Get Paid Your Value, Not Your Price

by Tara Joyce | Feb 27, 2009 | Innerpreneurship, Pay What It's Worth Pricing

Money is one of the greatest stories ever told. The epic theme? Money is scarse. Funny how there always seems to be more.

Everyone worries about getting a fair price.

For many people, the feeling of spending money is an icky one. It is not enjoyable and is fraught with negative emotion. They think of what they are losing and worry about being ripped off. They are scared that the stated price will exceed the stated value. Most of the time we simply pay the set price for a good/service, begrudgingly. And the value we place on it ends up being based on the price we pay. If we feel like the value we gained is equal or greater than it’s price, we feel excited about getting such a good deal. Otherwise, we feel indifferent or cheated. If you notice, during this whole process we aren’t conscious of the actual value we place on the good/service.

Everyone worries about being valued fairly.

Admit it. Sometimes you worry that you are charging too much, or charging too little. You question if the price you have set for your good/service really reflects its value to the customer. You also see the price you are paid as an extension of your worth. Being underpaid is almost an insult to you and your work.

Money is not “evil”.

It’s the attachment to money that is. The love of it, or the fear of it, but not money itself. Your reaction to money, your ideas about money, they colour every decision you make. Your energy, your thoughts on money affect your life in the same way your thoughts on the environment, or anything else, do. When buying something we never really stop and think, what value do I place on this? What value do I place on the person who created this? Far before our conscious arrives at these thoughts we worry about and are told the price.

What if the customer set the price?

And what if you, the provider, let your customers communicate the value they place in you and your gifts, through their payment? What if the price of the goods or service you supplied was based simply on it’s demand? What if the value of your work was based on how appreciative people were of it? What if you let the whole exchange be enjoyed before a price and thus, a value was placed on it?

Our consciousness, on life and pricing.

I know that each of us believes what you give, you receive. And we believe that we create our own destiny. That our attitude determines our outcome. We believe in our intuition, to our inner voice. We believe that our ideas have value and that other will see it. We live by these ideas…except when it comes to pricing. When we place a price on our self (whether via our product or service) we are placing a limit on our value. We are limiting the possibility that someone might value us greater than we value ourselves

Assess your consciousness.

If you are like me, upon reading the above arguments, you quickly doubted that anyone would recognize the true value in your product/service (and by extension yourself). But go back and assess your fundamental beliefs on life. Thinking that you won’t be appreciated, monetarily or not, goes against everything you believe. Your true reaction, if you were taken advantage of monetarily and if money didn’t feel so icky, would be to mirror this event in your own life and ask “where am I taking advantage of other situations that draw this reaction to me?”

An economic viewpoint.

Let’s get our heads out of the clouds for a moment and be a bit more left brainy. The Economic theory of supply and demand assumes:

That the quantity demanded falls as the price of the good rises, and conversely that the quantity supplied rises as the price increases.

If I supply my service, web writing and consulting, at the level of demand, i.e. my clients set my price and value, Economic theory states that two things will happen:

1. I will maximize my return potential, rather than limiting it.
2. I will be shifting the traditional supply curve (based on the epic story of scarcity) to one based on abundance.

If I allow people to pay their own price, I create a movement that allows me to extract the marginal value of each buyer. Some may pay me less, but some will pay me more. Some may pay less and buy more; while some may pay more and buy less. Regardless, I will be putting trust in my self worth. It is the true essence of value pricing. The buyer determines the value and the price.

Your worth is not measured in money.

If you no longer set a price, you are no longer setting a value on your self-worth. Just as your personal growth is endless, so should be your business growth. Let money be a conductor for your positive, creative and conscious thoughts and energy. Allow your customers to freely value your offerings. Use pricing as a means to let your consciousness draw in your measure of self worth. For what you give, you truly will receive.

I know this idea is pretty wild and one that will take some mulling over. But think about it and let me know where your mind goes. I am likely going to apply value pricing to my business and I am going to write shortly on my objections and encouragements of the idea. Is it crazy genius or crazy foolish?

This post was inspired by the evolutionary ideas outlined in Philip Dignan’s Secrets of the Wealthy Mind.