By Chellie Campbell
When I started writing this article on financial stress reduction for content professionals, the following quote from Stuart Wilde came to mind:
If you don’t concentrate on counting the money, people soon realize that money is not the focus of your consciousness, so they give you everything other than money: kudos, acclaim, praise, etc., etc. And sooner or later you’ll be in trouble.
Should money be the focus of your work consciousness? Let’s discuss.
We All Have Customers
No matter if you are an independent contractor, temporary employee, or full-time staff, most likely you work for an organization that sells products or services. With the noted exception of venture-funded startups, organizations need to make more money than they spend in order to continue in business.
The same thing can be said about you: You should make more money for your customer than they spend on you, or there’s no reason for them to use your services. Keep in mind I’m not just talking about your salary—the cost of “you” also includes benefits, education and training, travel to conferences and client meetings, and the overhead of your workspace, among other things.
On the other hand, keep in mind you also have another “customer”—you. Just as you need to make money for your employer, you also need to make money for yourself. And not just enough to get by, but enough to maintain a quality of life that doesn’t depend on maxing out your credit cards to get the things you need and want.
In Charles Dickens’s 1850 novel, David Copperfield, character Wilkins Micawber describes this beautifully:
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.
So the secret to financial stress reduction at work (that is, a good income and reasonable job security) is to make lots of money for your company so they have lots of money with which to pay you.
Have a Positive Net Value
When I say “make lots of money for your company,” I really mean have a net value to your organization that is greater than the cost to employ you.
If you are providing content that is part of a software user interface, you are clearly part of a development team that is creating a product your company can sell (which generates revenue). Ditto if you create documentation that consumers use after they purchase the product.
An even better way to add value would be to help write content that the sales and marketing teams use to sell the product. That makes two ways you are generating revenue—by attracting new customers and creating the products they buy.
Another way to have a positive impact on your company’s bottom line is through cost avoidance. One example would be figuring out how to reduce production costs (such as implementing a content management or controlled language system to reduce production costs); another is creating training materials for which your company can charge customers.
And let’s not forget about “big ticket” cost avoidance, such as preventing your company from being sued for millions by someone misusing the product. One might think it is common sense not to put a screwdriver into the back of an operating piece of machinery, but sometimes you need to remind people to put the device out of reach of children and others who might not know better.
Know Your Worth
In the game of making money, financial reports are how you keep score; ditto for justifying a raise or promotion. It’s not enough to think you deserve a raise, you have to show you do. Here’s an example from my book, The Wealthy Spirit:
Sally’s eyes were snapping and her face burned with resentment. “I’ve been working for these people for five years and have done wonders for them, but they are so stingy they are only giving me a 3 percent raise!” She was so hot she could barely sit in her chair.
It was a beautiful spring day, and we were sitting outdoors at the local restaurant. I knew something was wrong the minute she arrived. Sally was the Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce and was quite visible in the community. She did a wonderful job, and I had seen the growth in membership and programs of the Chamber during her tenure. I had no idea she wasn’t well paid.
“Tell me everything,” I said, “but start at the beginning. How long have you been working in this job?”
“Five years,” she exclaimed, “starting as a part-time secretary. I’ve been full-time for the past four years and have taken on many more duties and responsibilities. I’ve tripled their membership and their budget, but they still only give me tiny annual cost-of-living raises based on my starting salary as a secretary!”
She was seething. “I’m going to quit!”
“Take a deep breath and relax a minute,” I coached. “You can always quit—that’s a last resort option. But you like the job except for the low pay, so why don’t we work together to try to get you the money you deserve?” She thought about that for a minute, then agreed it couldn’t hurt to try.
Over the next couple of weeks, I coached Sally on how to get a raise.
First, I told her to lose the resentment—anger doesn’t sell. People just get defensive. Not being well-paid was her responsibility and hers alone. She had been waiting for the Board of Directors to recognize her contributions and voluntarily significantly raise her salary.
But she had not given them the facts and figures they needed to justify the increase.
Now she understood, so she put together a presentation for the board that outlined every achievement and the dollar amounts her contributions had made to the bottom line of the organization. She did her research and discovered the pay rates for the same position at similar organizations. She prepared written comparisons of the Chamber budgets for the five years she had been working for them.
We met again at lunch just before her presentation to the board, so she could practice her delivery. “You haven’t been paying me enough money!” she started out, and I stopped her. “No resentment, remember? It would have been nice if they had thought that you should be paid more based on the job you have done, but you weren’t asking for more, so they thought you were happy. Try it again—be nice, be charming, and be strong at the same time.”
She did a masterful job and I told her so. She looked powerful, professional, and determined.
She got a 35 percent raise in salary. We celebrated together that day!
We just looked at how to negotiate a raise if you are a salaried employee. Now let’s talk about setting your bill rate if you are an independent contractor or business owner.
Not Charging Enough Can Drive Away as Many Customers as Charging Too Much
Years ago, a friend of mine decided to go into business for herself doing computer consulting. She told me that she had a man who promised to send her a lot of business, so she called him up to tell him she was ready.
“What are you going to charge?” he asked.
“$40 per hour,” she replied hesitantly.
“Then I can’t send you any business,” he stated.
“Why?” she asked. “Is that too much?”
“No,” he replied, “it’s too little. Any computer consultant worth anything is charging $100 per hour and up. I can’t ruin my reputation by referring people to someone who only charges $40—no one will think you’re any good.”
The same datum could be applied to senior content professionals.
You can do yourself irreparable harm if you charge less than market prices. What do you think when people charge too little? I tend to think they are either brand new in their profession or maybe not very good at it—or they don’t understand their worth in the marketplace and need some coaching.
Arm yourself with numbers—how much revenue do you generate for your customers? How much in avoided costs? Heck, you could double your rates and still save your company money in the long run.
Let’s look at some examples.
Raise Your Rates
When I started my workshops back in 1990, I only charged $200. I just made that number up with no evidence or research to support it. I had never taught a workshop before, so I thought I should keep the price low so I could more easily get people to sign up for it. When it was successful, I upped my price the next time—to $350. Then I met a man who taught workshops for $650, and another for $850. So I raised my price to match what I saw others were charging.
Every time I had a price jump to a number that was scary for me, it took me awhile to become comfortable saying the new number. I remember having a sales conversation with a man who was an insurance broker, who wanted to come but wasn’t sure it was the right time.
“You’ll save money if you register now,” I encouraged him. “After the first of the year, I’m raising the price to $1,000.”
“Oh, Chellie,” he scoffed, “$850 is $1,000. It’s not that different.”
I thanked him for the tip! And didn’t feel badly about my new price after that. But it didn’t roll off my tongue comfortably, so I soon raised the price to $1,250 because I could say “twelve-fifty” more easily than “a thousand dollars.” I made myself another $250 per person just because of that.
Jack Molisani told me a similar story about when he started as a technical writer. “When I started in the industry I didn’t know what to charge, so I took a contract at the rate they offered me. I raised my rate $5/hour at the end of that contract and after each subsequent contract. Eventually, I started losing contracts because I priced myself out of the local market, so I lowered my rate—but just for a while. As the economy improved, I continued increasing my bill rate at the end of each project.”
Another friend told me this story: “I went on an interview once to do a fixed-bid writing project. I had beautiful examples in my portfolio that showed I had the exact skills they needed. When they asked for a bid, I said, ‘That will take four weeks at $75 an hour.'”
They replied, “Oh no, the most we can pay a writer is $50 an hour.”
Half kiddingly he said, “Alright, then it will take eight weeks at $50 an hour.”
They replied, “OK.”
This company was more concerned about not going over some arbitrary bill rate than it was about the total cost of the project. So in essence my friend did what they wanted: he spread four weeks of work over eight calendar weeks, billed the negotiated price, and made more money for himself than he would have by insisting on his original bill rate.
The lesson? Find out what is important to your client when negotiating, then work out a deal that is a win-win for both sides.
You’re Worth It, Remember?
Pierre de Beaumarchais once said, “Where love is concerned, too much is not even enough.” And I thought, why not ask for too much? Too much love, too much money, too much happiness, too much fun?
How often do we restrict our reality to lower levels of possibility by not asking for enough? Obediah Thomas, a professional comic, once posted this on Facebook: “Always ask for more. More than you think they will offer. More than they do offer. More than you made last time. More than you would settle for. More than you think others are charging.”
Alan Cohen, in his book, A Deep Breath of Life, tells the story of a man who died and went to Heaven. God was showing him around but one door he passed by saying, “You don’t want to go in there.” Of course, the man is curious, and begs God to let him in. God agrees, but tells him he’ll be sorry.
The man gapes at the room filled with amazing treasures, and wanders among them until he spies a Rolls Royce. He runs over to it saying, “This is the car I always wanted!” Then he sees his own name engraved on the dashboard, and asks God why he didn’t get this car.
God answers, “Because you asked for an Oldsmobile.”
What do you really want? It may already be packaged up, ready, and waiting for you. All you have to do is ask for it. Your time is a finite resource, and for that you need to be paid top dollar.
A rising tide lifts all boats. It’s time to ask for a bigger boat!
Chellie Campbell (chellie@chellie.com) is the creator of the Financial Stress Reduction Workshops, and author of The Wealthy Spirit, Zero to Zillionaire, and From Wealth to Worry: A Woman’s Guide to Financial Success Without the Stress. She has been prominently quoted as a financial expert in The Los Angeles Times, Good Housekeeping, Lifetime, Essence, Woman’s World, and more than 50 popular books.
