You know what? It’s OK to say….NO! (or ask for more!)

No!

I have had a strange week this week.  It all started with my ‘100 Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Me‘ post, it got me thinking about just what in life is important to me, how I feel and how I see the future.

The most important thing to me in the world, and I am sure every Mum would say this, is my family, but I also love my work and now my kids are a bit older and can entertain themselves to a certain degree, it is now time for me to be ‘Sally’ again as well as  ‘Mum’.

I am passionate about what I do, design was my absolute first love and then over the years social media and the developer side ran parallel with that, but I do have this habit for taking on low paid projects that mean I work long hours for hardly anything.  So not only do I spend hours away from my family but I rarely get paid enough to warrant it either. I have never had the courage to say to people ‘hang on a minute, you want me to work for X amount of hours for HOW MUCH? I don’t think so! or ‘Actually you know what, I don’t think I will take this job after all!’ or heaven forbid “you know what?  I’m worth more than this.”

After having chats with both Sarah and Nikki this week it has become apparent that I am a bit of a softie,  Sarah has said in the past, that my biggest fault is that “I am too generous” because I’m always saying to people “Don’t worry about paying me, I’m glad to help”, which I am, but I am also running a business.

I am good at my job, I love my work and I get on well with all of my clients, 3 things I am extremely proud of.  And although I will always help people where I can (can’t help the way I am) it is time to being serious about my business.  I run a business, a good one, time to tell the world.

It is OK to say NO to people or to ask for more money.  Don’t sell yourself short because you are worth so much more.  if you don’t have confidence in yourself,  how can you expect others to have confidence in you?

Can you hear Sarah and Nikki cheering? Yes girls, I woke up and smelt the coffee!