In this roundup of advice for small business, you’ll find out why entrepreneurs shouldn’t skimp on sleep, whether or not doubt is a good or bad thing, and how to charge what you’re really worth.
3 ways lack of sleep can hurt you
Sleep and business ownership often make pretty crappy bedfellows—that’s been one of the hard lessons of my life. It’s led to a love-hate relationship with sleep… love sleeping, hate not getting it. For the few first businesses I involved myself with, I saw a lot of sunrises, but not the way you’re supposed to.
Being a zombie hurt, but I felt I had no choice, especially when a venture was a side-business. When else was I supposed to work? Plus, at night my mind would spin with ideas and worries, and the only way I could relax was to get up and work.
But over the years, I would see the toll of sleep deprivation—distraction, mistakes, the inability to count to ten. So I eventually made a serious effort to get enough shut-eye. It’s still a struggle sometimes, which is why the following article caught my tired eye. If you’ve ever needed an incentive to get a good night’s sleep, check out: How a Bad Night’s Sleep Can Screw You Up.
Ever worry your business idea might not work?
If you’ve ever worried that your business idea might not work, you’ve got lots of company—including Steve Jobs, George Lucas and Seth Godin, who famously said, “If I’m not saying to myself, ‘This might not work’ … then I haven’t pushed myself hard enough.”
In This Might Not Work, Steven Pressfield, author of The Legend of Bagger Vance and The War of Art, breaks down what he thinks Seth Godin meant by his statement. As someone who has worried countless times that the venture I’m throwing my soul into might not work, I found this particularly inspirational.
One professional’s journey to charge what he’s really worth
If you’ve followed our blog over the past few months, you’ve no doubt noticed a certain theme—how to charge what you’re really worth. That’s every service professional’s challenge.
So much of what you do for your clients draws on your ability to develop creative solutions. And if you’ve taken the traditional road to pricing—one based on billable hours—you’ve probably felt that it doesn’t capture your true value. That’s exactly how accountant Jason Blumer felt. The New York Times recently covered his determination to break away from time-based billing to charging his clients based on value. If you’re looking for a little inspiration to make a similar move, I recommend reading What’s an Idea Worth?, especially if you face—as those in the accounting world do—price pressure from commoditized services.
By the way, if you want to know how the concept of hourly billing dug its teeth into professional services, you’ll enjoy the dip into history the post takes.
And while we’re on the topic of pricing history, let me throw in a fascinating value-pricing story I discovered on my recent vacation to Italy. As the story goes, after the famous 15th century artist Donatello presented his commissioned statue to his client, a Genoese merchant, the merchant complained that it was too expensive and offered to pay a price based on the time it took the artist to complete the work—half a florin a day for a month. Donatello, who didn’t take too kindly to this time-based billing approach to his artwork, smashed the statue to pieces.
That got the attention of the client, who begged Donatello to redo the work, offering to pay through the nose. Too bad for him—Donatello chose to look for better clients.
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared here on the Freshbooks blog.