Worth
#WordADayChallenge
Worth, it’s something that I have thought a lot about. I’ve been in business for myself for a very long time. I started my own celebrity gifting company back in 2006 and had always questioned my worth. From there I started blogging and again, have questioned my worth. Now I am not only a blogger but I am also a self-employed virtual assistant, who again, questions my worth.
It isn’t that I question my capabilities as a blogger or a virtual assistant, or an entrepreneur at all. It’s more like what others will consider my worth to be. When I started my celebrity gifting company, no one else was doing it. Sure, there were these big lavish celebrity gifting suites and people had to pay a pretty shiny penny to be a part of it, but actually sending celebrities gifts in the form of a huge gift basket, nope, that was me….all me. So when others caught wind of what I was doing and tried to duplicate it. They either charged a huge amount or they undercharged just to get some clients. At the time I was charging what people were willing to pay and I was getting the job done for them. I was good at what I did and received a lot of thank you notes, had a lot of client products spotted on celebrity children and even appeared on TV once. Even then, with all the success I had, I still questioned my worth.
Then I moved on to blogging. Blogging was and still is hard. It is always changing and it’s extremely fast-paced. You always have to be up to date on everything from social media to the theme you use. Not only that but then once you’ve been doing it awhile, you start getting pitches from pr companies and might even be contacted by the brand directly. They either want you to review products (usually for free or in exchange for an actual product) or get your rates for sponsored posts. I never really charged when I started out because I was just doing this for fun. I was just doing this blogging gig to pass the time. It was my hobby. That was until I started to put more value on my time. I now charge for both reviews and for sponsored posts. I am not being paid for a positive review. That’s not it at all. I am being paid because it’s taking time away from my family and I deserve to be paid. So when you hear that a blogger wants to be paid, it isn’t because they’re being paid for their biased opinions, they are being paid for their time because they know their worth and they deserve to be paid.
With my Virtual Assistant business, I am always afraid when I send out my proposals because I don’t know if people will appreciate the fact that I am confident in my skill set. I don’t know if people will be shocked by my rates. I don’t know if people will see the rate and run for the hills or if they will know and understand that I can add a lot of value to their business and/or blog. I know I am worth every cent, but others don’t know that. It then becomes my job to make them know and understand that I take my work with them very seriously, whether it is to organically gain followers on Twitter, create content for their Facebook page, or to give them my opinions on certain business matters they may be concerned with. As a virtual assistant, it is my job to make their job easier and I do whatever I can to make sure that happens. I am not the highest priced Virtual Assistant and I am not the lowest. I am also not undervaluing myself. Not anymore. So when those proposals go out, they go out with confidence now because I know my worth.
Do you know your worth?
This is very well written for such a hard topic. It’s so difficult for us to know our worth and feel worthy. Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you Cassie!
I love this honest and reflective post. It really is a struggle sometimes to recognize your worth especially to other people.
Thank you!! Yes, the struggle is real! 🙂