You want to make more money. To make more money, you can either work longer or you can charge more money. There’s not much of a choice, unless you find a way to clone yourself. But then you run the risk of the clone turning into an evil clone and killing you.
So you need to charge more money. (I already mentioned charging more money in fact – but never explained how.)
It’s almost a given that people need to be willing to pay you more, as well. That much is obvious. And that’s the real question here: how to get your customers to pay you more – willingly.
It’s simple. Not easy, mind you – but simple. You need to do work that demands more money. Your finished work needs to say to the customer, “Hey man – I’m awesome. You know it. And I ain’t cheap.”
I know someone who embodies this. He’s a general contractor, and presently he’s not only very much in-demand in my city but he’s also not “cheap”. If you’re a penny-pincher, and you’re watching your budget, and you would do the work yourself if you only knew how…well, he’s not the guy to call. Because he charges more money than other contractors that purport to do the same work.
But remember: he has no shortage of work. And, you will not find him in the phone book or listed in the paper under “Handymen”. He hands out cards to his clients…and they tend to pass those on to their friends. (Their rich friends!)
My contractor friend can do this because he made a decision a few years after starting his business: he would only do top-notch work, and insist on using high-quality materials. He did that, and met resistance from customers. He had only a few jobs at first, but his attention to detail and pride in his work paid off, because he started getting business from people who saw his handiwork in their friends’ homes.
Now, years later, he’s built up a reputation as an honest contractor who does the best work in the city. And he can charge what he’s worth.
So how do you charge more? Do work that’s worth more and demand what you’re worth. It will come.
