Up Your Game, Go Premium, Make Premium Money

Don’t you just hate when people lowball you, or take your services for granted, or just convince you to do work (that you don’t really want to do) for cheap? “Come on, I’ll give you $50 to fix this,” or “I need someone to fix it cheap.” Or maybe you’re one of those constantly scanning the forums and buying e-books on how to make those easy $20 or $100 per day, ending up working 16 hours (meaning you’re making below minimum wage). It’s time to get down to business.

I have no idea why, but most people do not think of themselves as real professionals. I have no idea why people are even wasting time scanning for methods to make you $20, or $50 a day, yet it’s the most discussed posts on many forums… The “new AMAZING mega secrets to riches, make $50 a day on autopilot!”. Oh, Lord… Give me a break.

If you want to start making money, if you want to be professional, you gotta tell people it’s time to pay professional fees. I cannot say how many people I’ve taught this to, and they’ve all thanked me afterwards. How many serious business owners are doing the “$50 a day methods” do you think? Yeah, that’s right, zero, zip, none.

The thing is, unless you really want to, you can’t compete with cheap labor, and why should you? If you were to open a retail store, would you compete with Costco, Walmart, or the 99 cent store? Or would you open up a premium store with more expensive, niche-market products? Unless you have some serious investment money behind you, I’d advise against the first one.

The trick is to let people know that you’re not the cheapest, but you are the best choice. If I’m talking to someone who seem like they’re interested in what we do, I let them know that it’s not gonna be cheap. Sure I can set up a simple website for you, but you’re going to have to pay me a couple of grand for it too. Oh, someone in India can do it for 300 bucks? Ok, go ahead, here’s my card, let me know when you want professional services, which I would assume a business professional like yourself would want.

It’s about having an attitude, in a good way of course, that you’re not taking any crap from anyone, and that you’re just as fine off without them as clients anyway. A lawyer friend of mine stole an expression from someone famous, can’t remember who, but I think it kind of sums up what I’m trying to say here. Every time a client goes “I’m paying you $400 for an hour of work?”, he goes “no, you’re paying for 6 years of school and 10 years of experience.”

That’s why I always talk about personal networking, and the importance of knowing your sales psychology. When you know that, you also know that price is very rarely the deciding factor when it comes to buying decisions. I’ve sold products so overpriced, you’d laugh if you just saw the price first, but you’d buy it after I’m done presenting it.

So, don’t be afraid to charge for your services, wouldn’t you rather have a few high paying clients than tons of low paying ones? Tell people they have to pay professional prices for professional services, and thank me later.