When did the money question become so hard??

When we have determined our price and start to sell a product, why do we find it so hard to get paid? Why do the money conversations become so difficult.

Being paid is the most important part of your business model so from the get-go make sure that you clearly identify how this will happen. If you’re in retail it’s not so difficult as there is an expectation that people will pay at point of sale. 

If you are offering a service expect the same immediate payment whether you have finished the job or before you start. There are plenty of mobile transaction devices that will enable payments to happen offsite. 

Simply be very clear about what you want. Have the money conversation as part of the initial contracting of your service. It is a healthy part of the transaction process (people expect to pay).

Tell them what your payment timeframe expectations are. In many cases you can get paid up front i.e. before you start the work, if you decide to set up regular sessions with the contractor of your services you may decide to enter into other arrangements for payment going forward. If so make sure they adhere to them or the service stops! 

People contracting you have no problem making a request for your service so you should have no problem asking for the money. This is not a taboo subject. You need to be paid. It is a very necessary part of the business process.

The second part to the money problem is deciding what price to charge for you services or products.

Why do we all find it so hard to ask for the money when we start out in business? And worse still, why do we undervalue the product and services that we offering by starting out with a modest and often not even break approach to our price setting?

Your income constraints will not be your customers. Research your competition and identify your points of difference (you need to be very clear as to what these are and define these in your marketing speak).

Then decide on your price. This may not be relevant to what it costs to produce but it must meet the market you are targeting and the perceived value. I know that if we price a dress cheaply people automatically assume it has something wrong with it.

The biggest mistake I see most people make is they assume that everyone that they are intending to sell their product and services to has the same income constraints as they have i.e. the retail team in our stores often do this. They will assume a woman can only buy one dress when in fact she has the earnings to buy so many more. It is simply about the range of service and fit for purpose offerings that are made to her.