Ask a room of women business owners what they charge, what they pay their contractors, or what they actually take home, and watch the room go a little quiet. Plenty of us were raised to think talking about money is impolite. In business, staying quiet about it is expensive.
Silence keeps prices low
When you don’t know what other people charge for similar work, you guess. And most people guess low, especially early on. A lot of underpricing isn’t a confidence problem at all. It’s an information problem. You can’t price well in the dark.
When business owners share real numbers with each other, rates tend to come up, because people realize the market will bear more than they assumed.
Silence makes bad deals look normal
If you never compare notes, you don’t know when a contract is unusual, a payment term is unreasonable, or a vendor is overcharging. Other business owners can tell you in thirty seconds that Net 90 is not a normal ask for a small business, or that your merchant fees look high.
Silence hides problems until they’re big
Cash flow trouble, debt, a client who pays late every month, a pricing model that isn’t working. These are much easier to fix early, with input from people who’ve been there, than after they’ve become a crisis. But they only come up early if talking about money is normal.
What talking about money actually looks like
It doesn’t mean posting your revenue on LinkedIn. It means having a few places where you can be specific:
- Peers you trust. A small group of business owners where it’s normal to say “I charge $X for this, does that sound right?”
- Your professionals. A bookkeeper and accountant you actually talk to, not just once a year at tax time.
- Your clients. Clear pricing, clear terms, and a willingness to have the payment conversation directly.
- Yourself. A regular look at your own numbers, so you know what’s working. See Managing Cash Flow as a Small Business Owner.
Questions worth asking other business owners
- How do you price this kind of work? Hourly, project, retainer?
- When did you last raise your prices, and how did clients react?
- What do you pay for bookkeeping, a VA, a designer?
- What payment terms do you use? Do you take deposits?
- How much do you keep in reserve?
- What’s a money mistake you made that I can avoid?
You’ll be surprised how willing people are to answer once someone goes first.
Go first
If you want money conversations to be normal, someone has to start. Share a real number. Ask a real question. Most people are relieved when someone else brings it up.
WEN Round Tables are a good place for this: small, honest conversations between women running real businesses, with no pitching. For the pricing side specifically, read How to Set Prices With Confidence.
