#215 – How To Stop Undercharging For Web Design

Shannon Mattern (00:01.494)

Welcome back to the Profitable Web Designer. And this week I've got a two-part episode for you that I think is especially timely now that AI tools are making our jobs as web designers even faster and easier. I mean, I was personally able to build out an entire custom licensee dashboard for the new pricing strategy licensing and certification program that I'm beta testing right now in less than a day. And Claude

I had Claude building Elementor pages for me via Chrome while I was creating the actual actual assets for the program. And that was a few days before Elementor launched their MCP. So I'm sure all of you out there are using so many different AI tools to expedite and support your work. But before AI, I mean, do you guys remember there was life before AI? There were page builders and templates and sections and global styles and cloning and

so many creative ways that we figured out to make our work go faster. And I mean, I used to have back in the day what I called like my starter site. It was an WordPress site that was 80% built with pages and sections and all set up so that all I had to do was clone it, change some global styles, customize that, add the client's content, do whatever customizations I needed to do.

and made it make it go faster for me. So the big problem I've been helping so many web designers fix for the past decade before AI, you know, not really before page builders, but like during that time, is you think that because it's so fast and so easy, it's not worth that much. You can't charge that much. And because now AI

can spin up a complete fully functioning website, you think you're in competition with that. Here's what I need you to know though. DIYers were always gonna DIY. They were never gonna hire you. Stop trying to market to them or to compete with DIY tools like AI. You those are not your customers. You are not selling your time. You so you don't charge less because it goes faster for you. And it's in your best interest

Shannon Mattern (02:22.85)

To get things done quickly and use the rest of that time however you want. You want freedom, flexibility, and capacity and all of those things. So what I see people doing instead is making the ability to work faster than ever before a bad thing. But there's never been a better time to be a web designer. AI tools are handing us our time back or doubling our capacity, however, you want to look at it and however you choose to use your time.

But if you're gonna thrive, you've gotta completely change how you are thinking about the value of what you do. And that is what today's episode is all about. So the first half of this week's episode is a snippet from a masterclass I taught a few years ago from our fall cohort cohort of the Web Designer Academy that's going to completely change.

Shannon Mattern (03:22.092)

The first half is a snippet from a master class I taught a few years ago that our Falco

Shannon Mattern (03:33.388)

The first half is a snippet from a masterclass that I taught a few years ago that our fall cohort of the Web Designer Academy is currently going through. and I'm walking you through all of the places you're undercharging or setting yourself up for undercharging. And I'm walking you through like looking for all of those places in your web design business. And then the second half is an oldie but goodie replay of

one of our very first episodes of this podcast, Why Web Designers Undercharge.

And the second half is an oldie but goody from one of our very first podcast episodes all about how to stop undercharging. So those both of those are put together in one epic episode for you to truly help you make over your mindset for good so that you stop undercharging. And I want to invite you to join our wait list for our next six-month cohort of the Web Designer Academy.

Over at WebdesignerAcademy.com forward slash waitlist. That's where you're going to find all of the dates of our next cohort. And when you get on the wait list, I'll start giving you all of the information that you need to prepare and plan ahead to apply to work with us to implement these changes in your business the next time our doors open. So that's Webdesigner Academy.com forward slash waitlist. And let's go ahead and dive into this week's episode.

Shannon Mattern (00:06.434)

Hello and welcome to the Stop Under Charging Masterclass. It is the third masterclass in a series that we have been doing to help you get started on the path to create a more profitable and sustainable web design business. So, welcome to those of you who are joining me live. I am thrilled that you're here and you will absolutely have the opportunity to get some coaching.

while you are here today live, whether that is through the chat, if you feel like coming on camera or unmuting your microphone, whatever your level of comfort is, we can accommodate that. So I am just so excited you're here because you have to be sold on you before anyone else will be sold on you. And one of the big reasons that we see

web designers under charge is that they're not sold on themselves and their pricing at a core level. So we're gonna work on that a little bit today. So I'm gonna go through today's agenda, but what I really want you to get out of today's masterclass is that when you believe at a core, core level, like in your bones, that your pricing is worth it.

And there's so many facets to that, and we'll talk about some of those today. You will not hesitate to say the price of your services with confidence. You will not hesitate to make an offer to someone to work with you. You will not hesitate to just have a conversation with someone and let them know what you do because you believe at such a core level that people are better off working with you than not working with you.

You believe in what's possible for them when they come to work with you, when they choose to make that investment in themselves through working with you, you believe in it. You don't feel like you're ripping people off or that you're not good enough or that you're charging too much or all of those things. So I can promise you, if you are not sold on your own pricing, no one else will be sold on it either. And so

Shannon Mattern (02:26.122)

One of the things that we do inside of the Web Designer Academy program is we personally review all of the parts of our students' businesses that we that we work with them on and we give them individual feedback. So we're looking at their packages, their pricing, their messaging, their marketing, their client communications, and we evaluate those and we give them strategic advice and coaching.

And like coaching on what to change in order to like help them solve some of the problems that they're coming into our program with and help them reach their goals. And so it couldn't have been more timely because yesterday I was reviewing a recording of one of our students' actual consultation calls. She actually sent us four recordings of her consultation calls. And she's like, hey, so

I've done four consultations and I spent so much time preparing for these calls and having these calls and like making a proposal after these calls. And after each of these calls, I got a no. And I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Can you take a look at these replays, these recordings of these consultation calls that I did following the process and give me some feedback? And so I watch her.

consultation calls and I can see within the first five minutes of watching them exactly what the problem is. And I'm like, hey, like come to a coaching call. Let's talk about this. Let's get to the bottom of this. And so I start asking her questions that totally confirmed my hunch. And it was she was not sold on her pricing. She was not sold on herself. She was not sold on her pricing.

And it was seeping into her discovery calls. You could tell by her body language, you could tell by the tone of her voice. You could tell by the way she answered the questions that the potential clients were asking. Even though she was like saying the words in the script that we give her, she was not sold. And she was like seeking validation from the client that she was good enough for them to say yes, and that her price.

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was worth it. And so of course, like we got to coach on that and do some mind trash makeover stuff and give her some specific changes to implement for her next one and and and get that solved. But I'm gonna say it again, you have to be sold on you before anybody else will be sold on you. And that is how you stop undercharging. That's how you stop undercharging in your in your pricing.

In your scope creep and you're doing stuff for free, all of those things. So that's what we are going to start on today because it's one of the biggest and most like important transformations that we work on with our students inside of the Web Designer Academy during their time with us. And during this masterclass, I'm gonna walk you through a part of that process with the objective being that you

Leave this training today, or if you're watching this on the recording of the future, with a completely new understanding and outlook on your on your value, so that you stop undervaluing yourself and you stop undercharging. So there are a few key areas where we see web designers commonly, commonly undercharging. So again, like I said, I've looked at thousands of applications.

thousands of web designer websites countless conversations about like what are the challenges that you're having in your web design business. And so I want you to take a few minutes and do a self-evaluation of all of the places that you might be undercharging in your web design business. So for example

When you're looking at your pricing, how are you describing your pricing to potential clients? Like on your website, when you have a discovery call with someone, when someone's like, hey, how much does it cost to work with you? How are you verbally describing it to them? And how do you think about your pricing when you think about your own pricing? Do you think things like

Shannon Mattern (07:05.344)

Affordable for people on a budget, cost effective. Like, how are you talking about your pricing? for beginner business owners, for new business owners, where are all of the places where some of that expense mindset language is creeping in? So that's one place that I want you to to look at.

in terms of where you might be undercharging. So how you're describing your price, either to yourself or to your potential clients. Whether it's in on your website, in your proposals, in your client communications, in verbal conversations with people, how are you talking about describing your price? so like

For general web design, for retainer packages, for maintenance,

Where are some of those places that you're talking about it or thinking about it in that way? So you can just put that in this quadrant of the undercharging evaluation. And again, like I said, this is not for you to judge yourself and be like, my gosh, I'm messing so much stuff up. This is like, okay, where are all of the opportunities that I have to shift things in my business so that I can stop undercharging?

scope creep is the next the next one to look at, right? So where are all of the the places where you either don't have a clear project scope to begin with? So you don't know what's in and out of scope? where are all the places where clients add things on?

Shannon Mattern (09:12.404)

and you just allow it and you don't let them know that that's going to cost more where are all the places where projects extend beyond extend beyond the the agreed upon project timeline maybe you don't even have agreed upon project timelines and that's an opportunity for you you know where

Are you where are you allowing unpaid additions of tasks and time to happen?

Shannon Mattern (09:56.952)

So you can list, you know, things like processes, project timelines, unclear client communication, feel weird talking about money when clients bring it up. so just start listing all of those, those places.

In your pricing, pricing in general, when I asked like, okay, what is your monthly revenue goal? What are you currently bringing in? What's the gap?

What am I currently charging for a website?

Or for whatever services I offer. And how many like what what's the opportunity for you to like increase that price to be able to make that monthly revenue goal in less clients? Right. So where do you have an opportunity to raise your prices for your current services? Are you charging hourly?

That would be an that would be a place in your business where where you're undercharging, where you're putting a cap on on your revenue potential. because you're trading time for money. So that would be pricing in general. And then simple, quick fixes. So what I mean by that are

Shannon Mattern (11:28.258)

When a client reaches out to you, a potential client or a current client, like maybe they don't have a maintenance agreement in place, they're not paying you. How often do you respond to client emails when they're like, I just have a quick fix? And you just do it and you don't charge them for it. Either because they tell you it's going to be a quick fix, you tell them it's going to be a quick fix, you feel responsible for it for some reason.

And don't feel like you can charge.

Shannon Mattern (12:04.782)

So not necessarily out of scope in the project, but like clients who just expect you to continue to maintain their website forever without you paying more. Without them paying more, right?

Shannon Mattern (12:25.548)

And then other places where you might be undercharging are unpaid invoices.

How many invoices are out there where you're waiting on payment? And maybe you feel weird about asking for it. You don't know how. You don't want to feel like a bill collector, like

What are some other places that you're undercharging?

Shannon Mattern (12:55.694)

So I would love to hear from those of you that are here for you to pop into the chat.

Some of the places that you notice that you're undercharging in your business. And again, no shame. Please share. Your comments are a gift to everybody else here because you're going to be like, they're going to see where you're undercharging. They're be my gosh, I'm undercharging there too. That's an opportunity for me. So this is not like share to like, here's all the things I'm doing wrong. That's not not what this is. It's

Here's all the places that I am. Maybe that'll spark something in someone else that they'll realize that they have an opportunity in one of these places. another place where we see web designers undercharging are really, really low like like maintenance fees, like monthly maintenance fees, hosting fees, where then they get in trouble.

with that because they feel like then they have to, you know, do these additional hourly, you know, additional bigger simple quick fixes that turn into bigger projects and not charge for them because the person's on a maintenance plan. And then another one, another place that is so super common is using VIP days. VIP days and the VIP day model, which I personally don't teach but

good friends of mine do, Sarah Massey and and others. She's the queen of day rates. Using day rates and VIP days to undercharge for custom projects because you're not sold on the big numbers. I see this all the time. People are like

Shannon Mattern (14:50.89)

well I'll just offer them a VIP day for a thousand dollars when really this is like a five thousand dollar custom web design project or a ten thousand dollar custom web design project that I'm gonna try to sell you in two VIP days for two thousand dollars because I feel uncomfortable with ten thousand dollars.

Shannon Mattern (15:21.838)

So I want you to think of everything that you listed in your undercharging evaluation as like money waiting for you to grab it. Like, you don't necessarily need to go get more clients all the time. You just need to clean up some of the places in your web design business where you are leaking time and money and energy and capacity. And it starts by

You really like A, realizing that you're doing it, B believing that you don't have to, shifting, like understanding why you're doing it, right? And then shifting out of that so that you can raise your prices. Sometimes, sometimes stopping under charging doesn't even mean a price increase. It can mean just charging for all of the work that you're doing.

Shannon Mattern (16:22.722)

So there's so many different ways to stop undercharging, just depending on what is the most the biggest opportunity in your own business. How do you really know if you're undercharging? Like I think we all know this, but I wanted to like get very explicit with it that when you feel resentful, like

How can you tell that you're undercharging, right? Like it's not necessarily this is what's challenging, right? Because there is no set rate for web design. There's no set rate for web design. There's no specific number that you should be charging per project. There's no certain hourly rate that you should secretly have in your back pocket when you're figuring out figuring out package pricing. There's no rule of thumb for it.

Undercharging for one person could be a very different number than another person, and it all depends on who you are, your your your goals, what your what how you want your business to work. So, you know, someone who's charging ten thousand dollars for a custom web design project could be feeling very resentful.

Feeling like it's not worth it, feeling very burnt out, feeling like they're working too much, believing that other people can charge more, but they can't. And you might be sitting there thinking, my gosh, if I could charge $10,000, that would be amazing, right?

Undercharging is a feeling as much as it is a fact, like a circumstance, like a math problem, right? So

Shannon Mattern (18:16.376)

How you know you're undercharging is when you're overworking when you're working too much and not making enough money. That's obviously a sign.

But if you are resentful, if it doesn't feel worth it, if you're burnt out, you're working too much, if you want to charge more, but you feel guilty about charging more, if you think other people can charge more, but you can't charge more, those are all signs that you are undercharging and places that you get like get to start noticing these things. And the reason that I ask you that is because

Those are the thoughts that we get to work on to decide like, okay, do I wanna keep thinking that? Do I wanna keep doing that? Here are all the reasons why it's gonna be worth it for me to do the challenging, sometimes challenging work of making these, making these shifts. I talked about this in one of the emails that I was that I sent out to promote this masterclass.

The four letter words that keep you undercharging and just and only are two of like the most diminishing dismissive words that we can use.

When we think about our when our when we think about our own web design businesses and when we like how we let others talk about our web design businesses. So

Shannon Mattern (20:01.324)

I wanted to talk about this today specifically because like our language is so important when we are, it's like such a part of undercharging, and we don't even realize. And this is like what I was talking about at the beginning. It's the way we think about our business, it's the way we talk to other people about our business. Like when we have this like paradigm of you know, people.

Can't afford to work with me, like they no one can pay that much. All of the things that we think about our business and our pricing, those thoughts are going to keep us undercharging. And so stopping undercharging really starts with us. And so you know, when I was thinking about what I wanted to include in this masterclass.

I was thinking about like if we could j if we could change one thing about how we think about our web design business, it would be to banish the words just or only from our vocabulary. if you didn't diminish yourself, your business, the value of working with you, and if you didn't let your clients do it either,

Everything would shift. And it's such a sneaky word, but it's like really holding you back from making a consistent, generous income as a web designer. And how many of you here like find yourself thinking this when you are putting together a proposal or pricing? You'll think things like, it's just a few pages. that request that'll just take a few minutes. It's just a small change. Or

I'm just starting out, or their their budget is just a just a little bit, or it's only a one-page website. I only I only use page builders. I don't custom code, or they only have so much money. And you'll let your clients say it to you too, and you'll believe them. They'll be like, hey, I just have a quick fix. I wanna, you know, swap this for that, and you know, just a few changes. And

Shannon Mattern (22:24.436)

I hear web designers say that as if it's a fact, like it rolls off their tongue, like they're just like, yeah, no, like of course it's it's just a small thing. It's, you know. But like those are words that we use to minimize, diminish, dismiss, and discount ourselves, our value, our pricing, our boundaries, and our time. And so I want you guys, those of you who are here.

Shannon Mattern (22:54.742)

A good exercise is to like search your website content for places that you use that to notice when you're like getting requests from clients when they say it, when you're talking. So notice all of the places where you say it and like list them all out here.

And how can you think about this differently? Like this whole one page website thing, like when I hear someone say, I can't charge that much, it's just a one page website. And I'm like, Are you kidding me? Like, there's so much work that goes into just a one page website. You know, you still have to meet with a client, come up with a strategy.

Develop the brand, write the copy, set up the sections, optimize everything, set up all of the functionality, and just because just because

Shannon Mattern (24:03.096)

There's not multiple URLs. Somehow this process is is not as valuable as as having as like being able to scroll all the way down a page is less valuable than clicking onto different pages.

So notice all of the places that you have internalized these words just and only and

where you're saying those to minimize, diminish, dismiss, devalue your business. Let's dive into what is undercharging? What exactly is it? So the official definition is quote, to charge a purchaser less than the proper or fair price, end quote. So what most people think when they hear that is, okay, so if I'm undercharging, I need to know the fair and proper price for web design, right?

Well, the only problem is there is no fair and proper price for web design services that is standard across the entire industry. There is no magic set amount that you can charge or that you should be charging or that you're allowed to charge. You get to decide how much to charge for web design. And then you get to go find clients willing to pay that much. I mean, I know it's a little mind-bending, right? It's like, it's that easy. If it was that easy, everyone would be doing it, right? So stay with me here.

So if you get to decide how much to charge for web design, how do you know if you're undercharging now? The most obvious way to know if you're undercharging for a project is if you are looking at the level of effort that you spent on the project, the amount of time that you spent on the project, the long-term value to the client, and you're feeling resentful and like you didn't make enough money, and you're looking at how much you made and you're like,

Shannon Mattern (26:02.538)

It's not making ends meet for me. It's not covering my how much I want to pay myself. It's not covering my business expenses. It's not covering my taxes. You are probably undercharging, right? So that's how to know if you are undercharging. Another way to know if you're undercharging is that you book a project, but you're not charging for things that came up in the project that you didn't anticipate. That is undercharging.

When you're not charging for additional requests made by your client, aka scope creep, that is undercharging. When you are letting projects drag on and on and on without getting paid because your client's not cooperating or whatever the reason, that is undercharging. And not charging for things that come up after a project is over when the client declined to get on like a maintenance plan or a retainer, or they're coming back six months later and wanting some changes.

And you don't feel like you can charge for that, that is undercharging. I was a chronic undercharger back when I first started my web design business. So how do I know if you're probably undercharging? Because not only did I was I chronic undercharger, almost everyone that comes to work with us or explores working with us inside the Web Designer Academy is a chronic undercharger. My story is that when I

Decided that I was going to take this skill of web design that I had cultivated and developed over 10 years at the time that I decided to start over solving business problems at my day job and learning WordPress and using it to build websites that made my employer hundreds of thousands of dollars. When I decided to start doing freelance web design work on the side.

I was like, I'll just charge what I make at my day job. I'll just take what my salary here divide it by, you know, the number of hours that I work. I think it came out to be like $25 an hour at the time. And I was like, I'll charge $25 an hour for web design. And if I can get 40 hours of work every single week, that'll replace my day job income. And I'll be able to quit my job and it'll be amazing. my gosh, that is not how that works. So stick with me in this podcast.

Shannon Mattern (28:29.5)

make sure you subscribe so that you can really understand how to really figure out how much to charge. But I one set my rates way, way, way too low. Two, when I would have c like the conversation with my client would go something like this. Hey, I heard you're a web designer. I need some work done. Are you available? Sure. What do you charge? Well, 25 bucks an hour. Awesome. Here's

Everything I need. Okay. And then I would just start working, right? They're like, How long do you think that'll take? And I'm like, I don't know. And I'm thinking like, how long it would take me if the client was not involved, how long it would take me if I was just like doing it at my own direction, right? So I'd be like, I don't know, like 10 hours probably. And they'd be like, Awesome, that sounds great. 250 bucks, sweet. And what would happen is that I didn't ask enough questions. I didn't have a full understanding of the of

the project. They didn't share enough information with me because we both just didn't know what we didn't know as we were kind of like digging in because I had no processes at all. Okay. So what would happen is things would come up that they didn't tell me in that initial conversation, or things took longer than I thought they would, or there would just be other things that we needed to build based on they're like, I want this, I want this, I want this. And

I didn't feel like I could charge more than the 10 hours that I told them it was gonna cost because I had an employee mindset. So I didn't charge for additional requests. I didn't charge for revisions upon revisions upon revisions. I didn't charge for when they're like, wait, my son wants to take a look at it. he wants to draw me a new logo. He's giving me a new logo. I wanna change everything. wait, I need to run this by the committee at our company. And the committee has 7,000 changes, right?

I didn't charge for any of that because I didn't think I could. I thought it was my fault for underestimating. I didn't know how to go back to them in the early days and tell them, like, this is what we talked about in the beginning. This is how it's changed. Here's the difference. What's the difference between this and that? Here's how much this will cost. Do you want to move forward with these changes? I didn't know how to say that.

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And so I massively was undercharging and I hon I just honestly didn't think I was allowed to ask for more. And so I had no idea that I could do it differently. And that is one of the reasons why I am so passionate about making this podcast for you and showing up here every single week because it's not just me, it's hundreds and thousands of web designers that I have talked to.

Over the years that have thought the same things. And when we can shift your mind around what you are quote unquote allowed to do, because spoiler alert, it's your business, you're allowed to do whatever you want. Everything will change for you. We talked about how to know if you're undercharging, and you're gonna hear so much more about my undercharging throughout this podcast. But let's look at some really common reasons why.

web designers under charge. And these are reasons that I hear over and over and over again from people I talk to who are looking to join our web designer academy, who come to our workshops, participate in some of our QAs, all of the things. So the first reason I hear is that they're looking at what everyone else is charging. So you're doing some light internet stocking, you're looking at other web designers, that you're looking at their website, you're going to their pricing page

You might even be like signing up for a consultation, like getting on their email list to see like if you can like creep on their pricing, right? And so you're looking at what everyone else is charging and you think that if you can get your pricing quote unquote right, that no one will ever tell you that they can't afford you or that you're charging too much. And you're looking outside of yourself for someone to tell you what you can charge or what's okay to ask for or

To get some kind of gauge of what people will pay. All right. We'll we'll come back to this in a little bit. So they're looking at what everyone else is charging. Another reason is that you're worried about what clients can and can't afford. This was a big, big, big one for me, and it's a big one for a lot of a lot of our students inside the Web Designer Academy. You're so worried about like charging too much or clients having sticker shock or

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them telling you that you can't afford it or if you're worried or if you're like me, I had this thought that like I'm taking money from someone, like I'm taking it from them, and taking it from them could harm them. And what if they're not successful? And what if they don't go do their business and like, you know, then they lost this money and it's my fault. I had all kinds of thoughts like that. And what I realized was that like I was accepting responsibility for things that are not my responsibility.

The decision to invest in a website and the decision to utilize it after it's built, that's not my responsibility. That's my client's responsibility. So we'll talk about this in a minute, but like my only job is to make sure that they have all of the information that they need to make the best decision for them. And it is not my job to save them money. It's my job to create a tool for them that empowers them to make more money. But

Undercharged because I had it all wrong about what my role is in their business and their bank account. I was all up in there and I did not need to be all up in there. So another reason why web designers undercharge is this they straight up having hate having money conversations or they straight up fear conflict. They're worried that they're going to say a number and that someone is going to like negotiate or be like, How dare you charge that much? Or you're way too expensive. I could go

on another freelancer website and go find someone to do it for a fraction of the price that you're doing it. And they're like, I don't want that to happen to me and I don't know what to say. You pick a price that feels safe so that you avoid conflict, right? Another reason why web designers undercharge is that they just want the money, any money. Like I just need money. And so we had a conversation in the Web Designer Academy recently about

someone wanting to like buy a certain number of hours of time from them. And we advise against selling hours of your time at a certain price, even if it's $200 an hour or $300 an hour for so many reasons that we'll be covering throughout future episodes of this podcast. And she didn't want the project, but she needed money. And there were all kinds of red flags and so many things that she was already feeling like she was being

Shannon Mattern (35:35.31)

Pushed around and different things, but she also at the same time wanted them to accept her proposal. And so she was willing to break away from her boundaries and lower her price just to get the money. And one of the things that we don't consider in the early days is like, at what cost, right? What is it going to cost me to undercharge? It's gonna cost me.

Time. It's going to cost me future revenue. It's going to cost me sanity when I work with the wrong clients for the wrong price. And so there's some trust that needs to be built up with ourselves that we can go find clients who are a great fit for us, who are willing to pay what we want instead of us settling for any money. Okay. So that's one of the reasons why we undercharge is like we feel desperate and we feel like unless we

Do what anybody wants us to do, that we're gonna like not get the money. Right. And so that leads me to the fifth reason that web designers undercharge is that they're operating from an expense mindset. You yourself fear losing money. You yourself think I can run out of money and there'll never be any more coming ever again in the future. And that's scary. Like our brains are designed to want to keep us safe.

And if you feel like you are going to do something that's going to harm your ability to have food and shelter and a livelihood, it's going to make sense that you're not going to do it, right? So you fear losing money, you fear wasting money, you fear spending money. And because of that, you personally wouldn't invest quote unquote that much in your own business or pay that much for web design. So if you don't feel like you would spend that much, you have a hard time charging other people that much, right? And so

That's one of the reasons why web designers undercharges, because they're also operating from an expense mindset. And another facet of that that we'll talk about throughout this podcast is that you think your results are out of your control. This is one of those ones where I'm like, all right, friends, we're going deep. And, you know, people say, How do I attract clients? And how do I get clients? It's like, you, you don't, you create clients, you go do a bunch of work to get them.

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And all of that is within your control. So we need to shift you. And our mission over all of these episodes of this podcast is to shift you out of an expense mindset and start having you create a hybrid mindset and then an investment mindset. And if you want to know what the heck I'm talking about, go to webdesigneracademy.com forward slash pricing. Enter your name and email. I'll send you a link to our

pricing framework, our profitable pricing framework, where I break down what those mindsets are and what they mean and how they show up in our business and how you can start making that shift if you have some of those thoughts. So another reason web designers undercharge is that you undervalue your skills. Okay. This was me. I'm sure it's a lot of you. I'm sure and and I'm sure it's a lot of you that like

you know, work with page builders and don't code from scratch. And you're like, but this is so easy. I just open up WordPress and I install Elementor or Divi and I drag and drop and I point and click. And yeah, I have to like write a little bit of code here and there to like get things looking the way I want, but like generally or Squarespace or show it or Webflow or or whatever, Shopify, whatever platform you use, right? That

you are using page builders and things that are like already done for you. You're like, this is so easy. Why would anybody pay ever pay me to do this for them? I feel like I'm ripping them off if I charge them, if I charge them more because like it's so easy. You don't recognize the value of not only your willingness to learn, the amount of time you spent trying to figure out how to move that line over four pixels when you can't drag it, you know?

All of the things that you have learned along the way, your persistence and willingness to figure it out, your lack of fear of like willing to break things, all the things, your eye for design, your just everything every and every little unique thing that you bring to the table, that's part of your value. But because it's so easy for you to build a website, you don't think it's worth that much. And I'm can tell you, it is worth so much.

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And we'll talk more about that over the course of the podcast. Seventh reason why web designers undercharge, imposter syndrome. This is a huge one. I'm self-taught. I don't know enough yet. I haven't worked with enough clients yet. I don't have a portfolio. I've never done X, Y, and Z before. They're asking me to build this functionality and I've never done it before. So imposter syndrome is a major reason. It's like, well, if I don't charge them that much, then if you know it doesn't work out, then

No harm, no foul, because they didn't pay that much anyway. It's like that harms us as web designers so much and also harms your clients. So we'll talk about that too. And number eight, this one is one that when I say it, people are like, my gosh, that is me. I didn't even know. That's crazy. So number eight, the eighth reason why web designers under charge is fear of responsibility.

Okay. So what I mean by that is I'm not gonna charge you that much. And I'm gonna like keep you at a distance because I don't have any boundaries. And if I don't charge you that much, then you won't have that high of an expectation of me, right? You won't expect that I will answer your calls on evenings and weekends. You won't expect everything to be perfect. You won't expect that I'll be able to deliver at a high level.

Because I fear the responsibility of all of that. Even though on the surface you feel very capable, deep down you don't want to hold that level of responsibility for the client. And so you think things like, What if they pay me? And then they don't get the results that I promise and all of the things. So you're like, well, better to charge them less so that they're not out that much if it doesn't work out. Right.

If that one resonates with you, I want you to go to webdesigneracademy.com forward slash podcast, find this episode, and tell me if that resonates with you in the comments because that is that's one of those like under the surface things that we didn't even know that were thinking. And then we're like, but if I charged $10,000 for this, that would mean that I'm like beholden to this client. There would be so much pressure on me.

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It would be too much. So I can't charge that much because it's too much pressure. So we get to, if that feels like you, we get to unwind that because that's going to hold you back from charging profitably and sustainably every single time. Okay. So the bottom line is that if you're undercharging for any of those eight reasons, it's because you are too focused on yourself. Okay. You're like, I'm self-taught. I can't handle that much pressure.

I don't have the skills. I wouldn't invest that much in my own business. I just need the money. I'm afraid of conflict. I'm worried I'm taking from my clients. I don't know if I can charge that much, right? If you're undercharging for any of those reasons, you are too focused on yourself. And the good news is that the fix is super simple and totally within your control. Put the focus on your clients.

And what they are going to be able to create in their own lives and their own businesses as a result of working with you. Okay. That's the mindset shift that we are going to be working on over all of the episodes of this podcast that will ever be. Okay. This isn't it's not about you, it's about your clients. And when you make that shift, everything gets so much easier and so much more fun. Okay. How do you stop undercharging? Okay.

I think you can see that this is more than just a math problem, right? It involves some serious mindset work. And we go through this mindset work in depth inside of our Web Designer Academy program. But I'm gonna go through with you how to stop undercharging. One, you must value what you do more than anyone else. You cannot let other people tell you the value of what you do.

You get to decide. Okay. You get to decide how much that is worth. All right. Number two, you stop comparing yourself to other designers. First, when you go and creep on other designers, you see a cute like something that you're like, ooh, I like that on Instagram. And then you like tap on your link and you go to their website and you're like, my gosh, their website's gorgeous, and they must be doing so good. Like

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You're making an assumption that they're successful, that they're happy, that they're getting clients, that they're making ton of tons of money. You really have no idea. I cannot tell you how many applications I have gotten for the Web Designer Academy that I've clicked onto their their website. And I'm like, I can see why. I'm like, I see what they're doing wrong in their packages, pricing, positioning, and how they're selling, how they're presenting things.

But their website is freaking gorgeous. And if you didn't know what's under the iceberg in terms of the strategies of getting clients and marketing and all the things, you would look at that and you'd be like, they're doing amazing. my gosh, I have to do what they're doing. And I bet that's going really well for them. And spoiler alert, it's not. Like for some people, yeah, absolutely. But for a lot of people, you're just making an assumption.

And you really have no idea. So because of that, you get to stop comparing yourself to other designers. Just stop. Just stop creeping on other people's stuff and stay in your lane and you get to decide how much you want to charge based on your life and your goals and what you want. Three, you learn how to have money conversations with clients and you practice them so that they become second nature, right?

You practice to get more confident at doing things. You probably don't have a whole lot of money conversations with thousands of dollars involved in your day to day. So because you don't being able to practice that and practice that and listen to the thoughts that come up when you're about to say that'll cost $10,000 and you start to sweat and you get nervous and then like noticing what are all the things that you're thinking about that number.

And writing those down and working through them and then practicing some more. Practice. You learn how to have money conversations. Okay. Number four, you stay out of your clients' wallets. My business coach Mariah Cause always says this. She's like, stay out of your clients' wallets. Make no assumptions about what they can and can't afford. It's not your job to decide how they spend their money. I love how she says that it's like disempowering to

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People to look at them and their business and where they're at in their life and make an assumption about what they can and can't afford or what they are and aren't willing to spend. It like reminds me of that scene in Pretty Woman when she walks into the store and they won't wait on her because they think that she doesn't have the money to spend. Okay. Don't do that to people. Give them all of the information to make the own.

Their own decisions about what they can and can't afford. Their bank account is none of your business. Okay. How do you stop undercharging? Five, you know your own numbers. You know your project timelines. You know how much you want to work, right? You know how much you want to pay yourself, how much you you'll need to set aside in taxes, how much you want to invest in back in your business and in business expenses, right? Know all of those numbers and then know how much time you have.

To work on your web design business every week. Know how long your projects take and price accordingly, right? Price accordingly. If you want to work less, you get to charge more to make that happen. And we'll talk more about that because people have a whole lot of thoughts that charging more means working more and I want to work less. So how's that gonna work? And it doesn't compute in their mind. So stick with me, subscribe to the show because we're gonna break that all down for you.

Okay. And then the next thing is that we already talked about this a little bit. You dismantle your own expense mindset and actively cultivate an investment mindset. This is the most important advice that I can give you is that you have to start changing the way you think about money if you're going to have a profitable, sustainable, scalable web design business. More clients at low prices does not equal more freedom. More clients

at low prices equals less freedom, more admin, more stress, more requests of you. Okay. So you get to raise your prices, work with less people, work less, and cultivate the mindset to do that. Okay. Number seven is that you do deep self-work on your imposter syndrome and work to fundamentally shift those beliefs about yourself internally. Okay.

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There is no good that's going to happen of you going around thinking, I don't know enough, I'm not good enough. Who do they like, who do I think I am? I'm self-taught. If you keep thinking those things about yourself, you're not going to go out and market yourself. Cause why would you? Why would you go out and market yourself if you think someone's going to find out that you're a fraud? So you hold yourself back from doing the things that it actually takes to get clients when you believe those things about yourself.

I'm guessing if you're here listening to this podcast, it's not true. I'm guessing that you actually do know what you're doing. You do know how to figure things out. You do know how to Google. You do know how to watch YouTube. You do know how to ask for help. That's all that's required. Okay. You have to deep self-work on your imposter syndrome. You also get to define your own boundaries and practice holding them even when it's uncomfortable. That's how you stop undercharging.

That means letting a client know that you're happy to take care of that request for them and here's how much it's going to cost and letting them decide and letting them decide that they don't want to pay that much for it. Right. So you get to define your own boundaries. You get to break out of the employee mindset. You get to decide, wait, I get to run this business and decide what this business looks like. And I get to communicate to that to my clients, even when they might be upset or disappointed or fire me and go find someone else.

You get to define your own boundaries. Okay. And then the ninth thing to do to stop undercharging is stop trying to go it alone and get support. This stuff is really, really hard to do on your own because sometimes you don't even realize like what you're doing, what you're thinking, what's possible for you. Ask me how I know I'm like a recovering lone wolf. Okay. I'm a recovering, people pleasing, imposter lone wolf.

My determination got me really, really far, but burnout was right on the other side of that. Okay. So when I stopped trying to do it all myself and figure it all out myself, and I got support, everything changed for me. And that's exactly what our Web Designer Academy clients experience every day. So if you are ready to transform what you think about how much you can charge, raise your prices.

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work with your dream clients, then I want to invite you to apply to work with us inside the Web Designer Academy. Simply go to WebdesignerAcademy.com, click on that big gold apply to work with us button. Tell us where you're at now and where you'd like to be. And if we look at all of your stuff and we think your strategies are good fit, our strategies are a good fit for your goals, we'll invite you to learn more about our proprietary pricing frameworks. You'll hear directly from our students on how we work with them and empower them to create 10K revenue months.

There is zero obligation, zero pressure. We teach and live the exact opposite of Pushy and Salesy. So filling out that application is simply a chance for you to find out what unique opportunities we see for you in your business and for you to get all of the information that you need to decide if working together is right for you. Just to recap, undercharging is to charge less than the proper or fair price you get to decide.

The proper and fair price. And it gets to be profitable and sustainable for you. If you are overworking and not making enough money and resentful and at the beck and call of your clients, you might be undercharging. And we covered so many reasons why web designers undercharge and talked about how to stop undercharging, which really involves a commitment.

To noticing how you're thinking now and getting uncomfortable to shift how you're thinking so that you can transform that. And we would love to help you do that inside the Web Designer Academy. And next week we're going to dive into why web designers over-deliver and how to stop over-delivering.

That's it for this week's episode. And we've linked up all of the resources we talked about today in the show notes, so you can go to WebdesignerAcademy.com forward slash podcast to get your hands on those. And we'll be back next week with another episode designed to help you up-level the business side of your web design business. So be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you're listening. And if you liked today's episode, we would be so grateful if you would share it with all your web designer friends.

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And if you're feeling extra generous, we'd love for you to leave us a rating and review so we can get in front of even more web designers and help them transform their businesses and their lives. So simply scroll up on this episode in your podcast player and tap that leave a review link or go to webdesigneracademy.com forward slash review and it'll take you to the right spot. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you right here next week. Bye.

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This podcast is part of the Sound Advice FM Network. Sound Advice FM, Women's Voices Amplified.