The Pricing Lady

Send us a text  "Should I put my prices on my website?" Funny as it may sound, this is the second most asked question I get from people. Which is one reason why it's the topic of this episode. I can see how the question plagues people and I don't think it's a topic worth worrying about. What's important is that you understand how to make a strategic decision about what's right for your busine...

Send us a text Do you know why that's your price ? Or why you price is what it is? Many small businesses have no good reason for why they have the price they have except - that's what other people are charging. In my book that is rarely a reason that will make you feel confident. Nor will it give you the best price you can have. Knowing why your price is what it is , is what's going to give you th...

Send us a text One thing I've seen an explosion of recently is membership sites and with that comes the question what do I charge my members. It can feel tricky. Often people use membership sites early on as a tool to create a community who's then later a "captive audience" for upselling - you can then sell them higher value offers. In the end pricing for membership sites will always come down to...

Send us a text Recognizing when to make changes in your pricing is an important part of managing prices in any business. I've had many people on the show who shared with us that it took them quite a long time to both realize and then accept that they would need to change prices in their business. You may struggle with that as well. And it often has quite a negative impact on business, especially g...

Send us a text It's often the case that when you don't feel confident about what you charge you make judgements or even decisions for your customers. Ones that aren't yours to make. It often shows up in the form of granting unnecessary discounts. For example if you've offered discounts before someone asks for one, before they've objected or before you've understood how they value your offer. Unnec...

Send us a text Let's take a look behind the scenes. In this special 100th podcast episode I’ve asked colleague and friend Pauliina Rasi to come on the show and interview me. It’s time for me to be the one in the hot seat and to answer your & her questions. It was exciting and a little daunting. Looking back on my business journey. It’s been just over 5 years since I started the business. At fi...

Send us a text When it finally dawned on me that I'd done nearly 100 episodes, I couldn't really believe it. Have I really come that far and been doing this that long. It almost feels like yesterday that I started. An entrepreneur's journey is by no means an easy one. But when you can stick with it the rewards are many. And I've asked three very special guests to join me to celebrate as we approac...

Send us a text One of the people I had on the show earlier on observed that Coaches are terrible (in general) at valuing what they bring clients and it has a terrible impact on what they do with their pricing. This isn't really their fault. With good intentions the coaching programs sometimes provide business advice, like what to charge clients. But this isn't their expertise, often the advise is...

Send us a text Most of the time the biggest thing standing in your way is you. Often it's subconscious and so your job is to start recognizing when you're in your own way and figure out how to shift things so you can progress. It's also true when it comes to doing pricing in your business. Your mindset, your understanding of pricing and you're ability to work through the blocks that are in your wa...

Send us a text What are the things that businesses do well to improve their pricing? That's a great question. I often speak about the mistakes people make but this time I wanted to focus on what you can and should be doing with pricing to help you. We are in unprecedented times, things are changing so fast around us we can example after example of how those who are most adaptable are the ones who...

Send us a text One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make is not understanding what it is going to take to achieve the profitability they want to make. And yet it is so important to building a successful business. When you don't understand what it will take to achieve your goals (maybe you don't have goals), how could you possibly be doing the right things ...the answer is... You can't. Tha...

Send us a text One of the questions I get most often from people is when should I start looking at pricing. Most experts, myself included will tell you as early as possible. Why? Because you need it to understand the profit story of your business. To understand what it will take to be profitable. To explain to investors, partners, banks and others how effective your business model is. You can't do...

Send us a text Many businesses use cost plus pricing to determine their prices but what is the role costs in pricing? Cost-plus pricing is one of the most widely used methods for setting prices, but it also more often to not leads to over- and underpricing. While understanding costs is important to having a successful Pricing Strategy and understanding your profit story, relying on them too heavil...

Send us a text "For a long time pricing was this great big mysterious thing. I didn't understand where the numbers came from." If you feel or felt this was then you're not alone. Pricing is rarely taught, in fact most people don't even know there are people out there who are experts. Your job, one of them, as a business owner is to demystify pricing so that it's not so difficult for you to do. Lea...

Send us a text Avoiding everyone-itis is a better path for most small business owners. Certainly better than being a generalist. "Who's your target customer?" I asked. " Well, anyone." They responded with proud smiles. "Oh no...here we go." I thought to myself. When it comes to starting or running a business nearly every program, coach or consultant will ask you who are you targeting. There's a re...

Send us a text Commonly businesses believe they have to set their prices low to entice customers. However more often than not it can be counterproductive to - in fact it might be what's keeping people from buying. They just don't believe they'll get the value, because the price is so darn low. That's what my guest learned and shared with us during this episode. She was advised to raise her prices...

Send us a text There are three types of discounts effective, ineffective and unnecessary. Most small business could benefit from being more careful about the discounts they offer and when. In fact, when it comes to "leaking" profits, poor discounting habits are often the biggest drain on your profits. It makes sense to put more rigor and thought behind what you're doing. Preparing in advance for w...

Send us a text Over the years I have heard the battle cries  from businesses and sales people about how the competition has such low prices . "It's killing our business. What can we do?" They cry.  Often they feel defeated and like they don't have a chance to be successful because these "cowboy" competitors are in the way, with their very low prices. "Shouldn't we lower our prices too?"...

Send us a text "Sometimes it's just as simple as asking for more." These are words to live by in life and in pricing for your business. Most young businesses start out underpricing. This happens for a variety of reasons by design, lack of confidence, untested offers, their offers often have lower value. But most come to a point in time where they know they must raise their prices. That's when fear...

Send us a text Ease-based pricing. No it's not a technical term but it some that many people do at the start. For example hourly based pricing can feel like the easy thing to do. The question is, is it the right thing to do? If you do it just because it's easy, it's probably not the right thing to be doing. And just think of all those years you've spent getting great at what you do or your product...

Send us a text Pricing versus the competition may seem like the best and sometimes easiest thing to do in some businesses. In other businesses, where there's less price transparency, it may feel like you're missing out on a key piece of price setting information because you have no idea what the competition charges. Of course the competition is an important pricing consideration for many but what...

Send us a text Making the shift from job to entrepreneurship can be tricky. Pricing is one area where most people have no idea where to start.  They end up making it up as they go along, which leads to mistakes & a lot of wasted energy. Finding the right prices is more difficult than needed and the uncertainty in your prices makes communicating them feel incredibly awkward. Of course, lea...

Send us a text Aligning the price to the value you deliver makes sense. But too often it's simply not the case. Selling a high value offer at a low value price is a situation many businesses find themselves in. Often because they don't understand the value of what they're offering. Sometimes that's combined with a lack of confidence in charging the higher price. Either way the result is the same,...

Send us a text It's quite common for people who offer services like coaching or consulting to use hourly based pricing. For most businesses such a pricing model doesn't serve either the client or the business. From the clients they often try to skip important steps that help them achieve their goal. They do so to "save" money but make it hard for to get the results they're seeking. And often you'l...

Send us a text Have you ever said to yourself "I can't charge that. I feel like an imposter"? Many business owners have felt that way. If you do then you're not alone. It's more common than you think. It's not bad nor are you stuck with that. When it comes to pricing, most people don't understand the economic value of their offer. Nor do they have a clear way to set prices they feel confident abou...