What Is Your Value?
Do you know what your value is?
This is not a question about how much you should charge or how much your time is worth, this is about how much you value you give to others.
Every service, every product and every role must be able to bring some amount of value in order for someone to want to pay for it or to even spend time listening to what you have to say. Even relationships require a certain value for two people to stay together. I won’t cheapen relationships by calling it a transaction, instead, it is a mutually-beneficial relationship.
Much like a love relationship, a successful relationship also requires that both parties receive their benefits.
As a business owner, mompreneur or an employee, you are not selling just a product, service or just your skill, you are selling the value of how the product/service/skill would benefit the recipient. In return, you get paid, appreciation and acknowledgment. Value is always so much than what an item or person’s experience costs and often a successful business or career stems from providing real value to others.
Albert Einstein said:
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
Define Your Value
Now that we’ve got you thinking, here are some more questions to help you define your value:
1. How Do People Benefit From Buying Your Service/Product/Skill?
In marketing speak, you, of course, know this exercise from differentiating between features and benefits. You customer bought a self-help program from you and the price, the accessibility to your knowledge are all features but the benefits are very often emotional, it helps them feel brave and prepared enough to make changes in their lives for example.
2. After You Know Your True Value, Do You Communicate This To Others?
Customers, partners and bosses alike need to be reminded of the value you bring. If you have something on your mind you think they need to know, tell them. Don’t drone on or worse, brag about how indispensable you are (because no one is), make it short and make it sweet and make it about the other person. Don’t make the mistake of assuming people can read your mind, because they can’t.
3. Are You Still Banging On About The Same Values?
Businesses change, customers change. Hell, even you will change. So from time to time you need to re-evaluate the benefits you bring. Is it still right for the same people? Do you need to figure out new people to bring this value to? Or have your own skill set, the experience changed? Do you still feel inspired to deliver the same value?
In Conclusion
A value is not always a monetary transaction. A value is a real benefit you bring to others and what others bring to you. In business and at work, the value shouldn’t always be directed one way, i.e. the person who pays.
The other non-verbal and none-tangible benefits like appreciation and validation are also important. When you find yourself at a crossroad where your relationships no longer provide the same value, then you know it is time to make a change.
