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How does one know their worth?

Being a freelancer I ask myself this question a lot, how much is my services worth? Basically asking how much I am worth, since I do these services. The beginning of the year is especially difficult to know your worth because work is so slow you are tempted to take anything even if you are taking a huge pay cut.

This issue came up a lot a few weeks ago when I got not 1 but 3 phone calls from brides looking for hair and makeup services for their weddings. Since the weddings were last month (slow month in the freelance world) I offered them a bit of a discount since they hummed and hawed at the original price. To my great annoyance even after I offered a reasonable discount they were still trying to get me to go lower. This makes me think how low can I go and still keep my professional integrity? Because it is a slow month should I go that low just to make some extra cash? But if I do that and they tell their friends will that come back to haunt me when those friends call wanting the same price but their wedding is smack dab in the middle of bridal season! And if I do go that low will I just be angry doing the job and end up regretting it? As we all know when you do a job and are regretting it you are not at the top of your game, which could ultimately ruin your reputation among that group of people.

This is where knowing you worth comes in and the ability to say no! Because even though it is a slow season and I can use the money I need to put my integrity and professional reputation first because in the long run a few extra dollars in the slow season is not worth ruining your name in the long run!