It's About More Than Money: are you charging what you're

Written by Angela Booth


*Article Use Guidelines*

Use in opt-in publications, or on Web sites, but please includerepparttar resource box. If you could send a copy to me at email address: mailto:ab@digital-e.biz , I appreciate it. Many thanks. **

Summary: Price takers and price makers. Are you charging what you're worth, or does pricing your small business services and products make you nervous?

Total words: 700

Category: Small Business

It's About More Than Money: are you charging what you're worth?

Copyright (c) 2002 by Angela Booth

Last April I had a surreal experience with a popular women's magazine I used to write for.

An editorial assistant emailed me: "Sorry about not getting back to you sooner about article X. We'd like to publish it. What are your rates?"

My eyes lit up. "Money. You beauty," I thought. I may have chortled aloud. Possibly I danced a jig around my crowded office.

Unseemly glee, you think. You're right. I remembered thatrepparttar 123784 check hadn't clearedrepparttar 123785 bank and focused onrepparttar 123786 task at hand. Negotiation.

I hitrepparttar 123787 Reply button.

Then my fingertips stilled onrepparttar 123788 keyboard. Eh? What did she mean, what are my rates? They know what my rates are. My rates are exactlyrepparttar 123789 same as they've been since 1995. Or 1992. They're what this publishing conglomerate pays. They're standard across allrepparttar 123790 magazines they own. They're going up,repparttar 123791 editors promise. Next month. Next year. When hell freezes over.

Whatrepparttar 123792 heck. I typed happily, already deciding what I could buy withrepparttar 123793 money. Printer cartridges. Dog worming tablets. Maybe a new pair of jeans, even. "Your usual rates are fine. You paid me $X forrepparttar 123794 800 word Christmas article."

So a week laterrepparttar 123795 assistant emails me to say they're not publishingrepparttar 123796 piece. They can't afford my rates.

Well praiserepparttar 123797 lord and passrepparttar 123798 ammunition. The rates aren't going up. They're going down.

That day I decided that I was out ofrepparttar 123799 magazine writing business.

Inrepparttar 123800 magazine writing business, I was a price taker. I decided to saddle up forrepparttar 123801 happy hunting ground of copywriting, where I was a price maker.

=> Charging what you're worth

How much are you worth? You can't stay in business if you don't know. (If you're unsure how to set your basic prices, read Elena Fawkner's piece onrepparttar 123802 Web site,repparttar 123803 URL's below in Additional Resource.)

Are You Too Negative? Positive thinking with Tarot cards

Written by Angela Booth


*Article Use Guidelines*

Use in opt-in publications, or on Web sites, but please includerepparttar resource box. If you could send a copy to me at email address: mailto:ab@digital-e.biz , I appreciate it. Many thanks. **

Summary: Eliminaterepparttar 123783 destructive habit of negative thinking with a simple tool --- a deck of Tarot cards.

Total words: 750

Category: Motivation

Are You Too Negative? Positive thinking with Tarot cards

Copyright (c) 2002 by Angela Booth

Note: this article assumes that you own a deck of Tarot cards, and have some elementary knowledge of how they're used as a self- help tool. If you don't own a Tarot deck, this article may inspire you to discover yourself inrepparttar 123784 cards. You can buy a deck at any large book store, or from Amazon.com.

The problem with negative thinking is that we accept our negative thoughts as reality. We don't realize thatrepparttar 123785 thoughts are distortions. I was a classic negative thinker: to merepparttar 123786 glass was not merely half empty, it was also chipped. I called my negativity "being realistic".

Tarot helps me to seerepparttar 123787 positive. Because, no matter how black things look, there is always a positive.

If you've seenrepparttar 123788 Tom Hanks movie, "Cast Away", you remember that Tom Hanks is Chuck,repparttar 123789 only survivor of a plane crash who gets marooned on a deserted tropical island. After years of solitary hardship, Chuck almost gives in to despair and commits suicide, but he tells himself to "keep breathing".

Finally a piece of wreckage washes ontorepparttar 123790 island. Chuck creatively fashions it intorepparttar 123791 sail of a raft. Later inrepparttar 123792 movie, Chuck says you should keep breathing because "you never know what will wash in onrepparttar 123793 tide". "Keep breathing" isrepparttar 123794 cure for negative thinking. You truly don't know what will happen next.

A thought is just a thought

We negative thinkers tend to worship our thoughts. It takes us a long time to realize we're not our thoughts. Our thoughts come and go. If we don't cling to them, or follow them, they fade away and are replaced by new thoughts, pleasanter ones. Meditation helps with this.

Over time, when we can watch our thoughts come and go without becoming enmeshed in them, we can (occasionally) recognize a negative thought. For me, being able to label a thought 'negative' was a major achievement.

Does this mean that I've wonrepparttar 123795 battle and that I will never again have a negative thought? No such luck. I still have negative thoughts, and it's hard not to be trapped within such thoughts. However, I'm learning to get offrepparttar 123796 negativity treadmill.

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