Mindset Shift Increased My Prices by 425% (Part 1)
How a Mindset Shift Increased my Prices Dramatically by 425% (Part 1)
Today I want to share part one of a very important story with you. My mindset shift journey. It is a remarkable one. An unbelievable one that, as a custom wedding invitation designer, is almost beyond belief and inconceivable to me at the time. Revealing my experience to you, I hope, will help you perhaps in some areas that you might be having trouble with, or if you are a creative or a professional, this will help you to up level your game and change your perception fo what is possible and what you can aim for.
Also for good measure I’ve sprinkled in a few of my latest pieces of work, to liven things up a little.
Within one month I went from increasing my price for working on custom wedding invitations from £2,800 to a whopping upgrade of £8,800 for my next client.
Now I don’t believe in doing any woo-woo stuff, such as going to the top of a hill, splattering myself with honey and egg yolks and prancing about naked under a half moon and chanting £8K, I want £8K. No, not at all. I had to vastly change and address my mindset and learn a few truths the hard way.
Making a mindset shift:
Was it that easy to make this mindset shift? It most certainly was not. It came after a three month struggle of working all the hours that I could, including the weekends. It came after I knew that what I was doing and what I was charging was not commercially viable in anyway shape or form. It came because I knew that with the current time I was ploughing into client work for the amount the client was paying me, I was earning less than minimum wage.
I was tired.
I had enough.
It was time for a change.
But that is not the whole story and it’s not how it happened at all. It started from the first seed that someone sowed in my mind.
Make sure your design skills are up to scratch
Before I start this epic story below I have to clearly state that my design skills were at a level were they needed to be. I had finally clasped the entrance of great design. I have always know that I have great design skills and artistic ability. Yet it took me a few years before I had refined my skills to the point that I was ready to raise my rates.
Here (below) is a protea watercolour painting and calligraphy from 5 years ago, sharing my horrendous design and pathetic calligraphy, I was so terrible but I didn’t know it! So for context I have added some photos below.
Allowing others to set limitations
Naively, I believed with conviction what a photographer from Italy had told me. I had been discussing my lack of having any clients to this Italian photographer who I had connected with, via Instagram. I respected her and her opinion. I was after all a baby in the wedding industry and even though I was developing a good aesthetic and certainly was creating my own unique style – I still wasn’t quite there with my portfolio, or confidence.
What she said to me, left quite a mark
She remarked that I would never make more than £1-2K with stationery. My heart sunk.
Very stupidly, I accepted her business death sentence and didn’t think anything more of it.
After that conversation, I allowed that to put a limit upon me. I gave permission for her to set my limitations and that was my first big mistake. It took so much hard work and learning the hard way for me to ponder over what she had said and realise that NO. NO. No and No, that cannot possibly be true.
I cannot possibly work as hard as I do and only earn £1-2K? Again, for some context, I was not creating mass produced stationery. I was creating custom designed invitations where I spent at least 2-4 months on one client.
How much do you think I would earn if I worked for 3-4 months as a teacher, nurse, social media manager or any other professional position? As a teacher I earned far more, maybe 2X-3X that over the course of three months and I would enjoy paid holidays as well.
Yet here I was earning far less than I would actually earn if I were to work at Starbucks. Either something had to change or it was the end for me.
That type of business was neither sustainable or scaleable ( I’m still working on the scaleability of my business and over my next year I hope to set lots of new revenue streams up).
Next week I will continue this story, it gets much better!
Don’t shy away and comment if you’d like to. I always read every comment.
Visit my shop to buy my artwork and take joy from it in your own home.
Jenni
March 1, 2021 - 12:49 pm ·So interested to hear more of this story, thank you for sharing.
Rubana Gaspar
March 1, 2021 - 1:33 pm ·Hi Jenni, You know what, I am so proud of you, I checked out your website and your instagram and a BIG BIG BIG congratulations to you for your beautiful calligraphy subscription boxes, they are truly so beautiful, unique and inspiring to see that you are doing them. I have been thinking about selling calligraphy kits but I have huge mindset challenges there- I don’t know if anyone will ever buy them, or maybe I will sell 2-3!!! I’m getting my print shop set up and that in itself is a huge deal for me.
David Abel
March 1, 2021 - 2:56 pm ·This is such a great topic and needs to be talked about, so many times in business the most limiting factor is ourselves and our self-imposed limitations or beliefs. I’m so glad that you were able t push through this because the world would not be the same without your work in it!
Rubana Gaspar
March 2, 2021 - 12:23 pm ·I have plenty of these limiting self-beliefs and the struggle seems to be never ending. I am pretty convinced that my print shop with be a flop, but I’m still committed to pushing ahead with it. The story that I experienced with my prices is very interesting though and I definitely needed to go through the experience to learn the hard way that I needed to raise my prices.
Malka
March 1, 2021 - 3:36 pm ·Thank you for sharing your story, Rubana. It always inspires me. I love that you recognize your worth as well as your growth and artistic ability. That will get you so far!
I have started selling premium Hebrew calligraphy kits, speaking of kits. It’s actually going quite well but inventory and shipping is such a hassle. You do Arabic calligraphy sometimes right? Now that would make for a unique kit!
Rubana Gaspar
March 2, 2021 - 12:25 pm ·Hi Malka, thank you so much for this comment. I have sometimes seen you promoting your calligraphy kits and that is great to see that you are doing well with that. I have in the past created an Arabic art pieces and I can read Arabic but I’m not actually a fan of doing Arabic artwork. It’s not my greatest passion. But a great idea and thank you for the suggestion, I do appreciate your feedback and I may start selling some premium calligraphy kits.
Michele ,Highfieldblooms
March 1, 2021 - 3:56 pm ·Can’t wait to hear more !
Rubana Gaspar
March 2, 2021 - 12:26 pm ·Michele, thank you for reading this through and for very kindly commenting. The next part of the story is where it really comes together and is quite eye-opening.
Susannah Parker
March 1, 2021 - 6:56 pm ·Your journey of self discovery is so fascinating and I will be channeling your inner self confidence as I go forward in my journey. I know I spend way too long on my client projects and often work outside the remit (to be helpful) reducing my overall profitability per project as well. Can’t wait to read the next instalment Rubana!
Rubana Gaspar
March 2, 2021 - 12:36 pm ·Thank you so much Susannah, so many of us creatives want to over deliver and exceed our clients expectations, so it is a very natural place to be. I’m still learning as I go along.The next instalment of this story is rather juicy!
Azzurra
March 1, 2021 - 8:43 pm ·Thank you for sharing your experience with us, it is really interesting!
Who was the Italian Photographer?
Rubana Gaspar
March 2, 2021 - 12:39 pm ·Thank you so much for your kind comment Azzurra, that is so kind and lovely of you to reach out. I will not reveal the photographer’s name, I want to protect her identity out of consideration for her. She was actually very kind and supportive to me at the time. I think in her experience, when she worked with her wedding planner friend, she had never experienced that a client would spend more than £2k on their stationery.
Sheeba
March 2, 2021 - 12:22 am ·Loved reading this Rubana! Cant wait to read more on this! I’m a baby in the wedding industry, only started to collaborating on style shoots , finding my style to portray how these eggshells can sit on a wedding table! learning so much along the way, your posts, blogs, stories, are so inspiring ❤️xx
Rubana Gaspar
March 2, 2021 - 12:40 pm ·I am happy Sheeba that you are following along and being inspired.As long as you keep going you will carry on building on your progress along the way.
Nancy Ghaida
March 2, 2021 - 3:42 am ·Love this story Rubana! Thank you for taking the time and sharing your journey, I would love to hear more about it .
Rubana Gaspar
March 2, 2021 - 12:41 pm ·Hi Nancy and thank you so much for taking the time to read this post, the next part will be very juicy and it was eye-opening for me, just exactly what is possible.
Elly
March 2, 2021 - 5:24 am ·Can’t wait for Monday to hear the rest of the story!
Rubana Gaspar
March 2, 2021 - 12:42 pm ·Hi Elly, Monday is when the whole story will come together! Next part coming soon and thank you so much for reading through and taking the time to comment.
Tara
March 2, 2021 - 1:33 pm ·Thank you so much for sharing!! This is great and I can’t wait to hear more! I know this is a struggle for so many, especially now after 2020.
Rubana Gaspar
March 8, 2021 - 1:23 pm ·Thank you sharing your thoughts. This story was before Covid hit, but I know and have heard from many others in podcasts that some vendors choose to raise their prices due to a mindset shift and it has worked for them. It is a very gradual process.
Taiba
March 2, 2021 - 10:45 pm ·What you are saying definitely resonates with me! It took a while to recognise how much we had refined our work. Looking forward to the next installment!
Rubana Gaspar
March 8, 2021 - 1:26 pm ·Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts here and I very much agree, that it also took me quite sometime, before I could look back and recognise how much my style had changed. When you can clearly see a vast difference that when you can acknowledge that you have progressed quite a lot. It’s wonderful to look back on the journey of a creative business and reflect upon how powerful it is to carry on working and progressing each day to develop our craft further.
Rosita
March 6, 2021 - 5:47 am ·Hi , Rubana,
That was quite a jump! Looking forward to the rest of the story. It is interesting how others can influence us, even total strangers and with a single comment, positive or negative!
Rubana Gaspar
March 8, 2021 - 1:28 pm ·Yes, it is quite incredible how a few key people affected me. But I didn’t just go behind comments on my Instagram from followers that said, “Oh you are so talented,”that didn’t seem to change my mindset at all, but it was key people within the industry who opened up and let me know what was possible.