Originally Posted by White Rose

Was there any important lesson you learned from this business that you would like to share with us?

I'd say the single most important, and difficult, thing I'm working on is promoting myself.

I was in Virginia over the weekend and had a brief conversation with an associate at the conference regarding promoting ourselves. As I told her, I can write up a promotional message on her that would win her the Presidency, but when it comes to promoting myself I stumble. We both agreed that it is a remnant of our upbringing that women shouldn't 'brag' on themselves.

Before I registered on the forum, I was reading a thread [then promptly lost the thread] about a member who was struggling with pricing for a service now that it was much easier for her to complete. She had become experienced in the steps of the task and was feeling a little guilty about charging her previous rate when it didn't take as long. I wanted to shout through the PC:

"That's the way doctors do every patient they see!!!!!"

Women traditionally fail to assertively demand pay increases, or demand lower percentages, compared to men. We tend to feel guilty insisting on appropriate rates/fees for our services. We want to 'help-out' or 'do a favor' in hopes that we will get the same in return sometime in the future. [I do it as well and struggle with breaking the habit.]

We should be billing based upon what we know, not how much we produce.