I feel awkward taking money for my work

If this issue is familiar to you, rest assured that you are not alone. Many people are “in the same boat” with you and feel embarrassed and even ashamed to set a price for their work and take money for it. 

So, what is the matter? It seems that everything is logical: if we are getting a service, we pay for it. And as a rule, this does not cause any internal resistance. But as soon as it concerns us ourselves, something changes. What is it?

Doubt 1. Is this exchange fair? What if I am not worth this much?

We exchange our services for money. If deep inside you are certain that your service is not worth this much money – you are bound to feel awkward.

Jennifer recently became an eyebrow technician. Even before she finished her training, she used to do eyebrows for all her girlfriends and they were lining up for her services, but it is hard for her to take money for her work. She only recently got certification!

If you do not value your time, knowledge, skills, and competencies it will always be hard for you to set a proper price for your work.

Benjamin knows very well the electric system of cars. He loves tinkering with cars! For as long as he can remember, he has always been fixing them. New clients find him all the time through the word of mouth. But he is not able to set a price for his work. He just waves his hand – “pay what you can…” He feels uncomfortable charging money for something that he loves to do.

Benjamin is hindered by another conviction: if I like what I do, how can I charge money for it?

If you are not confident in the quality of your services and your professionalism, you will certainly devalue your services!

Here is a trap: everything is subjective and there are no clear criteria. On the other hand, there is a possibility that even 5 years after receiving your diploma, you will still think that you are not “quite there yet” professionally.

Doubt 2. What if this is too expensive for the client?

Ariyana is a wonderful speech therapist. She helps people with speech disorders and specializes in adults. How many cases of articulation disorders and even stuttering she helped to correct! And she always continues learning – just recently she traveled to East Coast to take a well-known intensive training course. Her consultation costs $200, but she feels extremely awkward asking for money for her qualified work. It is so expensive for the clients… And they already need help – how can I rip them off like that?

Making decisions for another person – this sounds all too familiar… But this is not how it works, friends. If you come to a store and see shoes for $200 but you only have $100 for this purchase, you will take the shoes that fit your budget. You are not going to try to convince the salesperson to sell you $200 shoes for half the price. These are the rules. The same applies to services. If the services of a certain specialist are too expensive for you it does not mean that they should lower their price. There are many services in different price categories! Ariyana worked very hard to be a qualified specialist – she spent a lot of money and time on training. She is not ripping anyone off – everyone has a choice. She is not addressing an urgent life-and-death situation, right?

Besides, the notion of “a lot of money” is quite subjective. You will not be able to match everyone’s expectations. What may be too expensive for one person, can be quite acceptable to another.

Doubt 3. Beliefs about money

Oh, there may be a great multitude of them!

⚬ Charging money for services is bad.

⚬ You need to work because you enjoy your profession, not for money.

⚬ Only crooks have a lot of money.

⚬ You need to help people at no charge.

Do you feel the aftertaste of your parents’ admonitions? You should work specifically on beliefs about money. They may hinder your success a great deal.

Doubt 4. Relying on the opinion of others

What if they think badly of me if I charge the real price for my services? They will think (oh, no!) that I am too material. 

If you feel embarrassed charging money for your work you are on a straight path to professional burnout because when the give-and-take balance is broken, it is inevitable. 

And the main thing. People feel awkward taking money for their work (setting a price for it) when they have problems with realizing their boundaries and the legitimacy of their feelings, values, ​​and needs. For some reason, your desires/needs are much less important to you than the desires/needs of other people. It is worth asking yourself the question: why is this so?

If the fear/shame/embarrassment to take money is present in your life, first you need to look for the reason. It is better to do this together with a psychologist, but these questions can also help:

– What am I really afraid of?

– What attitudes prevent me from adequately assessing (or stating) the value of my labor?

– How will I feel working for free?

Remind yourself that every job needs to be paid. Continue to develop professionally, directly state the cost without making excuses for it, collect feedback on your work (this helps to pacify your own “impostor syndrome”), and gain experience. Only practice relieves fear, awkwardness, and embarrassment when talking about money.