5/20/25
🎤 TED Talk Tuesday: Know Your Worth—Then Add ALL the Tax 🎤
We’re diving deep today, y’all. Because somewhere along the way, “Know your worth” became just another cute Pinterest quote—when really, it should come with a warning label.
Because if you’re running a business—even a side hustle—your worth doesn’t stop at your time. You need to factor in the tax.
And I don’t just mean emotional tax (though that’s definitely real).
I mean the actual, wallet-punching, brain-frying TAXES and FEES nobody wants to talk about.
Let’s break it down:
💰 State Taxes
💸 IRS Headaches (Hello, quarterly estimates and confusing deductions)
🛒 Business fees (transaction fees, file hosting, digital delivery platforms)
🌐 Website costs (domain, hosting, apps, upgrades, oh my)
🎨 Software subscriptions (Photoshop, Canva Pro, fonts, mockups, file converters)
📦 Freebies + Samples (because “support” doesn’t always pay the bills)
🧠 Years of experience, skill, and learning curves
📞 Customer service at all hours (including the 3AM “where’s my file” messages)
🧾 Time spent explaining why you're not Amazon, Etsy, and Walmart rolled into one human
And after all that, we’re supposed to still feel bad for charging what we’re worth?
I gave out over $500 in freebies last month alone. And I don’t regret it—because I love giving back to this community. But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t impact my bottom line. And that’s where boundaries come in.
You can absolutely be generous and kind while still charging fair prices.
You can absolutely offer freebies while still reminding people that this is a business, not a charity.
You can be grateful for your support system and still say, “This has value.”
So here’s your TED Talk takeaway:
👉 Charge for your skill.
👉 Charge for your time.
👉 Charge for your peace of mind.
👉 And then add the tax—every single one of them.
Let’s chat:
What’s something you forgot to charge for early on?
Have you found a way to set pricing that honors both your work and your worth?
Ever had someone challenge your prices? How did you handle it?
Let’s spill some truths and support each other as we keep learning how to run a business that doesn’t run us.