Artwork is a piece of genius, but when it comes to pricing, it makes some artists look like amateurs. Pricing is one of the most significant challenges facing people that have unique talents and creative abilities. Such people offer great products, services and programs that excel in quality and value, but most are failing to make any meaningful returns in money.

If you are still struggling to place the right price for your service or charge more for your art, you are one in a bunch of talent wasting quality and uniqueness on a myopic alter of cheap service delivery. In fact, your situation aptly described the Biblical ‘unprofitable servant’ who has a unique talent but is afraid to make gain from it.

It would’ve been better if you just didn’t have anything to offer at all!

The Blind Man Narrative

Are you struggling with charging more for your art? Many talented artists and service providers stay stuck in a cycle, simply refusing (or too afraid) to charge more for their art. They won’t budge out of this self-imposed price incarceration; no matter how hard they try. The fact is there are many factors responsible for the failure to charge more and make money from their God-given talents.

These types of artists, sellers, or service providers rely on four types of warped excuses they give for not charging more for what their art deserves. These are:

1. “I’m finding it extremely difficult to get people to like, buy or hire what I’m offering for now. Charging a higher price would never work.”
2. “I cannot gauge the worth of my work, and what it could command.”
3. “What? Why should I charge more in such a competitive market like ours—where in hell will I find customers/clients who can afford that?”
4. “You know, times are bad – and the last thing I want is to contribute to other people’s challenges by making it difficult for them to pay me.”

But below all of the above mentioned, which are lame excuses, I have come to discover deeper and even more disturbing reasons why so many artists are so reluctant to charge more for their art. These reasons are:

1.)   Not Confident Enough In Your Talent

Whether we truly realize it or not, art as a gift is an excellent contribution to society. It is something that brings joy, solve problems and help make the world a better place for us all. Since we live in a money-based society, being paid for your art allows you to make that contribution to society. And when you charge more and get paid for your art, you can expand your contribution while emphasizing the value of your talent and the amount of time you commit to it.

But your inability to charge more for your art is an indication that you don’t believe in your ability and so you don’t charge more even though you feel that you might be worth more. Artists who chronically refuse or are too afraid to charge more also tend to work for long hours. They can work about 18 hours or more each day without stopping. Let’s go out on a limb and say that that force that drives them to work for such long hours stems from lack of confidence in their talent.

You simply don’t believe that your product or services are good enough. I have seen artists go over their 1-hour projects so many times, spending long hours and habitually given more and more time for free. The reason is simple; deep down, you are afraid you’re not good enough, or talented enough to give the client exactly what he or she wants.

That’s one of the primary reasons why you won’t charge more for your art, and this has a multiplier effect also. By failing to charge more for your art, you miss the chance of having the confidence of a professional, which would have reflected in your rates, thereby building yourself a strong portfolio. Instead, what you have now is a weak and pathetic portfolio of an amateur as reflected in your pathetic beggarly rates.

As a cardinal rule, when the monetary value of your art is on the extreme low, it will lower the perceived quality of your art. No thanks to your lack of confidence in your talent.

2.)   Not Confident In Your Experience Level

Another major reason why so many artists won’t charge more for their art is that they feel they lack the experience and see themselves as inferior to others in the market. But they failed to note that prices have nothing to do with whether you are experienced or inexperienced. What matters is your GIFT and the readiness to deliver when called upon.

If you treat yourself and your art as an amateur, people will see you as an amateur; and you can bet your last dime that nobody wants to deal with an amateur. The reason why a lot of artists don’t charge more for their art is that they haven’t made an effort or taken the time to measure, quantify or identify the key outcomes of what they are offering. Due to lack of confidence in your experience level, you feel you’re not up to the task, and so you lock yourself away in the prison of low pricing.

Since you haven’t taken the confidence to determine your quality, you don’t even know how you stand apart from your competitors. Your lack of confidence and low self-esteem is preventing you from seeing that what you’re offering is different from what your competitors are offering. The fact remains that experience takes the back seat when quality mounts the wheel. Experience entails, but it doesn’t tower above class. Quality is the key, and the key is quality.

You won’t charge more for your art not because you lack quality, but because you lack the confidence to make quality supersede your experience (or lack thereof).

3.)   All of The Above

So which of the above-mentioned reasons are you suffering from? Not confident enough in your talent or not confident in your experience level? While you can be suffering from one of these reasons, you must understand that it is also possible to suffer from both reasons at the same time.

If you lack confidence in your talent, it will prevent you from charging more for your art, and subsequently, force you to undercharge. Charging a lower rate would immediately give you the tag of an amateur, which means the more you are producing good quality artistic work, the little the money you are making in return.

This will further damage your self-esteem. As you keep receiving low rates for your high-quality artistic work, you will start feeling pretty low on yourself since you are not getting paid what your art is worth. In the end, your ability to charge more for your art declines further till you become like a beast of burden with very little to eat from your toils.

Rounding Up

So there you have it, my Top 3 Reasons Why You Won’t Charge More for Your Art. Just bluntly honest truth on why you most likely undervalue yourself by not charging enough for your services. For the artists out there who do want to charge more for their art, I hope you find this helpful. If you know you’re highly skilled and provide high quality work, do yourself a favor and charge more for your work.