The cost of self imposed limits

17. Feb, 2010 0 Comments

I had a prospect from about a year ago call me up with a renewed interest in building a website. The only problem is, in that time, my minimum price has tripled.

At first I thought I would just tell him that I can’t do his job, because I thought there’d be no way he’d be interested in my services at the new price. But then I thought, ‘why not?’. Instead of just turning down the work, I talked about some of the improvements I’ve made over the last year, what that would mean for him, and told him about the increased price.

I haven’t banked the cheque yet, but it astounded me how easily I could have cost myself a few thousand dollars.

Other self imposed limits

Price has always been the biggest self imposed limit for me because I was brought up in a tight-arse environment. But self imposed limits can be about anything. Here are some examples…

‘I’m not good enough to work for a company that big’
‘The client will never agree to that’
‘They don’t have the budget to do it right’
‘What I can do isn’t worth it for them’
‘No-one would hire me when my portfolio looks like it does’
‘The client won’t pay 100% upfront’
‘There are so many other people better than me’
‘If I raise my hourly, clients aren’t going to hire me’

These phrases all have the potential to be completely true in our minds, but completely false in reality.

The solution

One thing I’ve found is that it rarely hurts to ask questions.

Self imposted limits can easily be lifted by finding out if the limits actually exist. And the way to find that out, is to ask.

Ask for payment up front. If you don’t ask, you’re not going to get it anyway. So asking is a ‘freeroll’. There’s an upside to asking but no downside.

Don’t think a client would find a new offering worthwhile? Ask them. Again, there’s no downside but there’s a nice upside.

Are you imposing limits on yourself that are costing you money?

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