This week’s question from our portal “Ask Us Anything” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.
How do you decide what to charge? And how do you justify that number? I’m like, “Maybe I should charge $X amount per hour,” but then I think—“Oh gosh, that’ll be too much. Nobody’s going to hire me for that.”
How do I get to the place where I’m confident in what I’m going to charge, without going back to my lower fee?
The first thing you’ll want to do is determine the amount of money you want to make.
That means figuring out, “How much do I want to make, and how much do I need?”
Figure out what you need for:
- your personal income
- how much you need to run your business
- how much you need to run your household
From there, you’ll get a total number.
Now, based on that number, ask yourself, “How much do I want to work?”
Then ask, “How many people do I need to charge, and at what price, to fulfill both of those things—the amount of time I’m working, the amount of time I have off, and the amount of money I’m bringing in?”
That’s what determines your number.
The only other way to determine this number is if a company does market research, and they come up with data to figure out what price people will buy at. That’s an interesting process to go through, but I don’t recommend that in your situation.
