By Denise Michaels, Author, “Testosterone-Free Marketing”

Over the last decade I’ve mentored over 1,500 small and home-based business owners – mostly women. I’ve probably talked to, networked with and had in my workshops and teleclasses, thousands more. All wanting support and marketing knowledge.

On the surface, that’s what they THOUGHT they wanted.

One of the impressions I get from many, many women I’ve met over the years is that deep in your heart you’re somehow cheating customers if you make a profit for what you do. Somehow, if you’re scraping by financially – you’re a noble and a better person for making less.

Traditionally women always gave away the work we’ve done. We have a long history as volunteers at our kids’ school, the library, the Candy Striper at the hospital, the church volunteer and more. Even in 2009, the majority of volunteers are women. For centuries, women were at the bottom of the totem pole with jobs. After World War II, we left the factory jobs and went back home so men returning from the battlefields could take the jobs.

Let’s be honest. For many women asking for money in business feels icky. It makes them uncomfortable. Traditionally bringing home the bacon was a man’s job. Our job was making a nice home, raising our children and doing nice things in the community. So many women figure, if they ask for the lowest amount of money possible in their business they’re altruistic and mistakenly believe they won’t have to market. They say they do it because they want to “be nice.”

The challenge is that when it’s time to pay the bills – if you’ve shorted yourself on what you charge, you end up falling short when it comes to your lifestyle and paying your bills. You can’t exactly go to your mortgage company or the grocery store and say, “Um, I’m a really nice person. Would you give me a little extra discount?”

Of course we know that’s silly. Why? Because these real businesses don’t give extra discounts. So if you consider yourself a real business – why are you undercutting yourself?

Here’s where it comes back around: In the real business world people don’t say, “Gee, that’s so nice. She’s only charging me $$ instead of $$$.” Instead they silently think, “She’s charging so much less than market rates – she must not be as good.”

And so it goes.

My suggestion: go to EmpowerUAcademy.com and download my free audio, “Break Through Your Internal Glass Ceiling.” If you like it and want more I suggest you get my “Unstoppable Confidence” program available at the same website. Oh, and don’t forget to sign up for my free Marketing and Empowerment Tips.