Lately I've been interested in figuring out how to set a price for my services. Most of the advice on the internet is pretty lame and average - and since I don't want average results, I thought I'd ask the forum members for what they think. I will also share what I've found
Pricing method doesn't seem to have been discussed much in the forum; either that, I just missed it in google search because of the enormous noise of the keyword 'price' - I get a lot of irrelevant results. If anyone knows of a thread/post on pricing method buried somewhere deep in the archives, please dig it up!
From what I've found on the forum, the only poster you had anything useful to say on price was Beyond Borders:
thread-9290-...#pid138168
thread-47266...pid1135976
I agree with these posts but BB doesn't discuss 'how' to price. What a business/freelance newbie needs is a step-by-step how-to or some useful rules of thumb.
I have found two possible models of pricing that are out-of-the-mainstream and seem to be legitimate -
Firstly, this Tropical MBA podcasts mentions pricing specifically with regards to manufactured goods:
http://www.tropicalmba.com/builtajob/
They basically state that as a rule the price you sell a product should be 4 times the cost of the product (i.e. the cost of the product should be 25% of the final prince). This is a lot more than most recommend but they give good reasons. The main reason is that 'profit' is never, ever what you expect it to be and building in a healthy margin gives you that buffer against unexpected problems.
I guess a similar attitude to service products would be to work out your cost of living per hour, and then quadruple that to make your hourly service rate?
The second method is based on this ebook, and it is focused specifically on service products:
https://www.freshbooks.com/assets/other/...arrier.pdf
In the book, the authors advocate throwing out the 'bill-by-the-hour' model out of the window. Instead, they advocate getting a number from the potential client about how much extra revenue they expect to generate from using your services. You then offer them a solution to generate that extra revenue and you charge 10 - 20% of what that expected revenue might be. In other words, they are not hiring you, they are making a revenue generating investment; and you are not selling hours, you are selling a specific end point. If it takes you 60 minutes or 60 days, it doesn't matter, you are selling a solution, not your hours. The idea is that as you become better at your service and it becomes easier to do your job, you basically keep your billing high even though your hours shrink.
What the book also advocates is to create a menu pricing system, whereby instead of offering one price for one solution, you instead provide 3 or so solutions and then offer different prices for each one. That way you can still offer your services to clients looking for value-for-money and you also have the right to limit your service offering so that you can focus on getting clients who are willing to engage with you more fully.
In any case, the book also encourages to not engage with cheapskates and bargain hunters. These are losers who will only drag you down, and see you as a cost and not as an investment.
In summary:
- Try to aim for 75% margin or better
- Avoid 'per-hour' billing, rather bill as a percentage of expected increased revenue
- Provide a menu of price options
- Avoid cheapskates and bargain-hunters who try to push your price down, they will drag your business into a black hole
If anyone on the forum has their own insights into pricing methods, please share it in this thread.
Pricing method doesn't seem to have been discussed much in the forum; either that, I just missed it in google search because of the enormous noise of the keyword 'price' - I get a lot of irrelevant results. If anyone knows of a thread/post on pricing method buried somewhere deep in the archives, please dig it up!
From what I've found on the forum, the only poster you had anything useful to say on price was Beyond Borders:
thread-9290-...#pid138168
thread-47266...pid1135976
I agree with these posts but BB doesn't discuss 'how' to price. What a business/freelance newbie needs is a step-by-step how-to or some useful rules of thumb.
I have found two possible models of pricing that are out-of-the-mainstream and seem to be legitimate -
Firstly, this Tropical MBA podcasts mentions pricing specifically with regards to manufactured goods:
http://www.tropicalmba.com/builtajob/
They basically state that as a rule the price you sell a product should be 4 times the cost of the product (i.e. the cost of the product should be 25% of the final prince). This is a lot more than most recommend but they give good reasons. The main reason is that 'profit' is never, ever what you expect it to be and building in a healthy margin gives you that buffer against unexpected problems.
I guess a similar attitude to service products would be to work out your cost of living per hour, and then quadruple that to make your hourly service rate?
The second method is based on this ebook, and it is focused specifically on service products:
https://www.freshbooks.com/assets/other/...arrier.pdf
In the book, the authors advocate throwing out the 'bill-by-the-hour' model out of the window. Instead, they advocate getting a number from the potential client about how much extra revenue they expect to generate from using your services. You then offer them a solution to generate that extra revenue and you charge 10 - 20% of what that expected revenue might be. In other words, they are not hiring you, they are making a revenue generating investment; and you are not selling hours, you are selling a specific end point. If it takes you 60 minutes or 60 days, it doesn't matter, you are selling a solution, not your hours. The idea is that as you become better at your service and it becomes easier to do your job, you basically keep your billing high even though your hours shrink.
What the book also advocates is to create a menu pricing system, whereby instead of offering one price for one solution, you instead provide 3 or so solutions and then offer different prices for each one. That way you can still offer your services to clients looking for value-for-money and you also have the right to limit your service offering so that you can focus on getting clients who are willing to engage with you more fully.
In any case, the book also encourages to not engage with cheapskates and bargain hunters. These are losers who will only drag you down, and see you as a cost and not as an investment.
In summary:
- Try to aim for 75% margin or better
- Avoid 'per-hour' billing, rather bill as a percentage of expected increased revenue
- Provide a menu of price options
- Avoid cheapskates and bargain-hunters who try to push your price down, they will drag your business into a black hole
If anyone on the forum has their own insights into pricing methods, please share it in this thread.