Last week, I had enough.

I was pretty busy with projects, and must have had ten quote requests in two days. Normally, this is good, but this particular time, eight out of ten were WAAAAAY out of my price range.  I mean, MILES away.

Now, I realize not everyone out there is familiar with a copywriting service, and probably doesn’t have the foggiest idea what one costs, but don’t you think that someone like me, with my credentials and professional website, is going to cost more than $10 an hour?

Anyway, since most of the time it averages three back and forth messages before I have enough info to get a price, I just reached my breaking point in chasing business that has no chance of materializing (I would venture each of the eight took 20 min to 1/2 hour total time to converse with.)

So I went and put some basic prices on my quote page.

I’ve done this before, and it stops a lot of people from contacting me, so this time I did it a little different - I put the prices and the “here’s some pricing info” after the form.

See, my thinking here is if one goes to a quote page, and first sees three paragraphs of text explaining price, well, that’s a turnoff… they came to contact me, and now they have to scroll for the form. No good.

So I’m first giving them the form, and the price info is there if they want to read it. Most will, but the perception is a bit different. I’m hoping that doing it this way will keep the “$10 an hour” people at bay, but also encourage those who want to use me (and let’s face it, I’m really not that expensive.)

I’ll revisit this in a few weeks and give you the results, as it’s something maybe we can all learn/benefit from. And please, if you have any ideas, feel free to comment with such.

As a writer, I pay attention to the words people use.

During a discussion on a forum earlier today, someone mentioned that one soccer team “thumped” another, 2-0. I don’t follow soccer, but I found the word use odd.

2-0? That’s it? Two to nothing is a thumping? 

I would figure if a team got “thumped”, they got beat pretty bad. 2-0 isn’t bad. 12-0 is bad.

I would call it a “win”, as in “team A won 2-0″  or even something like “team A outlasted team B 2-0″. You could even use the word “beat”, like ”team A beat team B 2-0″ (but, and I have to be clear, you can’t call it a “beating”.)

I just found “thumped” to be an interesting word choice. But I’ve seen this before in soccer - announcers will talk about how one team dominated another, and the final score was 1-0.

One to nothing. That’s “domination”???

I must say, I disagree. The whole team scored one friggen’ goal. That’s only one more goal than *I* scored, and I don’t even play.   

Happy Memorial Day

From my older blog, but still a relevant story:

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I went to go see my nephew Greg a few weeks ago (actually, he’s not really my nephew, but he and his brother are kids of my wife’s childhood friend, and they call her “Aunt Maryellen”, so by virtue of being her husband, I’m “Uncle Dan”… anyway, now that I cleared that up, let’s get back to the story:)

Greg got his first apartment and real “adult” job (he’s 21), and invited me and his father out to dinner. I’m always up for a steak and drinks, so I happily went.

Greg had a nice apartment - it brought back memories of my first place. But there was one teeny little difference, and it strikes me as profound.

Greg doesn’t have a regular phone.

In fact, it’s beyond that - he doesn’t even see a need for one. He has his cell phone, and that’s it. He sees no need - none whatsoever - for a normal “land line” phone. Something that was normal to me  - get an apartment and get the phone hooked up - was totally foreign to him.

So I did a little asking amongst the late teens and twenty-somethings I know.

Know what I found out?? NONE OF THEM HAVE “REGULAR” PHONES.

I’ll bet many phone companies and phone manufacturers didn’t see this coming.

Isn’t that something??

Some random thoughts this afternoon on rates and such:

Many times, small business owners hit a wall in setting their rates or charging for their services. This is because they are still in that “job” mentality of hourly rates, etc. If you are in business for yourself, you will need to break out of this line of thinking.

If a job pays you $20 an hour, that’s probably only 1/3 of your true cost to them. Because there are taxes, benefits, your office, your computer, your chair, company services, the copier repair guy (who is always there), and 4 billion other things you don’t really know of.

That means if you were in business for yourself performing the same job as the above-mentioned example, to cover everything you probably should be charging $60 per hour. Fair enough?

But let’s take this a step further - that rate makes things equal to a job. Is that really all you want? To be worth only as much as a job would pay you? I gotta tell you - if I’m only going to make what a job would pay me, I’ll just go get a job - it’s 1,000 times easier.  

No, to be happy working for yourself, you have to get paid what you are truly worth. And how much is that? Well, there’s no set number, but here are a few things to take into consideration:

• Competition - if your competition generally charges about $100 an hour, you need to be somewhere within that rate. It can vary some, but you need to be somewhat competitive.
   
• If the competition is all over the place in price (like in my business), you need to find a number that you are comfortable with and charge that. And make sure you are happy with this rate, not grudgingly accepting it.

 Per Project Price

A good way to avoid the whole hourly thing (and I hate hourly, as it feels too much like a job) is to charge a per-project rate. This is what I do 95% of the time: tell me what you want, and I’ll give you a complete price for the job.

Avoid feeling bad about getting paid

This is another roadblock that many entrepreneurs must overcome - the guilt associated with charging a fair rate. Again, the “job” mentality doesn’t help here.

Back when I was doing freelance programming, I had trouble with this - for my first job I charged $60 an hour for (a VERY low rate, but a fortune to me at the time, as I was used to a “job” that paid around $20 per hour). The project was going to be 20 hours, and I was astonished that I’d actually make $1,200 for it. I did the project, and I felt a little apprehension (and a bit of guilt) as I sent the invoice - am I REALLY worth that? (silly question, I know, but I was starting out )

Anyway, my apprehension went away fast - not only did the client happily pay the $1,200 right away, they booked me for several more jobs right then and there. Turns out, I was an outright bargain in their eyes.

So set a fair rate for yourself, and send out those invoices with confidence.

Posted this on the small business forum - thought it would be good here, too:

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Going to my monthly Toastmasters meeting tonight, and it got me thinking about networking / groups / clubs / and the like.

I’m not really a fan of networking groups where the point is to swap cards / leads / etc. I find them somewhat phony and dishonest - the only reason people are there is to “get business”.

In my experience with them, I have found that there’s no continuity - if business gets too busy or too slow, the person will stop attending. Thus, I find these groups filled with short-term people. New salespeople hustling for leads; the “here today, gone tomorrow” bodyshop; the “new to this” graphic designer, etc. I’ve belonged to a few of these in my lifetime (back when some of my sales jobs MADE me go), and I’ve never met a five-year vet. I don’t like the vibe in the room, or the look in everyone’s eyes. Reminds me of a new car salesman on the salesfloor… that “I need biz” look.

I know some of you belong to these groups - I don’t mean to disrespect what anyone else does - this is just my opinion of them (and is ultimately worth every cent you paid for it).

This isn’t to say I am against networking - far from it, really. I just think it needs to be done as a secondary thing. Now that I call the shots, if I’m going to join a group, it’s because I find the group useful in an educational sense, or a social sense. If business comes out of it, fine; if it doesn’t, that’s fine too, as that’s not the main reason I am there. I really, truly feel that you cannot be a true business success until you have this attitude.

I look at the Chamber this way - I like hanging out with other successful businesspeople. Once in a great while, I’ll attend a mixer. Not because I want leads, but because I like shooting “business bull” over a scotch. I do realize people swap cards at Chamber mixers, but I think most can agree it’s not a hotbed for leads. It’s WAY more “meeting people” than “getting leads”.

The Lions and Rotary clubs come to mind, too. The big players belong to these clubs. They don’t go there to look for business - that’s almost beneath them. Again, if business comes from it, fine. If not, that’s fine too.

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m going to Toastmasters tonight. Been a member for about 2 years. Out of all the clubs / groups I have joined, I have found Toastmasters to be the most useful. I was always a willing speaker, and was decent enough, but this club has really brought it to another level. From doing the “off the cuff” tabletopics to doing prepared speeches and evaluations, it forces you to communicate in an effective manner. In a very supportive, friendly environment.

I have a hard time believing that any businessperson would hurt themselves by joining Toastmasters. But again, it’s not a place to look for leads, etc. But I think it can help your business better than almost any other group.

Any other Toastmasters here?