are amazing,
and then expect your products to do the selling themselves.
Your customers don't know your product is amazing.
You have to show them.
Now with that said,
I can still totally understand
how nerve-wrecking pricing can be
when you're first starting out,
and you're looking for your first customers.
For that reason,
Tip Number Four is to
Charge Lower Rates, Only At First,
as you establish yourself
and gather positive customer feedback along the way.
This can help you gain confidence as you begin
seeing more and more customers loving your products.
It's a cycle, right?
The first sale is always the hardest to get,
but once you get it,
you get a little confidence boost.
When you make another sale, you get another confidence boost.
The important thing here though,
is to not stay at those low rates forever.
Gradually, raise your rates over time
the more confident you get, until you're charging
what you actually want to charge.
Starting at a lower, more
competitive price in the beginning
can be a great strategy
for penetrating a saturated market.
But pricing low isn't sustainable for most of us in the long run,
so let's aim to get those prices up over time.
Bonus Tip:
Pricing Is Not Set In Stone,
despite what your brain or what other people might tell you,
you can change it.
You are the boss of your business.
If you're getting flooded with orders,
raise your prices,
If you're not getting enough orders, lower your prices.
It's a fundamental economic principle of supply and demand.
I know there is fear
surrounding charging up your prices,
and we make it out to be harder than it really is.
So my question to you is: what if it were easy?
How can you make it easy?
We do this all the time
in my husband's print-on-demand art shop business,
which made a million dollars last year, by the way.
And if you're curious to learn more about how we did that,
there is a free workshop you can sign up for.
The link is in the description below,
so be sure to check that out!
Tip Number 5 really focuses on Mindset.
Like anything in life,
having the right mindset for the given situation
is key to moving forward.
So let's assess your money mindset with a simple
starting question:
Do you ever get upset when people sell to you?
If the answer is yes, then let's work on changing that mindset.
Because if you don't like it when others sell to you,
it's very likely that you will have a hard time selling to others.
So let's figure out a way for you to associate selling
with something positive.
A great place to start is to think about the times
that you were sold something
that you really loved.
Something that brought some sort of value to your life.
Really think back to that process from A to Z.
How did you end up purchasing that product that you love so much?
At some point, someone had to have sold you on it,
resulting in a good outcome, right?
Once you can embrace selling and being sold to,
that will change everything for the better.
The fact that you bought a certain product
suggests that you had a positive selling experience.
So, let's apply those key points from your experience into your own business,
to make a positive experience
for your customers too.
The more you can rework your negative money stories
into positive ones,
the more money you will make.
And I know this sounds Whoo,
and I personally didn't believe in that stuff when I was younger,
but I can tell you now after having made
millions of dollars with my online businesses,
that it's true.
Regardless of all that though,
it's still easy to become overrun by fear sometimes.
You might be fearful that pretty much every customer
will think your prices are too high,
resulting in little to no orders,
which means that your business isn't growing,
which then leads to financial fears, and feelings of failure.
That was a mouthful.
But that's literally how our thought process can go, right?
We naturally tend to think of the worst case scenario all the time.
It's a survival thing.
And all of this is brought on by our own fears.
That's why the Sixth Tip is to
Get Comfortable With Your Fears.
How?
By developing a different perspective.
Think of it this way:
Sure, maybe you'll miss out on some customers,
but for every customer who isn't willing to pay your price,
there's a customer who is.
Think about all the time, effort,
and resources that go into making your handmade products,
but accepting a prize way lower than the value
your products give,
you create more work for yourself without the adequate pay in return.
So try your best to adopt this mindset.
The customer who won't end up buying your product
simply just makes room for the customer who will,
because they want high quality and value.
Those are the types of customers you want to build up over time.
The ones who understand that
you get what you pay for,
and that quality items are going to have higher prices.
It's having an abundance mindset.
Our Seventh Tip is Sustainability.
Imagine a scenario where you under price your products.
Well, this could potentially mean that you have more orders coming in at first
that will also mean
having to fill those orders more frequently.
This would end up making you stressed
and pressed for time,
and not to mention having to buy more supplies
with lower profit margin.
That's not sustainable.
You can't do that forever,
and you'll for sure get burned out.
Now, imagine a different scenario where you price your products
for the value they bring.
Sure, maybe you'll have less orders coming in
since your prices are higher,
but the beauty of this is that
when just one person makes a purchase,
the price of that one order
could be the equivalent of,
for example,
three people purchasing the same product,
but at a lower price.
This means that you won't constantly be pressed for time,
having to fill orders,
and you can have more freedom in your day.
If you found this video helpful,
or if you have your own money mindset story in your business,
let us know in the comments below.