An Effective Price List for Your Business

Let me tell you a short story about my first price list.

I have a degree in dental hygiene and worked as a hygienist for 7 years before I took the leap and decided I was meant to be an entrepreneur. Why it took me so long, I’m not sure. Since I can remember, I’ve always loved doing my own thing while mixing in a little creativity.

My very first paid photography gig, I charged $25. You can laugh at that if you want because I definitely am. My co-worker told me that her daughter paid “thousands of dollars” for her photos.  Being someone who’d never paid for photos…ever, I was shocked. I remember thinking that was absolutely crazy.

Then, I photographed that first session for $25.  I spent 45 min traveling to and from the session, 2 hours at the session, 4 hours culling and retouching photos, $5 on a USB drive, and then I went above and beyond and delivered the USB drive to the client.  Sometimes, I’m too nice.

Please continue laughing.  I’m currently about to fall out of my desk chair in disbelief thinking about it.  And let’s be honest here, I paid this client to let me photograph them.

It didn’t take me long to realize those thousands of dollars they paid their other photographer didn’t seem as far fetched as I thought at that point.

Your price list will never feel exactly right.

I want to preface the rest of this blog post with the following.  You are never going to feel like your price list is exactly right. I’m 8 years into my photography business and I still make changes every 6 months or so. It’s something that’s always evolving.  You’ll find holes or look at your budget and realize you could make a little more money here or adjust it there. 

So if you’re super new to business and you’re frustrated with your price list, just know you’re never going to feel like it’s exactly right and that’s okay.

Here’s what most business owners do.

Most business owners, especially those newer to business, don’t really know exactly how to create an effective price list.  Instead, they usually do the following things and hope it works.

1. Check out their “competition.”
2. Pull a number out of thin air.  This number is typically below their competition.
3. Hope that number works, makes sales, and they stay open.

An effective price list should actually be super strategic though.

If you’ve been following along every week with my last few blog posts or Instagram Lives, you know that we are now in Step 2 of my Dream Biz Formula.

By the way, this is just an overview, if you want to get really into the formula and implement a system in your business that actually works and helps you spend less time in your business AND make more money, contact me so we can chat and see if this system is something that would work for your business.

Anyway in step two of the Dream Biz Formula, we work with your budget and finances. Part of this phase is to actually create a price list to lead clients to purchase products or services that are right around your sales average goal.

It’s extremely important that this price list is super easy and straight forward.  It doesn’t need to be something that you have to constantly be selling to them. When they look at your price list it needs to be obvious… a no brainer… what they want without them actually KNOWING what they want.

Important Elements of an Effective and High Converting Price List:

1. Based around your sales average.
2. Priced based around your projected and budgeted COS(cost of sales).
   1. In my coaching program, we dive deep into budgeting and tracking so you know exactly what this number should be.
3. A little bit of sales psychology.
4. An overall luxury feel.
   1. Think about how a cheaper restaurant, like Dennys, feels compared to a high end fine dining restaurant.  Big difference in their menus, right?  You need that high end feel.

It’s important to create a price list around these four elements in order to meet that sales average, but remember a price list evolves over time. It’s not something that you create and then never think about again. As your business evolves, so will your price list.

Need help?

I would love to help you create the business of your dreams that allows you to work less and make more. Here are a few ways to work with me. 🙂

1. February 25, 2021 at 12PMCST: Upcoming Masterclass: Transform your Side Hustle Into A Profitable + Automated Business
2. Free Action Planning Session:  At this action planning session we actually run through the full time formula, AND we create a personalized to your business profitable & automated business plan specifically for your business so you know the exact steps you need to take to transform your side hustle into a full time business AND get more time in your day and money in your pocket.
3. Business Coaching Program: Hire me as your business coach! It’s fun, and I promise it will lead to more money in your pocket and time in your day.