Get Real and Negotiate the Money Value of Your Time

So you're an entrepreneur with a lot of time and a little money. You're making an hourly consulting rate of say $200. To produce that $200 let's say you have an hour of prep and an hour of follow up. Add to that the time and money it took to land that consulting hour (networking, phone calls, lunches, writing and designing collateral materials, printing costs) and the infrastructure costs (office, equipment, website and other technology costs).

Let's also factor in time spent cleaning your house, doing laundry, running errands, cooking dinner, as well as surfing the web, tweeting, facebooking and all the other absolutely necessary non-work work you must do.

you can see where this is going, right?

That $200 is auguring downward rapidly into the negative side of the equation and we haven't factored in taxes. And let's say for practical purposes you're at zero. All the money earned is being spent.

You couldn't possibly hire an assistant, right? Given all of the above, how would you pay for one? And even if you could pay for a housekeeper or a gardener, how can you justify doing so given your current zero budget?

playing with the numbers:

• A $20/hour housekeeper will free up 3 hours a week: $60
• A $10/hour social media marketing intern from your local community college will free up 5 hours a week: $50
• A $10/hour neighborhood kid to mow your lawn will free up 2 hours a week: $20

For $130 a week, you've just freed up 10 hours of possible consulting work. To be conservative, let's say you can realistically generate 5 consulting hours, or $1,000 per week, minus your new expenses. That translates to $870.

time to negotiate with yourself...

• What activities predictably result in generating new clients?
• What activities are a complete waste of time?
• Are you really the best person for the job?
• What activities must you hire out for, or give up entirely, to create the space for more money?

and here's the kicker: 

Do you know the value of your services in the hands of your market? (Translation: raise your fees!)

How many of you have the covers pulled up over your head right now?