The Devil's Advocate

81

Pay yourself £1,000 an hour

As you grow a business, it’s understandable you’d want to keep yourself cheap and affordable. It’s the same if you’re an employee; you don’t want to price yourself out of the market, or be seen as a ‘fat cat’ creaming the money that others richly deserve.

It’s a laudable view, but misguided. If you undervalue yourself, you’ll never grow your business. You need to work out what your true value is.

The most important cost in your business is your ‘opportunity cost’. This term was first coined by economist Friedrich von Wieser in 1914, who defined it as ‘the true cost of an activity measured in terms of the value of the next best alternative forgone’.

In practical terms, do you think that spending an hour delivering ...