One way to truly earn your worth, if you have a particular expertise, is to learn how not to leave money on the table. One way to do this is to take advantage of people’s different learning styles and preferences, and offer your expertise in a number of ways. For example, I love learning in live seminars. But not everyone does. So I’ve learned to “package” my rate-setting expertise in a number of ways. I teach all day seminars on the subject. But I also wrote an eBook on it and recorded audios on it, which I bundled together in a toolkit. (www.ratesettingtoolkit.com) I’ve taught teleseminars as well. And some people want to work one-on-one with me on the subject, so they pay my hourly fee and I give them my undivided focus.

This was brought home to me last week when I spoke at EWomenNetwork. I had a marketing table and sold my toolkits. Some people were practically desperate for help with their rates and bought my toolkit to go home and use. Other people wanted to take a live seminar. But I haven’t set the dates for seminars yet in 2008. Not good. I probably could have filled a small seminar just from the interest in the room. But I was overly focused on the toolkits, since they are so new. The truth is that everyone learns in a different way. And it is a time and money thing as well. Some people have time to wait for a seminar, and some people need help right now. Some people can afford one-on-one help and some people can’t. Offer people multiple ways to use you. Otherwise, you are leaving money on the table. If you want to earn what you are really worth, you may have to stretch yourself and find ways to offer your expertise in ways that are sometimes uncomfortable to you. But not everyone learns like you do. Stretch yourself. Earn More.

I teach women in fee-for-service businesses how to diversity their income streams. After all, there are many ways to earn what you’re truly worth. Great. But I also tell them not to launch more than one income stream every six months. You’ve got to have the energy to market it, the time to focus on it and the money to spend on it. My mistake: launching two projects at once. I didn’t mean to. That is partly why I’m so damn busy. The rate-setting toolkit project (www.ratesettingtoolkit.com) was pushed back while I looked for a good marketing consultant. (And finishing the toolkit itself took me longer than I anticipated.) Now, it is launching near the same time that I am rolling out the Virtual Earn Your Worth program. I may rip my hair out. I know better than this. But at this point, I’ve got to roll with it and remember my lesson carefully.

There it was last week: the Blue Screen of Death. I freaked out. My computer was down for the count and I couldn’t bring it back. So off to the repair shop we went. By the time it was fixed (data transfers, larger hard disk inserted, rush fees) it cost me over $600. Holy Crap. (Is crap every holy?)

This is the type of expense that would end up on a small business owner’s credit card faster than you can say “For everything else there is MasterCard.” It’s a legitimate business expense after all. And it is tax deductible, of course. But I work with tons of business owners who are carrying too much debt—debt that didn’t come from “investing” in their businesses, if you know what I mean. Drag drags you down. It is hard to earn what you’re really worth when a ton of money is going out the door servicing your debt! It doesn’t matter how much you earn. It matters how much you keep.

How do I avoid nasty credit card debt in my business? I have a “five percent fund”. At the end of every month, I count up my total revenue (the total amount of money that came I into my business) and I multiply by 5%. Then I transfer this amount into a savings account attached to my business checking account. I use this for business “periodic expenses”. Periodic expenses are all those irregular business expenses that hit you from time to time. Some we know about: yearly membership dues and travel for business conferences. Some we don’t know about: the Blue Screen of Death. A sudden advertising opportunity. These are the type of expenses that reek havoc on a business owner’s bank account. The beauty of a five percent fund is that it is a percentage. If I have a great month, five percent is a larger chunk put into savings. If I have a down month, five percent is not that much money. But the point is this: I was able to pay the $600 periodic expense and not put it on a credit card. I just used my business debit card and transferred the money out of savings. (If you use a credit card, than you just transfer the money back to make the payment.) Beautiful. Besides, debt really sucks.

I am bursting at the seams. The problem with being self-employed is that we have to do everything— from taking out the garbage, to updating our websites, to seeing clients. But do we have to do everything? If we truly want to earn our worth, we must learn to delegate. But who do we delegate to? In the past couple of years, I’ve used an increasing number of sub-contractors. Sometimes it is simple. They do things that I can’t. (I can’t build a website. Re-write: I chose not to spend my time learning web development.) Other times it is blurry. I COULD enter the 125 names into my database, but is that the best use of my time? I make more per hour (earn what I’m really worth) by seeing clients or creating products etc.

We’ve all heard versions of this—spend your time doing what you like, what you are good at and what makes you money. The theory says that if you do this, you will earn more. But in reality, this is scarier. Who do we give it to and how much do we pay? Yes, yes, it takes money to make money. But in my head I hear, “Just because you want an assistant doesn’t mean you can afford an assistant.” So what is the answer? Frankly, I think this is more of a control issue for me. I think money is a lovely rational reason to stall, but it’s not really the reason I haven’t hired more help. I’d have to give up some control. Well, now that I’m so busy that I can’t remember to drop my child off at school, it’s time.

I was in the middle of hiring an assistant when I started thinking about using a virtual assistant instead. I need help with managing my database, internet marketing, you name it. I’ve been reading some great things about virtual assistants and how to use them. Stay tuned. I think I’m hiring one. Tomorrow, if possible. Maybe today. In reality, desperation helps make the final decision. If I’m going to keep earning what I’m truly worth, I can’t be spending my time entering names into my database!!!!

Yesterday a friend pointed out an article in the Seattle PI titled, Higher pay on job linked to drop in chores at home. Here is what they found:

A recent University of Massachusetts-Amherst study finds married women do about one less hour of housework per week for every $7,500 they earn as full-time workers outside the home, regardless of the husband’s income.

Of course no one wanted to speculate as to why this is. One reason may be that a busy workload means less time at home, so you do less housework period. My thought is that the more you make, the more you can free up that dreaded “second shift” by hiring help. When you make great money, you can hire the housecleaner etc. No matter the exact reasons, one thing is clear: it is difficult to truly earn your worth if you have heavy domestic responsibilities at home. Something has to give. I stopped dusting my baseboards long ago. Then the question became: does the dust accumulate or do I hire that housekeeper?