Paid Twice had a post recently How Much Money Is Your Time Really Worth? which reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend over the weekend.
She crochets scarves and sells them in local boutiques for $15. I used to be part of a website that sold scarves, until the gal who had volunteered to be the “owner” of the site decided to downgrade the site to “basic” which crashed our shopping cart. The shopping cart which *I* had put hundreds of volunteer hours into customizing. I try not to think about that time, as it still aggravates me. I realize the woman didn't know what she was doing, but was quite distressing. What happened is the site was free for three years, and the fourth year the webhost began charging $4 a month. This woman unilaterally decided she did not want to pay that money, and downgraded the site WITHOUT telling the rest of us what she was doing. But I digress.
When I was a member of that site, I started out selling my scarves for $12-$20 each. The other ladies demanded that I raise my price, insisting that my time was WORTH SOMETHING. They wanted to charge $25-$40 and my scarves needed to be priced accordingly. Some of the materials I had used had been given to me, or had been purchased on clearance. It took me about 2 hours to make a scarf. When I really sat down and thought about it, I realized they were right. I decided I would like to make at least $10 an hour for my hand knitted scarves and agreed to mark my scarves up to a higher price.
Over the weekend, my friend was crocheting while her husband was driving. When she told me she sold her scarves for $15 each last year, I told her I was part of a group that sold scarves online once upon a time, and we sold our scarves for $25 and up. I explained to her that the ladies had insisted I raise my prices, and how they'd told me I should expect to be paid for my time. My friend said, “But I'm just sitting here doing nothing!” Interestingly, the conversation began because she was telling me she went into a small shop in the tourist area and they were selling scarves, exactly like the ones she sold for $15, for $45!! I am so curious what the local boutiques charged for her scarves last year. I'm sure it wasn't just a few dollars over the $15 she charged. Probably $45 and they made a KILLING on her time investment. She almost certainly could sell her scarves for $30 and the boutique would still make a great profit.
I understand that mentality. I spent many years of my life not expecting to be paid (at least not an appropriate rate of pay) for my “time”. I babysat for practically nothing as a teenager, and cleaned the parent's home on top of that. It took me years to get over feeling guilty that I'd asked my employer (who I'd volunteered 8 hours a week for the previous year) during my employment interview for $20 an hour, expecting him to negotiate down to what I really wanted, $15/hour, and he actually started me at $20.
It was kind of weird talking to my friend… because of my past I could see her point, but it really emphasized to me that that way of thinking is not the way I wish to think any longer. I don't want to think of my time, even time knitting in a car while my husband drives, as “doing nothing”.
My time is valuable, very valuable. If I choose to charge $10 each hour I'm knitting a scarf, that's my prerogative.
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