Mediocre white man vs. Superstar woman – who has more confidence?
I’ve teased my husband that I’m going to buy a tee shirt that says “Carry yourself with the confidence of a mediocre white man.” Now, I’m totally NOT into stereotypes, so let me start by saying that I’ve got nothing against all white men. However, I’ve dated several guys (and had conversations with a ton more) who absolutely drove me crazy because they were sure that they were smarter, hotter, and more athletic than they actually were. In other words, they had a supersized opinion of their own abilities.
This is purely anecdotal, but I find the opposite to be true of most of the women I meet. (Again, both of these are generalizations, and there are lots of exceptions to the rule.) We often downplay our successes, second-guess our ideas, and allow criticism of our thoughts without defending them as vehemently as we could. The same goes for our products. I’ve talked to a lot of women who say, “But I can’t charge that.” “Who would pay me that?” or the ever-popular, “I’m doing what I love, so I don’t need to charge that much.” Hold on right there, sister. If you are providing a quality product or service, you deserve to make money. It’s not selfish; it’s capitalism.
Take my money – PLEASE
So let me give you an example. Our family went through a really dark time a few years ago when one of our kids started having some serious behavioral problems. It was bad. I actually remember thinking, “Oh, my God. We have got to get help. I don’t want to be on the evening news in a few years because my child has gotten a gun and shot me, but that’s the direction we’re headed.” I was more scared and panicked than I had ever even imagined being.
Enter our therapist. She specialized in the issue our child was having. Suddenly, I was thinking, “This woman MUST spy on us. She knows what’s going on as if she watched our family every night.” She gave us hope and taught us how to deal with the issue. She didn’t solve every problem and we still have challenging days, but it’s nothing, NOTHING like it was before.
We have a normal family life again, and I owe it all to her. Do you think I care about her fee? Hell, no. She gave me my family back. I would have sold everything I owned and still considered it a bargain. As a matter of fact, we have even paid for an initial session for several of our friends who were facing serious family struggles, all of whom have continued to work with her. Why? Because she is worth it! She delivers on what we needed and so much more.
Now if you called her an expert, she would probably laugh in your face. She doesn’t see herself as an expert, but she is. She is providing a service that is well worth her fee, and if you provide an excellent service, you should, too.
People are paying you to solve a problem
“But I’m not saving someone’s family. I’m just ___________ (fill in the blank). That’s different,” you say. Yes and no. Are you filling a real need? Are you going to solve a problem, a real, burning problem? Then let people pay you to solve a problem.
I teach enrichment language classes in preschools. I’m not saving someone’s family, but I do solve a problem for parents who know that learning a language is easiest and most effective during the preschool years. I also use a method that is tremendously more effective than most preschool language classes. And I provide lessons at the child’s preschool, so parents don’t have to schlep their child somewhere in the few precious evening hours they have together. I provide a real service, and I charge for it. If I don’t make at least $50 per 30-minute class (I often have multiple students in each class), then I don’t do it.
When I focus on solving problems for my clients, it gets easier for me to charge what I’m worth. Now, please realize, that I always make sure I’m providing value for clients that exceeds my price (more on that in another post), but I don’t get the guilties when I see it from their point of view. They have a problem. They need a solution. They will be happy – thrilled, even – if I solve that problem for them, and if I’m really making their lives better, then I deserve to make money for my skills, for my investment, for my abilities. If they could do it for themselves, maybe they would. But they don’t have the expertise/product that I do. And I’m going to save them time, or money, or frustration. I’m helping them. And for that, they pay me.
Your Turn
It’s pretty rare that I assign exercises, but this time I’m going to. If you provide a service or product, spend 5-10 minutes thinking about what problem you solve for your customers. Why would someone want what you have? There’s got to be a pain there, a fear, a worry. What is that? Now, how do you solve that problem for them? Write it down, and then ask yourself this question: what would you pay for someone to solve that problem FOR you in the way that YOU solve it?
Do you sell make-up? What problem is the make-up solving? Well, it depends on the customer. You’re solving very different problems for a 22-year-old and 65-year-old. For a 22-year-old, you might be helping her look professional, so she feels more at ease in her job. You might be helping her feel beautiful at a party. For a 65-year-old, you might be helping her feel like she used to feel. You might be helping her see those rosy cheeks that she used to have. Now, what would you be willing to pay to feel beautiful? What would you pay to see yourself as you looked 10 years ago? That’s a very different price than what you’d pay for make-up.
Please, if you have trouble charging what you’re worth, complete this exercise. Write it down. Don’t just do it in your head. Thoughts become more powerful, more real when we write them down. Good luck!
Well, I wasn’t actually expecting to write this blog about launching an online startup business. When I sold/transferred my preschool teaching business about a year ago, I thought I was done for a while. But that’s not the way it seems to be turning out.
Saying goodbye to Startup #1
So why did I sell it? A couple of reasons. First, I was once again teaching full time, and in a totally new subject area. I had never taught English Language Learners and although I had a strong base in understanding language acquisition, I was pretty much starting from scratch as far as materials and such and didn’t have any spare time.
Second, I had realized that my Spanish preschool startup business wasn’t going to serve the needs of my family long term. My husband and I had been talking about spending some time living overseas, and a preschool language business just wasn’t going to fit into that plan.
A New Startup
So I started exploring online options. I tried giving French classes online, and I loved it. But it was a pretty big stress on my family for me to be online and totally uninterrupted at a specific time each week. We’re a hot mess around here, and that just wasn’t working for us. Plus, a lot of my students had the same trouble. Their schedules changed from week to week, so they missed a lot of classes.
I kept thinking if I could only pre-record classes and set it up so they could do it on their own schedule, that would be ideal. I just didn’t know how to do it without making it deadly dull. I mean, it’s my sparkling personality that brings my classes to life, right? OK, well, maybe that’s an overstatement. But things just aren’t as interesting when the instructor can’t react to the student in real time. What to do?
Finally, I figured out a way to use video clips with my voice narrating them. Because a lot of the videos I use in my classroom have a twist or a surprise at the end, I felt like that would compensate for not having the personal interaction. But there was the issue of copyright infringement. I couldn’t use a lot of the videos without permission from the creator. I pondered that for a week or two, and finally found a solution (or a couple of work-arounds, actually) that will allow me to start on the class until I can get it 100% figured out.
So now, I’m working my way through a course I bought about 2 years ago. Here’s a shout out to Amy Porterfield, who is absolutely my hero in creating the course. So far, it’s been a breeze thanks to her amazing step-by-step system. Check out her page here. She’s also got a kick butt podcast, which I’ve mentioned before. It’s taking me step-by-step through the process of building my own course from the ground up.
The Startup Plan
At this point, my plan is to offer a free four-week class. This will allow people to see whether the format works for them, and also help me to see what folks like and what they don’t. The free class will remain available as a lead magnet. In other words, in order to get the free class, you have to submit your e-mail address. This serves two purposes, as I’m sure you know. First, it allows me to get subscribers the course information. Second, it allow me to start building my e-mail list.
Once we’ve gone through the free class, I’ll have another class ready for people who want to continue. Pricing and a lot of things are still in the air, but I’m unbelievably excited about this. I miss teaching French SO MUCH! And as I was sitting around planning the free course this morning, and working on content, I was just so incredibly psyched about how much my students are going to get out of this course. Even if they never pay me a cent, I want this course to be a huge value in their lives and allow them to learn things they wouldn’t otherwise.
Why I’m sharing it
So here’s why I’m sharing. When I read blogs, it really inspires me to see people who have shared their journey from the beginning – the good, the bad, and the ugly. One of my favorite blogs was The Simple Dollar,a blog in which the author shared his story of going from drowning in debt to being 100% debt-free. It really inspired me by showing how small, consistent steps can totally change a person’s situation. Plus, I just like seeing people succeed, so reading it always made me feel uplifted.
My plan is to let you all take this journey with me if you want. Every two months I’ll publish an income statement with real numbers to let you see what kind of progress (if any!?!) I’m making. If you know me at all, you know I’m pretty transparent. I’m not overly afraid to share my failures as well as my triumphs. So this is my chance to start at the beginning and allow any of you who want, to come along for the ride.
So, if you’ve already read Pricing, part 1: Can a Higher Price mean Better Value? and Pricing, part 2: You Deserve to Make Money for your Work – Good Money, you might think this is a total contradiction. However, like many things in life, it is part of a truth that can’t be summarized in a 30-second sound byte. Yes, higher price can mean better value. Yes, you deserve to earn great money for your expertise and skills. But your business will only be successful if your clients believe that the value you provide to them exceeds the amount you are paying them. That’s why if you want to have a wildly successful class or business or product or WHATEVER, you need to be besties with perceived value.
Perceived value
The first thing we need to talk about here is perceived value. The actual value of your product or service DOES NOT MATTER. Yes. you heard me right. The actual value of whatever you provide has little to no bearing on your success. It is the value your client perceives that matters. If you have a winning lottery ticket that can be immediately cashed in for $2 million, and you offer to sell someone a 50% interest in it for $50, that is a GREAT value. However, if they believe that it is a forged ticket, they aren’t going to buy it. Their perceived value of the ticket is less than what you are charging.
Here is another example. Last week, I listed our family’s beloved, but beat-up, Volvo Station Wagon on Craigslist. I was asking $600 for it since it had several mechanical problems and over 220K miles on it. I was completely honest, sharing pictures of its distressed paint and admitting that it was going to need some work, but that it did run. However, I knew the price was fair, since it also had almost new tires, and would bring almost $500 if it were sold just for the tires and the scrap value.
Several people contacted me and said, “I’ll give you $200 cash” or “It’s worth $400, I’ll pay you today if you’ll take it.” However, I was also contacted by a guy who loved Volvo as a brand and had a Volvo with a busted engine sitting in his driveway. He looked at the car on Monday, said he’d pick it up the next morning for full price, and even reminded me that if I changed my mind overnight he’d understand. “I wouldn’t blame you if you did change your mind,” he said. “It’s worth more than that.” We assured him that a deal was a deal, and the next morning, he gladly paid the $600.
That buyer got more value than he paid for, but other people definitely thought I had overpriced the car. Perceived value is tricky like that. Like beauty, perceived value is in the eye of the beholder.
Perceived value is a huge topic, so there will be future posts coming on ways to increase it. However, there are basically two ways to ensure that the value you are offering your clients is greater than the price they are paying you. The first is to increase what they believe your product or service is worth. The second is to provide the same value for a lower price.
Increase what they believe the service is worth
Now, you are going to provide a high-quality product. You know it and I know it. So that is not the issue. The issue is to ensure that your potential customers know it is a high-quality product.
There are several ways to do this, but maybe the most effective long-term is education. When I started my Spanish classes for children, I had a big drop in enrollment after the first month. The students weren’t going home and spouting Spanish to their parents, so the parents thought the kids weren’t learning. They didn’t realize that you understand much, much more than you can produce. Nor did they understand that by learning to truly understand the language, instead of memorizing vocabulary lists, their kids were building a foundation to be able to actually communicate in Spanish.
What I had to do was educate them on the value they were actually receiving. So I started sending out short e-mails every week or two explaining why my methods were so effective long term, the benefits of learning a second language, and how to help their child at home, even if they didn’t speak Spanish. They also received almost-weekly updates on their specific child’s class, including what songs we sang, which books we read, and what games we played. After that, my retention shot up to near 100%. I didn’t change my actual product, I just educated them so they would realize its true value.
Provide greater perceived value
Sometimes, you can figure out ways to provide greater value without too much more work or cost on your side. For example, when I started my Spanish classes, I set up a website where I included information on language learning, links to Youtube videos of the songs we were singing and the stories we were reading in class, and tips on how parents could optimize their child’s learning. This can be done relatively inexpensively, but it creates tremendous value for the parent. They can simply look up the website and sing the songs with their child, even if they don’t know Spanish. It allows them to participate in their child’s learning, which greatly increases the perceived value.
Perceived value of e-book versus online course
Another example of this is an online course versus an e-book. E-books have a very low perceived value, no matter how useful or valuable the information really is. However, if you take that same content and package it as an online course, people will gladly pay a much higher price.
Now, I’m not talking about scamming people. Remember what we said in Pricing, part 1? Charging a higher price can actually cause your client to take action because the product has a greater perceived value to them.
Let’s imagine that you have information that will literally save a person $20,000 over the course of their life. You can either package it in an e-book for $3.95 or in an online course for $395.00.
I can absolutely imagine someone buying an e-book for $3.95 and NEVER reading it. They would miss out on the information they wanted simply because they didn’t prioritize reading it. Or maybe they don’t like reading and just keep putting it off. They have wasted that money. Much worse, they have missed out on a chance to be $20,000 richer because of the information they didn’t read.
However, imagine if that person purchased that same information in the form of an online course priced at $395 and studied and implemented every lesson. They would have received massive value from that online course, even though it was priced at 100 times more than the e-book. Granted, this is an extreme example, but it happens literally every day. The takeaway here is that you can increase the perceived value of your product in a lot of ways. Your primary job, though, is to have your customer leave feeling like you gave them a heck of a lot more value than you charged them for by providing an outstanding product at a price that is fair to both you and to them.
Provide the same value for lower cost
Question: Is the value you receive approximately the same whether your child has a one-on-one class or is in a group of 5-6? I would say yes. In some cases, the value might even increase in classes because it’s more fun to learn with your friends, right?
This is why I almost refuse to do private tutoring. My clients receive much greater value (and I also increase my own earnings) by offering group classes. To be sure, I make sure the classes are small, so that our time is spent learning and not dealing with discipline issues. However, the kids really learn well in a group setting, so they aren’t sacrificing value. However, I can charge $12 per child and still make $60 per class. They are paying less, but they aren’t receiving less.
This is the same concept that many people are putting into practice online. I just finished a short course on how to design your own website. (By the way, do you like it? I thought the course was OUTSTANDING! If you want to set up your own website, see the end of this post for the link and information.) Shannon offers pre-recorded classes that are value-packed. I loved her free class so much, I decided to sign up for her Serious Side-Hustlers subscription course because I know I’ll get unbelievable value from it.
However, she has already done the work by recording the lessons and posting them on her web site. She is providing me EXCELLENT value with no extra work because she figured out how to scale her business. What if she had to sit down with me individually (even online) and teach me step-by-step how to set up my website? It might be slightly more valuable to me since I could ask questions in real time. However, she’d have to charge me so much that the value of her service would no longer exceed what I was paying for it. She has figured out how to charge less for basically the same value. She has scaled her services, just like I scale mine by doing group classes instead of individual classes.
Link and info for Shannon Mattern’s 5 Day Website Challenge
OK, I mentioned that I would share the link to the website class, so here it is. I can’t recommend it highly enough. And for the first 30 days, IT’S FREE!!!!!! Here’s the link to Shannon Mattern’s 5 Day Website Challenge. This is an affiliate link, so if you follow one of her paid programs I will receive a small commission. However, I ONLY endorse things that I have used and LOVE. And for anyone who knows me, I don’t do tech! So if she can teach me step-by-step how to set up every aspect of a website and all sorts of gobbledy-gook that I don’t understand, you know she is a tech teaching goddess!
Pricing is an issue that many of us struggle with as we start a business or create a side income. As women, we are conditioned by society to be more communal than men are. Now before you get mad at me, I am basing this not on my own opinions, but on studies of how women are perceived in the workplace. Generally, co-workers are more likely to ask help from women. They are also more likely to be offended if that assistance is not forthcoming.
This can create problems in our own brains. Because our culture often expects us to just “pitch in” without a thought for ourselves, or the inconvenience it may cause us, women often have trouble valuing ourselves at our true worth. While men tend to be confident that their services are worth a premium price, women often second-guess themselves. It can make us uncomfortable charging for our services, especially if we are pricing them at the upper end of the spectrum.
I tell you this for several reasons. First, because being aware of the problem is an important step in overcoming it. Second, because we need to address how we are actually serving people when we charge money for what we do. And third, because if you are going to provide a high-quality, premium service (which I assume you are), you deserve to charge a premium price. To do less is to short-change yourself and your family. Since this is a pretty important point, and since I tend to be wordy, I’m going to break this down into three separate posts. Today, we’ll cover how we serve people better when we charge a premium price.
Price Influences Value
Two years ago, I invested in a class on how to make an income by creating and selling online courses. And when I say invested, I mean it was a big decision – over 2 weeks’ take home pay for me. I went through the course. I followed the course. It didn’t work. I adjusted and started over again. Still, no luck. Meanwhile, in the Facebook group, people are talking about their successes. How they created a course, tested it, and are earning money teaching people about something they love. I cringe and start over – again!
So why am I still trying instead of throwing in the towel? First, because I know for sure it can be done and I know for sure I can do it, even if it takes multiple attempts. Second, (and this is probably the real reason) because I just flat refuse to lose that kind of money. If I stop trying, it becomes a “waste of money” not an “investment,” and I am too stubborn to let that happen. Paying a high price made this course matter to me, and in the long run, it is more likely to make me successful.
Another example is a treatment we chose for my son’s ADHD when we wanted to get him off his medication. Its effectiveness was backed by multiple studies. Unfortunately, it wasn’t covered by insurance, and each session cost $100 AND it worked best when appointments were at least once a week.
Well, you’d better believe I didn’t miss any sessions, nor was I late unless something major happened. Also, we changed our lives to make it a priority, even taking our son out of school early a couple of days a week, which doesn’t happen lightly in our family. (In case you’re wondering, yes, it did help and we’re thankful we did it.) Would I have taken it as seriously if sessions cost only $25? I hate to admit it, but I don’t think so. Consequently, it probably would have been a lot less effective and my son would have missed out on its benefits.
In both of these cases, pricing the service at a premium may have actually improved its benefits.
It won’t happen overnight
Learning to value yourself and your skills probably isn’t going to happen overnight, because this is truly a paradigm shift. If you, like me, have spent a large portion of your life looking for bargains, it’s hard to change that and start thinking that setting a low price isn’t necessarily doing your customers a favor. But I want you to start trying.
Examine your beliefs about what is “fair pricing,” and what truly constitutes value. When we are talking about services, the customer’s perception of its value, and thus its importance, sometimes has even more impact on their success than the service itself. Is it a better value for a person to spend $100 and get an outstanding service that they prioritize, or to spend $10 and get the same product, but not the benefit from it because they don’t value it?
What do you think? Do you have an example of a time when a pricing a product or service higher actually benefitted the customer more or when a low price prevented you from appreciating a product or service? You’ve read my take. What’s yours?
You’ve played with the idea of starting a micro-business teaching a preschool language class, but it just seems so overwhelming. How would you even get started? Who would you teach? Where would you teach? How would you find student? (When it’s a business, they don’t come to you just because it is on their class schedule.)
A few years ago, I was asking myself those same questions. Because I use Comprehensible Input, I knew I could make language learning much more fun and effective than with traditional methods. As the parent of two preschoolers at the time, I also knew that a lot of parents wanted their kids to learn a second language but didn’t speak one themselves.
There was market for language learning. But how on earth would I get started? Almost 5 years later, I looked back fondly on what accomplished in building the first part of my business, World of Wonders Learning, into a profitable micro-business. If you’ve been toying with the idea of using your teaching and language skills to create a side job that you love, here are some of the most important lessons I learned in the process.
Know your stuff, but don’t obsess over your plan
When I was still dreaming of starting a preschool language class business, I wanted to know what the options were. Online, I found a ton of info about other language classes and how they operated. Even though my situation was very different from theirs, knowing how others were making things work was a huge help in practical areas, such as pricing and scheduling. If you want to look at some similar business models, check out websites for companies that offer science parties, STEM enrichment, language summer camps,Spanish clubs, and soccer.
However, what I had envisioned at first changed as I began to actually take action. I discovered that people in my area were dying for their kids to learn Spanish, but kind of “meh” about French. So I switched. (I speak both, but my French is definitely stronger.) I pitched an after school care location that I thought was WAY out of my league, and they accepted my proposal. Which led to a couple of gigs teaching their staff Spanish for $95/hour.
But none of those things would have happened if I had been hung up on knowing exactly how things would go. I had to get out there and do it in order to learn what I needed to know.
Bottom line: do your research. Know what your first steps are. But don’t stress over knowing the whole path.
Ask for help from experts, but not competitors
One of the most amazing pieces of luck I had was to sit down with the amazing Olivia Roney of Crouching Tigers, who teaches karate in preschools across several states. She was doing almost exactly what I was hoping to do, but not with Spanish. She was so generous with her time and gave me tips that literally kept me from throwing in the towel before I even got my first class off the ground.
So how did I make contact with her? Simple, I posted a message to FaceBook. We lived in the same city, and I thought we might have some friends in common, so I asked my friends if any of them knew her well enough to introduce us on FB. Turns out the wife of the best man at our wedding was on a community committee with her and introduced me.
How I did it
When I contacted her, I gave her some very genuine but effusive compliments. I made sure that I had already learned everything I could about her company so she would know that I really had spent time researching and that I respected the work she did.
However, I made sure to respect her time and generosity. First, even though we were both in the preschool enrichment class space, we weren’t direct competitors. Additionally, her business was already massive, so I was no threat. And even though I couldn’t reciprocate by giving her advice or help, I did drop off a bottle of wine at her office and make sure that I paid when we went out to lunch. Also, I tried to mention her business positively whenever I could, which was super easy to do because she really is a class act.
Bottom line: ask for help, but appreciate the help you are given. Most people who build a business are incredibly proud of what they have created and are willing to talk about it with someone who is genuinely interested.
Educate parents
OMG. This one is huge. Let me tell you a little story here.
When I started my first language class, I was stunned to have 22 kids sign up. I was thrilled beyond words. That month I made almost 50% of my teaching salary doing just a2 hours a week after school. I thought I had this thing figured out.
But the next class cycle, my enrollment dropped almost 50%. When I asked the parents why, there were some kids who had legitimate conflicts and such, but there were other parents who said things like, “I asked them to say something and they couldn’t even say one thing.”
The parents didn’t understand how language learning (especially comprehensible input) works. And it was my fault. I knew what they should expect, but I hadn’t told them.
How I fixed it
Soon, I started sending them e-mails to explain the advantages of the methods I used. I told them that while kids wouldn’t be able to speak right away, they were already starting to actually understand Spanish and they would retain it much better than if we focused on lists of vocabulary. Slowly, I helped them understand how language acquisition works and how to best support their kids as they acquired Spanish.
But wait, there’s more
But there were other perks, as well. First, because I was communicating with the parents regularly and also teaching THEM, the perceived value of my classes went through the roof. Second, I became someone they trusted. No longer was I just some anonymous business. I was Jill, and I was invested in their kids and in helping them to give their kids the best. And the proof was in the numbers. My retention rates went from horrible to stellar, and I very rarely had kids drop my program once they started it.
Bottom line: Don’t expect the parents to understand what you understand. Start from the basics, and explain what they should expect and why.
Hold yourself to high standards, but give yourself grace
My goal was always to leave parents with more value than they were expecting. If I had a parent complaint (and you will, because you are learning), I tried to figure out what I could do to fix the problem. And I always looked at dissatisfaction as a marketing opportunity. What could I do to fix the problem and turn the parent into a raving fan? Of course, it depended on what the complaint was, but my goal was to never leave a parent dissatisfied.
The Hand, Foot, and Mouth Debacle
For example, my daughter came down with hand, foot, and mouth disease. I had to reschedule 2 weeks of classes. Since it is contagious and symptoms don’t’ show up right away, I couldn’t possibly set foot in a daycare center until I knew I didn’t have it. So I rescheduled the classes that we would be missing AND offered parents a refund on those two classes if their child was for any reason unable to attend. I also explained that I wouldn’t normally cancel, but I was doing it in the best interest of their children. I had one parent e-mail me back thanking me profusely for cancelling since she had a newborn and didn’t want to take any chances on him getting sick.
Make like Elsa: Let it GO!
With that said, I also made a point of letting it go when I did make a mistake. I had to give myself the grace to make mistakes without shame. Sometimes I got overwhelmed and didn’t communicate as well as I should have. There were other minor mistakes. Since I’m a recovering perfectionist, I had to really struggle not to let those mistakes get in my head and bring me down. Beating myself up wasn’t going to make me a better teacher or business owner. But learning and changing was.
Bottom line: Do your best, and accept that your best will never be perfect. Talk to yourself like your best friend would. (Assuming your best friend ROCKS like mine does. And if not, I’ll be your surrogate best friend. Talk to yourself like I would. Note: I’m honest, but affirming.)
