Are you a service-based business? In this blog post, I share the five most common pricing mistakes creatives make when starting their business (and what you can do to fix them NOW to create more profit in your business!).
5 Common Pricing Mistakes for Creative Entrepreneurs
Need help pricing your services or products? Learn from our mistakes as business owners in the last 5 years! On this episode of Brands that Book, I chat with Davey of DaveyandKrista.com about the most common mistakes business owners make when determining their pricing packages for their creative business.
Note: We recorded this episode prior to the pandemic. If you are listening to this during the current 2020 pandemic, we realize that right now bringing income to your family might require getting creative and scrappy— and that’s ok!
5 Tips for pricing your services as a consultant
Tip 1: Determine your ‘get out of bed fee’
This might be one of my favorite tips! If you are new in your business and getting experience, it might be ok to take on work from anyone and everyone. At some point though, you need to figure out what price you need to charge to make it worth your time.
For example, if you are a service provide who works in the wedding industry, taking lower pricing packages from one client robs you of the chance to make more with another client on that same day. I still think this is true even if you don’t provide day-of deliverables. If you can only work 20 hours a week, filling your time with 5 hours of a less than ideal client prevents you from taking on work you really enjoy (and is more profitable).
TIP 2: Determine your Core Services
One of the best ways to price and provide a great client experience is to get very clear on what you provide to your client. If you find yourself ALWAYS doing a specific service for a client, but haven’t previously built that service into your packages, then you are missing out on charging more for your services.
Some examples of this might be providing a website audit before beginning Pinterest marketing, or offering an engagement session in your bridal photography packages. If you are always doing these things, add the pricing into your packages.
Tip 3: Determining your ideal client
This is a doozy! If you are taking on clients who don’t fit your ideal work or consistently deliver much needed content to you late, then completing those tasks might take longer than you have allotted for that work.
By attracting clients who value what you do, you will work more efficiently and productively (and therefore, save time).
Tip 4: Creating Too Many Packages (and too much confusion)
I recommend to most business owners to have at least 3 packages. Your cheapest package should align with your ‘get out of bed fee’ (see tip 1). Your medium package is likely one that you book the most frequently, and your top package is icing on the cake!
TIP 4: Not Optimizing your Current Customer with upsells
Do your clients love you so much that they are inquiring about other services for you to provide? 😉 Hopefully, this is the case. Look for ways that you can potentially serve them more with additional services (and don’t be afraid to charge for them!).
When it comes to pricing, it’s important to think about what is profitable and what brings value to your time and your business! You can listen to this episode for more specific tips about creating your pricing packages.
HERE FOR THE PINTEREST TIPS?
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