When you started up your own business, you were probably full of enthusiasm. You may have felt like you had the power to change the world; you wanted to make things better for your clients.
But have you fallen in to the trap of discounting your services to clients you feel can’t afford you?
Have you found yourself doing that little bit more, for no extra charge because you didn’t want to bother them with an additional invoice?
Now I know money isn’t everything. If you are just in it for the money, then, to be honest, you won’t really care about your clients; you just want to make the fastest buck as possible and get out of there.
But assuming that you do care about your clients, how much do you also care about your bank balance? Are you running a charity or are you there to make profit?
Motivation to make profit can be tough to admit because, after all, if our clients think that we are out to make a profit, will they not object to paying the going rates for your services or products?
But let’s turn this around. If you are not being paid well for what you are doing and you are not being rewarded significantly for the work that you are doing with your clients, then how can you carry on and work with more clients?
How can you carry on and improve on what you are doing? How can you invest in your business systems and create new programs and new services.
So if you are avoiding the question “Am I really in it for the money?”, then maybe it is time that you should be honest with yourself and think “Well, yes, I can be in business for the money, at the same time as really caring about my clients.”
If you can focus yourself on setting strong financial targets this will, in turn, help you to push yourself to give a better service for your clients.
Your thoughts & opinions: What do you think about making a profit from your business? Leave your comments in the comment box below
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In my experience, when I have fretted about adding extras to the bill – the client has not batted an eyelid and my worrying has been for nothing! I have a saying now – basically if someone asks me to add a task to my task list then they will be billed. Interestingly accountants have no problem with this at all!
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This is an area that can be quite tough when you have a close face to face relationship with your clients and sometimes a bit of well placed generosity can reap unexpected rewards.
However I am getting fed up with the current attitude in the business world of always wanting something for nothing. I have recently been approached by a number of large companies wanting our participation in wellness at work schemes where we are expected to work all day with their staff for nothing, because it is a chance to “market” ourselves. I have taken part in a number of these days with other complementary therapists and nutritionists and it allows the company to tick its “dealing with stress at work” box. However it sets up an expectation with the staff that you will always be free and the companies have no intention of subsidising the staff beyond the initial day.
Somehow I doubt if I rang up a company and said you can market yourself by giving me your services free there would be many takers!
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