Money is a social construct we all buy into (pun intended). We agree that the paper and metal has value and we can get stuff for that value. Rather than having to trade shoes for fruit, we just each trade dollars for fruit and shoes. Works for everyone. Except dollars are not shoes or fruit, just pieces of paper and metal. Dollars are valuable because we say they are. When you start saying that your art is valuable relative to the price of another artist’s art, you have just made money real. Then you become constrained by money’s realness.
Example: You are a photographer and everyone in your area charges $5,000, but you want to charge $7,500 because it is what you need (see below). Fearing that no one will understand your value, you charge $5,250. Umm, who in the area said $5,000 was the right number? The photography pricing fairy?
Creative businesses are different. Barring the rarest of examples (i.e., a 24 carat gold toilet), the stuff pales in comparison to the value of the art and, more importantly, the artistry. A timeless image caught in exactly the way the client wants it far exceeds not only the cost to create the image, but, more importantly, the thousand(s) of other images that came close but did not get there. So how exactly did the pricing fairy say that capturing that image was $5,000 and not $10,000? $25,000? $2? By getting photographers to believe in the pricing fairy as much as they do in the intrinsic value of money.
For creative businesses, value is what you say it is, what you and your creative business need to create the art that you do, no more no less. Very quickly – if you want to work 20 times per year, need $10,000 a month to live the life you want to live and it costs you 30% to generate a dollar (i.e., rent, salaries, cost of paper, etc.), then the price of each of your projects is $8,570. That simple. When you make money real is when it gets complicated. “Well, I could never get that much”: “So and so only charges $5,000”; “There are bills to pay, people to feed, and I have to do what I have to do”.
So rather than working harder on communicating why $8,570 is incredibly cheap for the value, the artistry, you and your creative business deliver, you get yourself closer to the value set by someone else who, most likely, is doing the exact same thing. You can yell, scream, resist as much as you want, but the best part about numbers is that do not lie or care. You need what you need as an artist not so much to do the project you are commissioned to do, but to have the wherewithal to do the next one. To be able to do your next project you have to get what you need on every project, no more no less. It just is. And the beauty of creative business is that what you need is specific to you and you alone. If you need a Venti anything every day, then you do. This is not about budgeting, it is about feeling good about creating what your clients ask you and your creative business to create. Living the life you need to live to feel fulfilled. Ask yourself if living any other way (i.e., mispricing your art) is sustainable?
In every sense then, money is energy, literally the fuel you need to keep going. Its value is wholly derivative to you, your art and your creative business. If you can go there and figure out what that number is, then the next time a potential client asks you why you charge what you charge, you can say without hesitation that it is what you need. You will take the rest of the time talking about the incredible value of how you are going to create something just for them, in a way that only you and your creative business can. Or you can make money real and say because Jane photographer down the street charges $x and you are worth a little more since you have three seconds more experience.
Your choice.
