My own business breakthrough came not in realizing that my success could be easy, but in accepting that what comes easily to me has great financial value.
How do you leverage what comes easily to you to create monetary gains for your business? Tell me in the comments.
It has taken a long time for this to sink in, but I am finally working on a business that incorporates my strengths and leaves my weaknesses on the chopping block. Let someone else deal with the stuff I don’t like to do!
Precisely. Almost without fail, you are better off paying someone to do your weaknesses more quickly & precisely for you than taking time away from your true work. Your true work is way more valuable to people than whatever your weaknesses are.
Embrace it, love it, get paid for it!
Wow, I’m just letting those words sink in.
I tend to get stuck in the mindset that if something is easy for me, it must be easy for everyone else, and therefore lacks value (monetary or otherwise), and this thinking in turn affects my confidence, as well as my income I’m sure.
Everyone who sees my jewelry is much more impressed with it than I am. It somewhat relates to the recent Scoutie Girl post, (re)defining the craft movement, where everyone was discussing the concept of what constitutes “handmade.” I use manufactured components instead of making each piece from scratch, and because I get stuck on that I think I tend to undervalue the fact that I’m apparently good (and getting progressively better) at the design aspect of making jewelry.
Same goes for the fact that I’m really good with Excel. I tend to assume that everyone can do what I do. Now that I realized that I have something to offer, namely in regard to designing spreadsheets that can help people track cash flow and stick to a budget, I may start designing custom budget spreadsheets for a fee. It would be a genuinely useful service, and while it comes easily to me, it’s not something everyone can do. I shouldn’t feel guilty charging people for it if my service can help them save that fee many times over – everybody wins.
Been there, done that, Stephanie. If something comes easily to you and you get a lot of satisfaction out of it, there is an opportunity for growth & leverage.
Stephanie-
I totally agree! I have never thought of it that way, but as I read your comments, I realized I often feel very same sentiments towards my skills and my work.
We shouldn’t feel guilty charging people for our services/craft and we need to remember that there are many out there that cannot do whatever it is we can do. Therefore they will pay us for it.
Every time someone buys something from me, a little voice inside says “Really? You could just make it yourself…” but that kind of thinking does not help my progress, so I do my best to banish it and be grateful that someone wants to purchase what I make.
Gina, something else that’s important to remember is that for every person that could just make it themselves, there are plenty of people that CAN’T. Like me!
From a knowledge perspective, there will always be someone who knows MORE than you – but there will also always be someone (or lots of someones) who know LESS than you. Deliver high value to those people and your business is golden.
Yay! you go girl. Have a similar aim for my business and my hubby
Wow, this is very timely for me. I have a bunch of new products designed and ready for sale, but they seem unsparing to me once I’ve “figured them out” and instead of preparing them for sale, my inclination is to design something bigger, better and more complicated. But there’s a reason I was drawn to the project in the first place and I need to remember that. Thanks!
With my mosaics, I’m like Stephanie–I love making mosaics, so it’s almost as if I assume, “Therefore, they can’t really be worth something.” Also, I need to remind myself that my design skills and color sense are valuable and uniquely my own. In terms of Nutmeg Designs, my husband(the stained glass half of the business) is far more suited to twitter, and writing our newsletter–he has a great style and it comes very easily for him to interact on twitter, and make a fun entertaining newsletter. I just asked him to do a Facebook Page for Nutmeg Designs and he got more followers in 2 days than I got in 2 months. . .