Double Your Charges Now

Shock and Awe. I have had a few clients recently that I have genuinely shocked. I have asked them what they charged per hour.

Shock and Awe. I have had a few clients recently that I have genuinely shocked. I have asked them what they charged per hour. One said she charged £ 60 per hour for her skilled professional services. When I told her to immediately double her hourly rate she reacted in horror. But, she said, I will lose half my clients. Yes. Exactly. But you will earn the same with twice as much time to fine new, better, more rewarding clients. It is often said that time is money. Unlike money, we can’t get time back. We are all given the same amount of it. Here is the key: we can’t beg, borrow or steal to get more of it. Time is the ethereal gift, the universal equalizer. To live a well lived life, we should be as abundantly rich in minutes as we are in money, so that we have the freedom to spend our hours on what is truly valuable to us.

If you are really a very special person, you will not have to remind others. – P. K. Glass

Because you're worth it. In the pursuit of financial security we can lose sight of wasting our most precious commodity. We face the tradeoff between saving time versus money all the time. Often we think we are the most important person in the world. We can't understand why others just don't see it. Is it possible we are not as important as we think? Or, others do not see our importance as being as great as we do?  The value of an individual is always changing, and it is not always the same in every aspect of our life. Why then is it even important to evaluate our value at all?

Knowing the difference between cost and value can increase your profitability. So you need to know these 3 things:

the cost of your product or service is the amount you spend to produce it
the price is your financial reward for providing the product or service
the value is what your customer believes the product or service is worth to them

To understand your value and massively increase your profitability you must find out:

what benefits your customers gain from using your product or service
the criteria your customers use for buying decisions – for example, speed of delivery, convenience or reliability
what value your customers place on receiving the benefits you provide.

This is the beginning of your value proposition. Wherever possible, set prices that reflect the value you provide – not just the cost. So what is your value proposition? I believe it is composed of 4 distinct elements:

USP (Unique Selling Proposition). USP is the most closely related concept. But it only focuses on what makes your product better than competing options. And that’s just a part of a strong value proposition.
FAB (Feature-Advantage-Benefit). FAB is a process that helps you figure out what each of your product’s features means to your customers, which enables you to address their concerns, desires, wants, and needs.
POP-POD (Points of Parity – Points of Difference). POP-POD is a process used to find differentiating factors between businesses. You start by finding “points of parity,” or the factors you have in common with your competitors. And then you find “points of difference;” the aspects of your business thatdifferentiate you from your competitors.
UVP (Unique Value Proposition). UVP sounds nearly the same as value proposition. But the strong focus on uniqueness makes it less useful (much like USP).

Don't you think it is important that you are accurate in your own assessment of yourself? Think of the potential problems if you expect you are more (or less) important than you are perceived to be by others. This is usually (if you work in a company) looked at by your contribution to the 8 P’s:

PROFIT
PRODUCTION
PERSISTENCE
PRIDE
PERSONALITY
PRICE
PROBLEM SOLVING

When you evaluate your value to the company or your business, how do you measure up? Often we have good days, months or years. However, what is your pattern with respect to the eight "P's? When you’ve created and refined your value it will help you in several ways:

It makes you focus on aspects of your business and initiatives that make the biggest difference.
It helps you avoid wasting time, money, and energy.
It helps you develop the most persuasive marketing concepts.
It gives you the right basic wording for marketing messaging.
It shows you how your customers view you and your products.
It reveals the connections between your product and your prospects’ goals.
It gives you confidence to say I Am Worth it.
I Deserve it.

Then you can begin to articulate your real value. This is the part most people easily recognise as a value proposition. Simply put, value articulation describes the overall perceived value of your product or service. It’s not just the product you sell; it iseverything potential buyers perceive as valuable in your offering.

Read that paragraph again.

As long as people believe you’re the best option for them in at least one way, they have a reason to choose you instead of your competitors. The core of your value proposition is just a few sentences that describe the very basic reasons that will most likely cause your prospects to choose you over your competitors. There are a few basic ways you can make an otherwise hard-to believe promise solid and believable

Be specific.
Show the proof.
Guarantee it.
Provide an easy way to test it.
Let someone else speak for you

Creating a strong business value proposition is the most important task any business, including yours, will ever undertake.When it’s strong and refined and you know how to use it, it gives you a seemingly unfair competitive advantage against your competitors.

However, a great value proposition by itself won’t make you successful.

Learning how to use it is the real key to growing your business.

You need to believe in yourself first and start being amazing every day.

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