Pricing
Hourly, fixed and retainer allocate risk to different people
The three common ways of charging are not three formats for the same transaction — each decides who pays…
· 4 min read
Pricing
What to charge, how to say it, and why the number is rarely the hard part.
20 articles · page 1 of 2
Pricing
Why the first price you set is nearly always too low
The first number a new business names is produced by a set of pressures that all push in the same direction, and understanding them is what makes the second number better.
By Arjun Nair · · 4 min read
Pricing
Converting a salary into an hourly rate leaves out what the employer was paying for
The arithmetic that turns a former wage into a freelance rate omits a long list of costs that used to be…
· 3 min read
Pricing
Half of a self-employed week is not billable, and the rate has to know it
The hours that produce no invoice are not waste to be eliminated; they are a real cost of production, and…
· 3 min read
Pricing
Scope creep is a pricing failure that arrives disguised as a scheduling one
Work expanding beyond what was agreed feels like a problem with the client or the calendar, but it almost…
· 3 min read
Pricing
Raising prices on people who already pay you is a different problem
A new price tested on strangers costs you a lost quote if it is wrong; the same rise applied to an…
· 3 min read
Pricing
A discount buys something, and most of the time nobody says what
Reducing a price is a trade, and the trades that work are the ones where the other side of the exchange is…
· 3 min read
Pricing
When a buyer cannot judge the work, they judge everything around it
Most clients hiring a small business are not qualified to assess the work itself in advance, so they assess…
· 3 min read
Pricing
Pricing from the outcome is a claim you have to be able to support
Charging a share of what the work is worth to the client sounds obviously correct and only functions when…
· 3 min read
Pricing
Say the number and then stop talking
Most of the money lost in pricing is lost in the thirty seconds after the price is stated, and the…
· 3 min read
Pricing
Quoting for work you have never done before
A price for an unfamiliar job is a guess wearing the clothes of a commitment, and the way to make it…
· 3 min read
Pricing
A small job costs more per hour than a large one
Every engagement carries a fixed cost that has nothing to do with its size, which is why tiny jobs lose…
· 3 min read