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How to Stop Undervaluing Yourself as an Entrepreneur
Startups tend to sell what they build for less than it’s worth
As entrepreneurs, it’s almost impossible to understand the value of what we’re building. About 10 years ago, I was contacted about a consulting deal that I had no interest in. The prospect asked for my hourly rate, and I threw out an insane number just to get the deal off my back. Without a second of hesitation, the prospect accepted the rate.
I didn’t take the gig (I had to backpedal really hard to get out of it), but that was the day I realized I was undervaluing myself and my work. As I sought to make sense of why the would-be client had seemed unfazed by such a high rate, I realized that I was the one with the skewed perspective. Turns out, most of us entrepreneurs have a habit of selling ourselves short.
There are a few reasons why we sell what we’re building for less than it’s worth. We live in a world where most products are mass-produced by faceless corporations that employ thousands of people led by titans of industry. At the other end of the scale, we tend to look at our product and our company and think: This is just something I did. No matter where we are on the growth path, it’s difficult to detach ourselves from the fact that all of this came from that one idea we had and the stupid way…
