Episodes

Send us a text "Should I put my prices on my website?" Funny as it may sound, this is the second most asked question I get from people. Which is one reason why it's the topic of this episode. I can see how the question plagues people and I don't think it's a topic worth worrying about. What's important is that you understand how to make a strategic decision about what's right for your business. I recently ran a poll on LinkedIn around this and what happened as a result was fasc...

Send us a text Do you know why that's your price? Or why you price is what it is? Many small businesses have no good reason for why they have the price they have except - that's what other people are charging. In my book that is rarely a reason that will make you feel confident. Nor will it give you the best price you can have. Knowing why your price is what it is, is what's going to give you the confidence to charge the prices that you need in your business. The best price is one that's bo...

Send us a text One thing I've seen an explosion of recently is membership sites and with that comes the question what do I charge my members. It can feel tricky. Often people use membership sites early on as a tool to create a community who's then later a "captive audience" for upselling - you can then sell them higher value offers. In the end pricing for membership sites will always come down to who am I targeting, what's the value I'm offering and how am I using this offer - like where d...

Send us a text Recognizing when to make changes in your pricing is an important part of managing prices in any business. I've had many people on the show who shared with us that it took them quite a long time to both realize and then accept that they would need to change prices in their business. You may struggle with that as well. And it often has quite a negative impact on business, especially growing a younger business. This is why it's so important for you to be able to identify and then...

Send us a text It's often the case that when you don't feel confident about what you charge you make judgements or even decisions for your customers. Ones that aren't yours to make. It often shows up in the form of granting unnecessary discounts. For example if you've offered discounts before someone asks for one, before they've objected or before you've understood how they value your offer. Unnecessary discounting is one way in which businesses sabotage themselves. Don't get me wrong there's...

Send us a text Let's take a look behind the scenes. In this special 100th podcast episode I’ve asked colleague and friend Pauliina Rasi to come on the show and interview me. It’s time for me to be the one in the hot seat and to answer your and her questions. It was exciting and a little daunting. Looking back on my business journey. It’s been just over 5 years since I started the business. At first it had multiple personalities – pricing, communication and mindfulness. Seriously, I tried ...

Send us a text When it finally dawned on me that I'd done nearly 100 episodes, I couldn't really believe it. Have I really come that far and been doing this that long. It almost feels like yesterday that I started. An entrepreneur's journey is by no means an easy one. But when you can stick with it the rewards are many. And I've asked three very special guests to join me to celebrate as we approach the 100th episode. Amanda Berlin, has been a guest more than once on the show, she was also t...

Send us a text One of the people I had on the show earlier on observed that Coaches are terrible (in general) at valuing what they bring clients and it has a terrible impact on what they do with their pricing. This isn't really their fault. With good intentions the coaching programs sometimes provide business advice, like what to charge clients. But this isn't their expertise, often the advise is lacking and sometimes even detrimental to the process of building a coaching business that will ...

Send us a text Most of the time the biggest thing standing in your way is you. Often it's subconscious and so your job is to start recognizing when you're in your own way and figure out how to shift things so you can progress. It's also true when it comes to doing pricing in your business. Your mindset, your understanding of pricing and you're ability to work through the blocks that are in your way are tantamount to you getting where you want to go. That's been true for me, for nearly any bu...

Send us a text What are the things that businesses do well to improve their pricing? That's a great question. I often speak about the mistakes people make but this time I wanted to focus on what you can and should be doing with pricing to help you. We are in unprecedented times, things are changing so fast around us we can example after example of how those who are most adaptable are the ones who come out on top. Looking at best practices in pricing can help you make sure you're focusing on ...

Send us a text One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make is not understanding what it is going to take to achieve the profitability they want to make. And yet it is so important to building a successful business. When you don't understand what it will take to achieve your goals (maybe you don't have goals), how could you possibly be doing the right things ...the answer is... You can't. That's what my guest on this episode, Maryia Ramanava, shared with us. It was only after having ...

Send us a text One of the questions I get most often from people is when should I start looking at pricing. Most experts, myself included will tell you as early as possible. Why? Because you need it to understand the profit story of your business. To understand what it will take to be profitable. To explain to investors, partners, banks and others how effective your business model is. You can't do that without having had a real good look at pricing. But most, way too many businesses leave it ...

Send us a text Many businesses use cost plus pricing to determine their prices but what is the role costs in pricing? Cost-plus pricing is one of the most widely used methods for setting prices, but it also more often to not leads to over- and underpricing. While understanding costs is important to having a successful Pricing Strategy and understanding your profit story, relying on them too heavily puts your business at risk. It begs the questions what is cost-plus pricing. what are the disad...

Send us a text "For a long time pricing was this great big mysterious thing. I didn't understand where the numbers came from." If you feel or felt this was then you're not alone. Pricing is rarely taught, in fact most people don't even know there are people out there who are experts. Your job, one of them, as a business owner is to demystify pricing so that it's not so difficult for you to do. Learn what you need to know and figure out how to make it simple for your business. As I discussed w...

Send us a text Avoiding everyone-itis is a better path for most small business owners. Certainly better than being a generalist. "Who's your target customer?" I asked. " Well, anyone." They responded with proud smiles. "Oh no...here we go." I thought to myself. When it comes to starting or running a business nearly every program, coach or consultant will ask you who are you targeting. There's a really good reason for that (hint: it's not to annoy you). It's because the answers to most of the ...

Send us a text Commonly businesses believe they have to set their prices low to entice customers. However more often than not it can be counterproductive to - in fact it might be what's keeping people from buying. They just don't believe they'll get the value, because the price is so darn low. That's what my guest learned and shared with us during this episode. She was advised to raise her prices and when she did her conversion rate shifted. Maybe the price was better aligned with expectation...

Send us a text There are three types of discounts effective, ineffective and unnecessary. Most small business could benefit from being more careful about the discounts they offer and when. In fact, when it comes to "leaking" profits, poor discounting habits are often the biggest drain on your profits. It makes sense to put more rigor and thought behind what you're doing. Preparing in advance for what you will do and when, and having a clear internal policy for your team (if you have one) will...

Send us a text Over the years I have heard the battle cries from businesses and sales people about how the competition has such low prices. "It's killing our business. What can we do?" They cry. Often they feel defeated and like they don't have a chance to be successful because these "cowboy" competitors are in the way, with their very low prices. "Shouldn't we lower our prices too?" They ask. Not necessarily, in fact more often than not, it isn't the best solution. Just becau...

Send us a text "Sometimes it's just as simple as asking for more." These are words to live by in life and in pricing for your business. Most young businesses start out underpricing. This happens for a variety of reasons by design, lack of confidence, untested offers, their offers often have lower value. But most come to a point in time where they know they must raise their prices. That's when fear often gets in the way. Reality is if you don't test the waters and ask for more you'll never k...

Send us a text Ease-based pricing. No it's not a technical term but it some that many people do at the start. For example hourly based pricing can feel like the easy thing to do. The question is, is it the right thing to do? If you do it just because it's easy, it's probably not the right thing to be doing. And just think of all those years you've spent getting great at what you do or your product does. The schooling, the hours of learning, experimenting, getting it wrong, getting it right an...

Send us a text Pricing versus the competition may seem like the best and sometimes easiest thing to do in some businesses. In other businesses, where there's less price transparency, it may feel like you're missing out on a key piece of price setting information because you have no idea what the competition charges. Of course the competition is an important pricing consideration for many but what does it mean for your business? Can you only know what price to offer when you know the competit...

Send us a text Making the shift from job to entrepreneurship can be tricky. Pricing is one area where most people have no idea where to start. They end up making it up as they go along, which leads to mistakes and a lot of wasted energy. Finding the right prices is more difficult than needed and the uncertainty in your prices makes communicating them feel incredibly awkward. Of course, learning the hard way may also lead to some great successes. Probably with more pain than necessary ...

Send us a text Aligning the price to the value you deliver makes sense. But too often it's simply not the case. Selling a high value offer at a low value price is a situation many businesses find themselves in. Often because they don't understand the value of what they're offering. Sometimes that's combined with a lack of confidence in charging the higher price. Either way the result is the same, they're undervaluing their offer. That's what I spoke about in this episode with Amanda Ber...