We all strive to increase our value- whether that be an increase in pricing, market perception or likeability. Most times it takes forever to increase your value. If you’re an artist you need to practice non-stop. If you’re a business, you have to prove your worth. Value takes a lot of time and effort to build… Sometimes. Then there are the other times that we can raise our value with some small adjustments.

When we started Pluggas, we started working on projects at a rate that we thought was steep enough already. We thought that was the ceiling that our clients were willing to pay for. We’re lucky that we found out that we were wrong about that.

Today, we charge easily ten times or more the rate we used to charge. And the projects are still coming in! The principles we applied to our business are principles you can apply to yours as well.

I’m not suggesting a get-results-quickly scheme. These steps may still take time and consistency to master and develop. But when you take these simple steps, you can easily increase your value. Here are three for you to take and apply to your context right away.

Do less, not more

We often think that being a jack of all trades is the best way to scale a business. We want to be a “one-stop-shop” for everyone. We’ve made the same mistake before. But when we realized that about eighty per cent of our activities were only giving us twenty per cent of the results, we knew changes needed to be made.

Since then we’ve been taking only the projects that we really believe we can deliver on and work with clients we are confident we can add value to. Since then, we have achieved ten times more by simply doing less.

Focus on your “why”

How do most people and brands sell today? The traditional form of marketing and advertising hinges on how noisy an ad is. Companies used to pay for the hits they got. But that’s quickly changing. People are no longer drawn to noise. They’re drawn to values. And they look for people, causes and stories that match with their values.

Don’t just talk about what you do. Tell your audience why you do what you do. Talk about the impact you want to make and the changes you want to see happen with your idea, product, service, mindset, revolution.

Say what you mean

So much of communication today is about making promises they can’t keep. Have you ever watched a movie theatre only to be promised a lot and then disappointed with a full-length feature that was half as interesting as the trailer? So many people are notorious for doing that. Don’t be one of them.

When you make a promise, make sure that you can deliver. In fact, don’t stop with delivering the minimum viable product. Go beyond and give service that people would have never expected from you!