Small Business Owners - Do You Get Stuck by Doubt When You Want to Put a Price Tag On Your Services?

Have you ever got excited about doing something and got stuck? It could be offering your expertise and charging for the same or selling your own product or someone else's product as an affiliate. The first question that comes up is What is the guarantee that my expertise/services/product will produce revenue? Will someone pay for my service?

As soon as we ask ourselves this question, we get hung up from moving forward. I have been there several times. In fact as entrepreneurs, we experience this moment almost every day.

Having worked for an employer for several years, I never had to go through the pain of making such a decision, because my employer would take care of them. However, when I became self employed, I had to learn certain facts in a hard way. I am not an expert, but I would like to share my experiences and I hope it will help you in stepping up and exploring the Entrepreneur in YOU.

There is no guarantee that your expertise will produce revenue, but at the same time you cannot rule out the possibility. You can make one of the following choices.

Choice #1: You were paid by your employer for the skills and the expertise. Maybe your employer does not need you or no longer requires those skills and expertise in his business, now. You may choose to completely stop using your skills and expertise, by beating yourself up and believing that you are not good enough OR

Choice #2 You may list and write down the skills and expertise that you enjoyed in your job and start offering your expertise in a small way to several business owners.

I made a decision to go with Choice #2. I had learned certain skills such as managing people, processing information, using certain Computer programs etc. in my job. Instead of worrying about not attracting a perfect job, I made up my mind to offer my services to the people who needed them and charge for my service. I made a mindset shift from ignoring/undervaluing my skills/expertise to valuing them and putting a price tag. After studying the success story of several entrepreneurs, I realized that employment is not the ONLY channel to reveal our expertise/skills. It may seem scary at first, but unless we make a conscious decision to start small and do it any way, we will never create revenue in our business . We must remember that, it took us at least 16 years of school education to enter work force, and we were never guaranteed that we will have a revenue producing job. The key here is, we must have the BIG picture in mind, while taking small baby steps.

Here are the steps I personally use when the above question comes up:

Do whatever it takes to transform from your negative thinking/self limiting belief to positive thinking/possibility thinking. I read books and listen to audios by Self made millionaires like Jim Rohn, Brian Tracey, Mark Joyner and more. In my experience, I found that making that mindset shift is like sharpening the saw, before cutting a tree. Once you do that, it takes very little time to cut the tree.

Start a blog and reveal your skills/expertise. Be sure to post regularly. You can set it up free at blogger.com Encourage your readers to comment and ask questions.

Contribute in forums and industry publications related to your area of expertise.

Host teleseminars for your prospects/clients.

Start your own newsletter/ezine and educate about your services.

Ensure that you provide your contact/website information in your blog, newsletters and comments in forums.

Make a note of all the steps you took to get paid the first time for offering your service/product. Just repeat the process by making tiny improvements.

My clients and service providers are using the above strategies for running their business successfully and I am sure you too can!. To sum it up, you get paid not for who you are, but for the value you bring to the marketplace. When you commit to make the best choice, have the right mindset and implement these strategies consistently, you will see growth in your revenues.