>>>Do you undervalue yourself?

Hi there

Want to know what I see as one of the biggest obstacles to women running successful, thriving businesses? They simply undervalue their worth. The impact of this on them personally and professionally is as profound as it is avoidable.

‘When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are,’ according to both Oprah and to a certain holistic business coach, aka yours truly. Every day, I work with women who have P&L statements that simply don’t reflect their expertise, their skillset and the sheer hard yards they go to running their businesses. Their bottom line isn’t as healthy as it should and could be, and so too their overall health and wellbeing.

There are few of us in the female solopreneur space who haven’t grappled with those roadblocks about how to price ourselves, how to package up the value we bring and how to charge for our expertise. We live and work within systemic structural challenges and so it’s a cruel irony that the gender pay gap still applies when women work for themselves and could effectively set their own income and salary. But how?

Let’s take a step back to move forwards - it’s virtually impossible to set realistic financial goals without knowing exactly what you need from your business financially. How else can you know what your baseline income needs to be? Some basic financial literacy will help determine if you are paying yourself appropriately and will also shine a spotlight on the inconsistencies, inefficiencies and issues in your business and in your systems, processes and pricing.

One of the most important steps to clarity around pricing is to do an objective as possible SWOT analysis. Clearly, objectivity when it comes to analysing our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats can be really difficult, which is why I make this a cornerstone of my approach with my clients. On the other side of the SWOT analysis is self-awareness and self-reflection, the likes of which make it much easier to put a name (and a price!) to the value you bring.

The other influencing factor in undervaluing is an old chestnut that does us absolutely no favours: imposter syndrome and self-doubt:

How can I possibly charge x?

Who do I think I am to think people will pay me that much?

I don’t know enough to charge top dollar for this, I’ll just take it down a notch.

Honestly, the best way to banish these self-sabotaging conversations in your own mind is a reality check. I encourage my clients to flex their perspective muscles and hold themselves accountable in not giving air time to these thoughts by countering them with reality. We do this in a few ways including self-reflection practices but one of the quickest and easiest strategies to implement over time is to keep a wins, learnings and achievements journal to gather evidence against such self-limiting beliefs.

As women, we seem to be prone to self-sabotage. The world of solopreneurship can be tough enough without us getting in our own way! Have you ever heard yourself saying ‘I’ll launch this new program when it’s absolutely perfectly planned out’, or ‘I’ll pitch my new service to my former clients when I’ve rewritten my website.’ This is perfectionism, pure and simple, and it’s a roadblock to your success. It keeps you undervaluing yourself and it stops you setting the goals and challenges that sit on the uncomfortable side of life.

I worked with a client recently who had created an incredible new service, one she was confident that her existing client list would want to pounce upon, knowing the benefits it would bring to them. She hadn’t launched because she felt her landing page wasn’t ready. I suggested that rather than waiting on her landing page, she systematically go through her existing list and personally reach out to introduce this new service with people she’d already made a connection with as clients.

I could see her almost physically recoil from this as her long term modus operandi would have been to wait until all her ducks were lined up. I could see she was uncertain, yet kudos to her. She made a commitment to me as her coach that she’d systematically work through her list and discuss progress at our next coaching session.

I was thrilled when she reported back that she’d met her commitment and successfully launched her new services without her landing page. She stepped out of her comfort zone and out of her own way, and her financial bottom line reaped the benefits. Of course, her self-worth and the value she saw in herself rose exponentially too.

Valuing ourselves doesn’t always come easy, and pricing ourselves can be a decision that’s fraught with self-doubt and uncertainty - but you don’t have to go through this alone. In fact, you possibly shouldn’t because often it takes the perspective and distance that a trusted advisor brings to see our true worth. Please reach out if you know in your authentic core that your price doesn’t reflect the value you bring to your clients and customers.

To your success…

“Goals, There’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them and there’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them. “ Download my Ultimate Goal Setting Checklist if you are ready to turn your dreams into reality.”