Discussion about pricing

Lori,

I have a structure pricing because some people need my services - so I priced myself @ $30/hr to undersell ($50-150/hr) and get more work. I also tag on a gas price if it takes me beyond Federal Way or Bothell.

People sometimes pay me more. but I earn that via the quality and professional skills.

If you price yourself too high, you may get some work. However it may be long time between jobs. There are others in Biznik that are coaches and hopefully they can give you more specific answers.

Lori their are several posts in the Biznik forum about pricing. You might want to search around and see what has already been posted. its tough to tell some one how much they should charge. To give you a general suggestion; keep you prices within your industry standards. Try not to go too far out of the box. Trying to sell supper cheap just pulls your industry down and over charging will scare customers away. Art T.

Lori... What is the value of your service? How much can be saved by you solving your clients problem? ...Howard

Hi Lori,

Sure, you should feel comfortable asking pricing questions here as you see fit. We're your network, feel free to use us. :)

Hope all's well! -g

Lori, As a solopreneur their are 3 aspects you have to consider when pricing. The first and foremost is as Howard states, the value of your service. The second is competitive pricing. This can be direct competitors or substitute products. The third is how much you need to make in order to have a viable business. You may find you have to create a higher value offering or leverage your own time by emloying others.

Good luck with your pricing exercise.

You're good Lori, we talk about almost everything here on Biznik. What kind of pricing questions do you have then? Art T.

The reason your other lists forbid discussions about pricing is so that they do not run afoul of the FTC rules on price fixing. The FTC can make a finding of price fixing even when there is no written agreement among the competitors, using "circumstantial" evidence, which may include any discussion among competitors regarding pricing.

From the FTC website: http://www.ftc.gov/bc/antitrust/price_fixing.shtm

"Antitrust scrutiny may occur when competitors discuss the following topics:

• Present or future prices
• Pricing policies
• Promotions
• Bids
• Costs
• Capacity
• Terms or conditions of sale, including credit terms
• Discounts
• Identity of customers
• Allocation of customers or sales areas
• Production quotas
• R&D plans"

It is probably safe to discuss pricing in general, but if there is a discussion among coaches about pricing for coaching, you may be running some risk.

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Hello Lori, I'm coming from completely outside of your field but I'll share some pricing advice I've gleaned from discussions with other tile contractors across the country. "If you are contracting with more than 80% of your contacts, you should consider raising your pricing" Obviously, the volume of contacts plays a huge role in this, but it's been a fairly reliable benchmark for many of the contractors whom I've shared these same conversations with. Maybe that helps? Hope so?