Knowing Your Worth in Business - Your Work is Not your Worth

Making money (particularly as a woman) is often a multi-faceted, multi layered issue. Historically we didn’t earn money or get paid the same salary for our work, as our male counterparts (and that pretty much still goes on today, if you want a good read on equal pay and the gender bias, check out Carrie Gracie’s book Equal).   

Here in Ireland up until the late 1970’s the Marriage Bar meant that when women got married, they had to leave their jobs - essentially meaning they wouldn't remain in the civil service long enough to be promoted on the salary scale. It also reflected social attitudes that a married woman’s place was in the home.  

This constant fight for recognition in the workplace and the ‘glass ceiling’ issue has affected our entire psyche as women and has left us questioning our attitudes to being worthy and valuable in our working lives over many generations.  

In today’s blog, I wanted to take a look at how we measure our work and business with our worth as a human, the curse of affordability and questions we can ask ourselves about separating our work from our worth.  

A lot of my clients have issues about pricing and about not asking for too much, irrespective of the changes they are helping their clients create in their lives. ‘I just want to be affordable’ is what they’ll say or ‘I can’t raise my prices, no one will come to my classes or buy my products’.  ‘How can I raise my clients prices’ or ‘how do I price my work’ are a few key sticking points for many entrepreneurs and often prevents their growth.

The thing is making your prices affordable can actually put you out of business and it rarely equates to the value of your work. Instead we have somehow connected being affordable with being liked, but this warped equation won’t pay the bills. 

As Money Coach Ray Dodd says ‘“As soon as you are charging money, you are not accessible to everybody.” 

You are not accessible or affordable to everybody if you are in business. The only way to make your business work is to make it sustainable for YOU! If you know what transformation, incentive or inspiration your product or service can provide, you should be charging it’s worth, not worrying about what others might think. This is the first step to knowing your worth, charge accordingly. 

So, what do you need from your business?

What bills need to be paid both personally and professionally?  

What salary do you need to make to cover those bills and make a decent living for yourself?  

What amount of money would give you energy in your business and stop you feeling resentful of the time and attention you’re giving every day to your business? 

How can you work this into your proposal?

The driver to be affordable is flawed, it’s time to know your worth, and also realise that what you earn doesn’t define your worth in the world. Charging what you’re worth in your business does not equate to and is not the same as what you are worth as a human. Charging more for your work does not make you a less likable person. 

The reality is that the most important work you do in life is likely to be the unpaid work – it could be bringing up and educating your children, taking care of sick parents or relatives, working for a charity or cause dear to you, doing the hard inner work of self-development, of learning more about the world and enlightening those around you in particular topics, causes, or themes. This is your true value as a human, as a woman, mother, daughter, sister, niece, colleague, partner, and friend. 

A shift in the energy of the money and worth areas in your life means you’ll start realising where you’ve given too much power to money and your work/worth ratio – and you’ll start to reclaim that power for yourself and your needs as a human being, not a money-making machine. 

Your work is not equal to your worth, sometimes taking a step back, acknowledging that you are greater than the sum of your parts is required. You are enough, you are always enough, and now it’s vital that you see yourself not just for what you make financially, but the impact you make on everyone you meet, know, love and support. 

(Check out my podcast called Your Work is Not Your Worth – episode 26 – on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.)

If you are struggling reach out and email me today at hello@lynseyhanratty.com or book a free Clarity Call - I will be happy to discuss the many ways I can help you and your business.