Will Work For MONEY

Monday, June 4, 2007 at 11:27am by Gina Laverde in Bootstrapping

Are you tired of trading your valuable services for “experience,” a pat on the back or the occasional slice of pizza? After you’ve been at it for a while, you feel like the money should just naturally start flowing your way, right? But what happens when it doesn’t? What happens when good clients can’t transition out of your novice-hood with you, or new clients want to haggle over the pennies that pay your rent?

Yeah, you need to demand your price and work with people who will pay it. And, depending on what type of business you run, you may have a partner who deals the contract nitty gritty. But, so often, it is us — right there at the front line (because we care the most about our business) diligently striving to stick out above the rest, and make the world realize that we’re worth millions.

I went through this stage not so long ago. Many of my clients weren’t paying me what I was worth, and we all knew it. And it wasn’t because I was new — it was literally because they could not afford me. So, to raise my price was to lose them, and I still needed the money they were providing. I figure I could’ve cried under my pillow about my bad decision to work with them in the first place, cut ties with them entirely or get really creative.

So, I got really creative.

The bottom line is that I need money. I’m sure you can relate. And, to call ourselves career entrepreneurs means we need to make enough of it to comfortably support ourselves. So, we can’t just cover our bills. We need to be happy.

I began to think of everything I need in terms of money. Everything from dental work and haircuts to movies, groceries, and home furnishings. Everything has a price. Then I added in time spent doing things I don’t like. That’s worth quite a bit. So, I have a client who owns a health food store. She’s got a start-up and can’t pay much. But, she gives me wholesale on any supplements or grocery items that I need. She saves me hundreds of dollars a month. Saving money is money. She delivers my order to my place, so that saves time.

But, this doesn’t sound all that creative does it? Bartering with clients is something we all do in the beginning, and it usually works — but leaves us cash hungry.

But, what if you didn’t just barter with clients. What if you bartered with the world for everything you need? Think outside your client/employee/ co-worker and friend box. Think about why you need the money. What are you buying? And what can you provide others (besides your business)? What do you love to do? Can you dog-sit for housecleaning, ad design for dentistry,cook for a haircut?

There’s no question that the economy is struggling right now, jobs are hard to come by, and entrepreneurs often have to decide to make less in order to make anything. But, there’s plenty of people in the world, and from what I hear there’s too many people in the world. For the creative entrepreneur, this means plenty of opportunity for profit.

I’ve been inspired to simplify my life, break everything down to the core, and aim to have it put more in my bank account. So, I’m experimenting with the power of barter. I’ve discovered ways to get money off of my rent, share wi-fi signals with neighbors, have all of my organic produce and groceries delivered, shelves built in my place, get my apartment cleaned weekly and more.

Maybe it sounds like I’m just lazy and spoiled, and I don’t want to clean my own apartment. But, it takes me twice as long to do the things I don’t like.

This kind of bartering allows me to do work for fewer clients — which brings down my overall stress level (think about those therapy bills that I won’t have to pay). Plus, when you don’t appear very needy to potential clients, they are more likely to pay your price.

I’ve secretly always wanted to sell my food. I’m an awesome cook, but I’ve been concerned about the risks of the food industry. But, I can barter my cooking. I also barter my tutoring services, furniture re-finishing, art and all of my writing services. I am looking forward to growing my barter idea into something that is a constant in my life.

I know your mind is full of ideas that you haven’t had time to do. Can the barter system work to save you money and allow you more time to do those things? Can you find a way to actually put more in the bank through bartering?

WE ALL WANT TO WORK FOR MONEY, BUT WE NEED TO REALIZE THAT EVERYTHING IS MONEY

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