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Set a Self Employment Standard

What Is Skill Worth?

Mar 17, 2008 KC Morgan

When money is lean, it's tempting to start taking any job offers out there. But it's more important to set a self employment standard than to settle. What is skill worth?

Professionals who set a self employment standard and stick to their guns may not always get every job that’s posted on the Internet, but perhaps they earn something far more valuable than fleeting cash flow: a great reputation. What is skill worth when it comes to being self employed?

Set a Self Employment Standard

It’s important for every self employed and work at home professional to sit themselves down and determine just how much their work is worth. These rates can be on an hourly or per-project basis. Freelance writers may charge a per-word value, while graphic designers may go on per-page rates. It doesn’t matter how these rates are determined or even what they are - what matters is that professionals stick to their guns when it comes to self employment payment. Set a self employment standard, and don’t vary unless the project offers something more valuable that money. Some employers may offer such great exposure that a slight loss of money is negotiable.

What Is Skill Worth?

It’s a mistake made by many self employed professionals: they undervalue themselves. One low-paying job leads to another, and soon the professional is stuck in a trap where it seems there aren’t enough hours in the day for them to complete all the projects that are due. Too many low-paying jobs can be detrimental to self employment, as time is wasted with very few results. Time spent on these low-paying assignments might be better served looking for new opportunities and jobs.

Determining rates comes down to a single question: what is skill worth? Employers and clients naturally want to pay as little as possible for the work self employed professionals do, and they’ll try to get the rates as low as possible and offer meager payment for work that should be worth much more. It’s easy to fall into a trap and simply take what’s offered, after all the promise of a paycheck (no matter how meager) is a tempting thing, but it’s easy to damage reputation this way, too. Professionals should set themselves apart through the quality of their work, not the amount of work they do. Higher-quality work yields higher-paying results. It may be difficult to turn down jobs, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.

Pick and Stick

The best way to set a self employment standard is the pick-and-stick strategy. Every self employed professional should determine their own personal rates, and then refuse to vary unless something which is just as valuable as money is offered. Don’t settle, because this often leads to one low-paying job after another, jobs that drain time and energy and offer very little compensation. What is skill worth? It’s worth just as much as the professional who provides it thinks it is…no less.

The copyright of the article Set a Self Employment Standard in Self-Employment is owned by KC Morgan. Permission to republish Set a Self Employment Standard in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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