It’s sometimes hard for me to figure out exactly where my “cheerful price” is. So when I’m “negotiating” with people I trust, I often list a couple of prices, that are some set of:
I definitely would not do it at this price (without it being a favor/ social exchange)
The lowest price I think I would do it at.
My Satisfied Price: I am happy to do the thing for you! This is what I normally get paid for similar jobs
My Cheerful Price: I am excited to do the thing for you! This is more than my average, and I am actively happy about the opportunity!
My Ecstatic Price: My Cheerful Price is definitely lower than this. I would be ecstatic if you paid me $100 / hr to do laundry. This is an amazing deal for me.
This can help because finding the ONE SPECIFIC NUMBER that is your Cheerful Price feels daunting. But feeling out a range helps you narrow it down.
For example: “You want my blegg?? Well I definitely wouldn’t give it to you for $10. But if you offered me for $500 I’d think it was my lucky day and you were crazy. Normally I give people bleggs for about $100. I’ve never gotten more than $200 for a blegg, and I was really happy about that, so.… $200?”
And honestly I feel more comfortable giving someone that whole set of information than just throwing out $200.
There is no fundamental reason for Cheerful Price to be higher than what you are normally paid. For example, if you’d love to do a thing even without pay, Cheerful Price would be zero (and if you can’t arbitrage by doing the thing without the transaction going through, the price moves all the way into the negatives). If you are sufficiently unusual in that attitude, the market price is going to be higher than that.
Yes, you are correct that the Cheerful Price could be less than my normal wage. But this is not usually the case for me. People aren’t usually asking my Cheerful Price to eat some ice cream, or something similarly pleasant. And unfortunately we don’t live in a world where my regular wages are above my Cheerful Price.
It’s sometimes hard for me to figure out exactly where my “cheerful price” is. So when I’m “negotiating” with people I trust, I often list a couple of prices, that are some set of:
I definitely would not do it at this price (without it being a favor/ social exchange)
The lowest price I think I would do it at.
My Satisfied Price: I am happy to do the thing for you! This is what I normally get paid for similar jobs
My Cheerful Price: I am excited to do the thing for you! This is more than my average, and I am actively happy about the opportunity!
My Ecstatic Price: My Cheerful Price is definitely lower than this. I would be ecstatic if you paid me $100 / hr to do laundry. This is an amazing deal for me.
This can help because finding the ONE SPECIFIC NUMBER that is your Cheerful Price feels daunting. But feeling out a range helps you narrow it down.
For example: “You want my blegg?? Well I definitely wouldn’t give it to you for $10. But if you offered me for $500 I’d think it was my lucky day and you were crazy. Normally I give people bleggs for about $100. I’ve never gotten more than $200 for a blegg, and I was really happy about that, so.… $200?”
And honestly I feel more comfortable giving someone that whole set of information than just throwing out $200.
There is no fundamental reason for Cheerful Price to be higher than what you are normally paid. For example, if you’d love to do a thing even without pay, Cheerful Price would be zero (and if you can’t arbitrage by doing the thing without the transaction going through, the price moves all the way into the negatives). If you are sufficiently unusual in that attitude, the market price is going to be higher than that.
Yes, you are correct that the Cheerful Price could be less than my normal wage. But this is not usually the case for me. People aren’t usually asking my Cheerful Price to eat some ice cream, or something similarly pleasant. And unfortunately we don’t live in a world where my regular wages are above my Cheerful Price.