$700 Is a Lot of Money

Real businesses are built on value—not vibes, access, or extraction

A few weeks ago, I was with a group of entrepreneurs—and they all shared one unanimous grievance: employees, friends, and colleagues don’t understand how hard it is to find clients and secure business. To go from prospect → contract signed.

In fact, I recall a networking call with a prospective entrepreneur who confidently said, “I mean, of course they’d hire me. $20k a month and I just tell them my friend works for the House Workforce and Education Committee.” Ugh.

It doesn’t work like that. Clients hire you because they believe you can solve their business problem. Your pricing is a combination of how you perceive your value, market rates, and what someone is willing to pay.

You don’t vibe your way to $20k/month.

Another time I’ll open up about my pricing and how I got there. Fun fact: I didn’t roll out of bed and start randomly sending $20k/month proposals to strangers (I still don’t).

A few days ago, I met with a business consultant—a very successful woman—and I told her how I started my business.

I told the truth: when I was getting ready to move to France, I bought a $700 Lenovo laptop and started promoting my writing services. I basically reverse-engineered how news is made—putting together media lists, press releases, media kits—to learn, and then started pitching my services. Voilà—messaging, content, and media, all from my laptop, which I still use.

She said, “That’s incredible. That is your story. You started this from scratch—and by the way, I bet $700 felt like a lot at the time.” No one had ever said that to me before.

Usually, when we talk about entrepreneurship, we love talking big—an office lease, our third hire, flying business class and “just expensing it.” I’ve had people ask me why I don’t just “Talk them into a $60k contract—see how much money you can get out of them.”

First, that is terrible business sense. Treating every interaction as an opportunity for extraction, means exhausting yourself, churning through clients, and missing the bigger picture—positioning, value, and long-term revenue goals.

The reality is entrepreneurship isn’t about “expensing it” and hoping for the best, or charging massive retainers for absolutely no reason.

We must offer generosity of spirit, grit, and help clients see the value of our work. And, above all, deliver value.

Four years in, I still think $700 is a lot of money. I haven’t vibed my way into any contracts, and I think I don’t want to.