The Value of Value: Snippets On Pricing Our Services

Filed Under In General | 23 Comments

Trying a different schedule: New posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. More time for reading and commenting, and I’ll have breathing room for new BBB goodies, collaborations, and microconsulting.

Hello, my time is worth $100 per hour

Image credit: DNY59

When I introduced my strategic collaboration consulting idea earlier this week, anything could have happened in the comments area. Thankfully, I got the same encouraging and helpful feedback BBB commenters give all the business bits that get posted here. And as always, I appreciate every word of it!

We had a good giggle about the alleged cleverness of my 140-character microconsulting service—which inspired yesterday’s Super Genius post—but the larger discussion ignored the nature of my services, and even the technology I’ll use to deliver them. Instead, we bantered about how much I wasn’t charging for it. Read more

Picking and Poking at Poverty Mind

Filed Under In General, Quotations | 35 Comments

Empty pockets, from iStockPhoto

“Financial security does not come from the amount of money you currently have—it comes from your belief in your ability to get more of it whenever you want.”

~Michael Neill

Michael Neill’s words—which headline the Finance and Money chapter of X Marks the Spot—got me rethinking poverty mind. And not in terms of money.

What if what Michael says about financial security is the same for our emotional security? Then emotional security stems from a belief that we can get more love, more friends, more acceptance, more appreciation, and more attention whenever we want. It would follow then, that insecurities are rooted in fear that those things are in short supply.

Is the same true for ideas? If it is, it means that people who believe in bottomless idea buckets feel safe when sharing their notions and helping others brainstorm. On the flip side, people who are secretive about ideas and miserly with feedback are reacting to a concept that the ideas they have are the only ideas they’ll ever have.

And then there’s time. Pema Chodron asks us, “Since death is certain, and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing?” Our time is surely finite, but does that give us a right to be stingy with it, or would we serve ourselves and others better by handing over this unmeasurable treasure by the bushel?

We’re probably hardwired to hoard when there’s a shortage. But I feel it’s critical for a healthy spirit, a functional family, and a harmonious planet that we treat love, ideas, and time like the renewable resources they truly are. Since the beginning of the beginning, we—as a species—have fought with others (and ourselves) over things we imagine are in short supply.

Why is it easier to scrap over scraps than to cultivate resources that can’t be used up?

Which is all to say: when it comes to earning a living, how do we choose a service to offer? Selling something we have plenty of and the market lacks is easy-peasy. But what do we do when the knowledge and skills we have in ready supply aren’t met with high market demand?

Or maybe even more challenging, what if what’s in demand is something we have, but we feel a need to clutch it close to our chest? Indira Gandhi said “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist,” and to that I add: you can’t accept payments that way either.

Sorry. I usually post answers, but today I’ve got nothing but questions. There’s never a shortage of those.

Et tu? Let me know below.