Pricing is one of the most challenging aspects of running a business, and it has gotten even more complicated over the last few years. The internet and social media have changed business (and the rest of life!) dramatically, so we need to change our pricing strategies to keep up with this new economy.
Women entrepreneurs have an additional challenge in that we often sell ourselves short and hesitate to price our services high enough. Why? Because we’re afraid. Have you ever asked yourself the following questions?
- What if nobody else thinks my product/service is that valuable?
- I have fun doing this work, so why would someone else pay me really well for it?
- Doesn’t that price sound like a lot of money?
When we are afraid of something we tend to avoid it... and avoiding the pricing challenge means we also avoid the absolutely necessary step of putting together a pricing strategy.
Pricing is not just about what you will charge for each individual product or service — it is also about packaging several products and services together, plus having a plan for logically stepping up the prices on different products/services and making the value increase CLEAR to your client/customer.
So how do we take the fear out of pricing in this new economy?
- 1. Research, experiment, revise … then repeat. This new economy is new enough that many people are in “experimentation mode,” so take advantage of that! Jump in and do your own “tests” and trials to find out in real time what pricing works best for your specific offerings and target market.
- 2. Have fun with it. I recently wrote a blog post for the Women Presidents’ Organization, about lessons we can learn from the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale. There was a witch that eats children, but the story still ends with happily ever after. Click here to read that blog post for a light-hearted look at pricing.
- 3. Build your confidence. The more confident you are in your offering, the more likely you are to price accurately and to think outside of the box in your pricing strategy. And one of the best ways to build confidence? See #1
Pricing is only as scary as you let it be, so dive in and start working on — and playing with — your pricing strategy today!
