Money—it’s a complicated, emotional subject. It’s so easy to get your self-worth tied up in it, so easy to get intimidated, particularly when you ask people to give you their money in exchange for your work.

Sit with that for a minute. You ask people to give you their money in exchange for your work. Does that make you uneasy?

It shouldn’t. It’s how our economic system works, for the most part—money in exchange for a service, or something you can hold in your hands.

When an employer rents your time, you show up, do the work, go home, and repeat the process as often as necessary (or, depending on your disposition, as long as you can stand it). There might be complaints. There’s not enough money for the amount of work, responsibility, or stress that goes with the job. There’s no hesitation about wanting more.

When you sell what you create, there might be some frayed nerves when it comes to asking for money, at least until you get used to it.

So what’s the difference?

There’s nowhere to hide
When you work for someone else, you get to hide behind their name. Even if you screw up royally and get fired, your employer has to take the heat and deal with disgruntled customers. They get to take the deep breath and put the prices on the tags.

When it’s just you and your business, that safe zone is gone. It’s your neck stuck out there—it’s you the customers are judging—your ideas, your talent, your heart and soul. It can be pretty damn scary.

If you don’t ask for too much money, maybe they’ll go easy on you. So all of a sudden, money isn’t an exchange of value for value. It’s about approval. And you might do all kinds of stupid things to get it, because disapproval is a mighty unpleasant feeling.

The truth is, the decision to pull out the wallet is a form of approval no matter who’s buying what. Someone says, “I’d like to have that.” You do it when you buy, too.

Take refuge in the marketplace
When you get emotions tangled up with money, you forget you’re part of an established marketplace. There are prices in your medium that are already accepted by buyers. That ground has been broken. Depending on what you do, the range can be wide, depending on skill and reputation. But those numbers can help you get out of your spin. They can help you to stop thinking about approval and start thinking about business.

Ultimately, the right price is the one the market will support.

How does that feel?

Adjust your perceptions
Whether you work for someone else or are self-employed, you think about making money. That rings particularly true for creatives, but the thought needs to be expanded. While the work you produce is always most important, you do much more than that. You run a business, which involves heavy responsibility and requires a varied skill set. You’re not playing at it. It’s not an amusing little hobby.

How do you feel about money? Think about how you earn it.

Over to you: Do you get hung up about money? If you sell with confidence, how do you avoid the money jitters?