While there are many reasons that women undersell themselves, one reason is this: We lose sight of what others charge and earn, who do similar work to us. As I’ve pointed out before, when women set their fees in a vacuum (you know—go into that private space and say, “what do I think this work is worth…” and “what am I worth…”), and they inevitably come up with too low of a number. Therefore, one way to earn more is to find out what other people earn and charge.
What is the “fair market value” for your service or your position? You must do some market research to find this out. You can’t guess. (Women tend to guess too low, by the way!) When we hear how much other people are charging, it is often very eye-opening and can help us feel better about charging a higher rate or commanding a higher salary.
I’ve sat with many women who report back on how much others are charging for similar work, and they are always surprised. They say, “I had no idea that you could earn that much.” or “He doesn’t even have as much experience as me!” or “I really think so-and-so is charging too much.” They are also often surprised when they learn how their colleagues charge; some charge by the hour, by the half-day, by the project, by retainer, and so on.
As you do your research, you will inevitably find a range. In fact, a range is what you are looking for. Once you are clear about the general range that people are charging/earning for your type of work, you will have a better sense of where you fall in the range and what you can command.
How do you do this research? For starters, head to Google. Type in “salary survey” and look at the sites that come up. Likely, www.salary.com will be at the top. If you are self-employed, try entering a title for your profession, plus the phrase “fee survey”. For example, “virtual assistant + fee survey” and “virtual assistant + rate survey.” Try several titles. If you are a consultant, you can use the word “consultant,” or add a descriptor to it, such as “corporate consultant” or “communications consultant.” You may be surprised at what you find! If you run the same searches without the word “survey,” you will turn up individual people who have their fees posted on their websites.
