BRIANNA & TARA GENTILE CALL
This video is part of a series of case studies featuring Brianna Scott. If you’re just joining us, I recommend you start here.
In her introductory call with me, Brianna mentioned that one of her goals is to grow her business and increase her revenue by 50% by getting more clients, putting more of them on retainer, and charging better prices. Brianna knows she’s providing great service and a fantastic product – but she instinctively thinks she may not be charging enough for her work.
I immediately thought of Tara Gentile.
Tara is an author and business strategist who works with creative professionals to create healthy, sustainable businesses – you may have seen her work before on Fast Company, Design Sponge, and Etsy. Tara brings a business mindset to creative businesses, and promotes a “Thriving Artist” mentality with a focus on fairly pricing your art and charging what your time is worth.
Tara talked with Brianna about changing her money mindset, how to communicate the value she delivers, and how to choose what types of clients and projects she’ll work with.
If you’ve ever wondered if you’re pricing your work too low, this call is for you. The lessons Tara shares with Brianna are universal to any of us who may be letting fear and uncertainty about our pricing hold our businesses back.
Watch the call
Money mindset blocks
Tara launches right in around the 2:00 minute mark with a discussion about our money mindset, and how to break through the blocks many of us have around earning. Having been told our whole lives by employers what our time is worth, many freelancers have a hard time charging what they need to in order to grow.
As part of the “Thriving Artist” mentality that helps businesses prosper, Tara also recommends that Brianna be more open about pricing and networking with her fellow website designers (around the 10:00 minute mark).
Calculating your hourly rate
Brianna, like a lot of freelancers, has been calculating packages based on an estimate of the work she’ll need to do, times an hourly rate. While Tara agrees that having an hourly rate in mind is absolutely necessary to price your work fairly, at the 7:40 minute mark she reminds Brianna that she needs to keep overhead, contracting out work, and profit for the business in mind when setting that rate.
How – and when – to raise rates
Brianna mentions at the beginning of this call that she’s had a pretty easy time selling people on her services, and for that reason suspects her prices may be too low. Pay attention at the 12:00 minute mark, when Tara shows just how important it is to show the value in what Brianna does for her clients. “You’re not just another fly-by-night web solution,” Tara says. “You want to be a part of the future of this company.”
At the 14:00 minute mark, Lisa asks Tara about the best way to start raising prices – both with future clients and with old clients – as well as the tactics Brianna can use to drum up some business with her old clients before she does raise her rates. And at the 16:50 minute mark Tara talks about when Brianna will know it’s time to raise her prices again.
Hint: any time you start to feel resentful about the work you’re doing, there’s probably something wrong with your pricing structure or your business model.
Charging more by narrowing your niche
Starting at the 18:00 minute mark, Tara gives Brianna great advice about how to go from being a jack-of-all-trades to a niche expert who can command a higher rate. She recommends Brianna figure out what makes her business stand out above the rest, and make sure that’s front and center.
At the 22:00 minute mark, Brianna narrows down on that niche for her: Creare Marketing is about the full online web presence and marketing experience. Tara encourages her to use that insight to evaluate new projects, and at the 24:00 minute mark, she talks her through deciding whether projects like simple websites are really in line with her business.
Want to know more?
If you’re ready to take your earnings to the next level, you can learn more about Tara on her website, and join her tribe of entrepreneurs at Kick Start Labs.
Your Homework:
Take some time to evaluate your pricing structure. If you’re using an hourly rate to set your project prices, are you taking into account outsourced labor, overhead, and the profit you need to grow your business?
Decide what sets your business apart from your competitors. What specific value do you bring? What’s your business philosophy, and how does that help your clients grow their businesses?
Use this worksheet to narrow down your business’s focus, and to decide which projects you’ll take on – and say no to – in the future. Once you’ve completed the worksheet, be sure to keep it close at hand next time you’re fielding an inquiry from a client!