In the April Issue:
The numbers do not lie.
There are 5.2 million woman-owned businesses in the United States. Millions of women are taking charge and becoming their own bosses. While this may seem like a victory worthy of celebration (and it is!), the math spells out a different story.
Let’s look at the numbers:
85% of women-owned businesses get stuck earning $99,999 per year (or less) in annual revenue. After paying operating expenses, payroll expenses, taxes, not to mention your own salary, $99,999 doesn’t stretch very far. [IRS/US Census data]
On average, self-employed women earn 28% less compared to a man for doing the exact same type of work. Main reason? Because they are not charging enough. [Women in the Workforce Report]
1 in 5 new U.S. businesses shut down within the first year. Why? Because they are not generating enough money to survive. [U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics]
What do these numbers indicate? A grim situation. Millions of women are struggling. Overworking. Underearning. Zero profit margin or worse, a negative margin.
While things may look hashtag #Blessed on Instagram, financially, many women feel like an embarrassing failure. Self-employed women feel tremendous shame about money—not making enough, not having enough—but don’t know how to turn the situation around, or feel incapable of doing so.
All of this could be different for women if we simply charged more for our services. Period. End of sentence.
So, why then, do women often undercharge?
1. Women have been conditioned to believe that we are bad at math, and this conditioning prevents us from doing the math in our businesses to determine exactly how much we must charge in order to be profitable.
2. Society has convinced women that we are terrible at managing money. This false narrative forces many of us to outsource the management of our money to the men in our lives - husband, father, male accountant - and in doing so, we give away our financial power.
3. Women tend to wrap our self worth into the numbers. If our business is not doing well, or if there is not enough money coming in, we must be terrible human beings. This causes women to grossly undercharge in an attempt to avoid feelings of worthlessness.
4. Women struggle with imposter syndrome. We often feel as though other women are better, smarter, and more qualified than we are, so we do not believe that we can charge as much or more than our competitors. For this reason, women are trapped in a vicious cycle of under charging.
5. Women are people pleasers, and we are afraid that if we charge “too much,” people won’t like us. So in an attempt to please everyone - which is actually impossible - we price our services too low.
Despite all of this, there is a solution, and that solution is MATH! Numbers never lie! They always tell the truth. 2 + 2 will always be 4. That will never change, so there is a lot of reliability in numbers!
Numbers are also unemotional. They don’t care if you’re having a bad day or “just not feeling it.” The numbers are what they are, and there is so much comfort in that.
When women decide to do the math and allow the numbers to tell us exactly how much we need to charge in order to be profitable, everything changes!
To learn more about how you can do the math in your business, and why you absolutely must, visit pricingoverhaul.com where you can download a free sample of the introduction to my new book, “Give Yourself a Raise: The Mindset and Math You Need to Get to Your First Million.”
MEET ERIN B. HAAG
FOUNDER OF PRICING OVERHAUL™
Erin B. Haag is the founder of Pricing Overhaul™, a company that teaches self-employed women how to overhaul their pricing, and make more money than they ever dreamed possible.
Prior to starting Pricing Overhaul™, Erin founded a successful Pilates and Yoga studio in Palm Beach, Florida—which she ran for several years before selling the company for 40x her original investment. Erin brings 20 years of experience to her clients. From calculating your revenue, expenses, owner’s salary, profit margin, and beyond, Erin loves crunching the numbers to determine exactly what you need to charge. Her motto is “trust the math” because the numbers never lie.
Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Erin worked for several top businesses in the health, wellness, spa, and beauty industries. Her resume includes Area Supervisor for LA Weight Loss, Call Center Manager for Ideal Image, Corporate Sales Trainer for SLEEK Medspa & Surgical, QVC Spokeswoman for Britesmile, and Regional Director & Teacher Trainer for Power Pilates. Working for these multi-million dollar brands taught Erin what to do (and what not to do) if you want to run a profitable business, and she passes along her knowledge to each client that she serves.
When she’s not working, Erin loves soaking in her bathtub, attending French lessons, and planning her next family vacation. She lives in Florida with her husband, two daughters, and golden retriever, Lulu.
Erin is available for speaking engagements, media appearances, and top-shelf margaritas.
Connect with Erin HERE!
Read the full April issue of SHEcorporated Magazine HERE
