Simply Stu Your Goat, Right Away

Pricing

Thursday 27th July

Pricing makes your brain hurt.

I’ve been figuring out how much to charge such that:

  1. I am guaranteed to cover costs
  2. My customers aren’t being ripped off
  3. My customers aren’t feeling ripped off (yes, this is different from #2)
  4. I don’t end up with unsellable stock
  5. My lead times aren’t too long
  6. My lead times aren’t too short (therefore expensive)
  7. My bulk prices are not retarded

But then again, as a friend of mine says…

Dogs chew bones. Babies cry. It costs this much.

There’s actually no need to justify pricing, but it’s slighly more complicated than I initially thought.

Written by stu

July 27th, 2006 at 11:19 am

Posted in Musings

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10 Responses to 'Pricing'

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  1. I guess you’ve done loads of comparison work. Would you need to fix an acceptable profit margin first?

    Lois

    27 Jul 06 at 11:27 am

  2. Always remember, 1. Speed, 2. Cheapness, 3. High Quality - you can rarely have all three.

    Kouros

    27 Jul 06 at 11:55 am

  3. Whatever you end up with, double it. This addresses 1 (tax man and unexpected costs will want 30-40%) and 3 (People get better warm feelings out of higher cost services).

    Issue 2 is not your concern if 3 is addressed.

    What are you charging for? Taking photos? Producing bespoke prints? Or are you trying to sell framed prints on a market stall? Or what?

    sweavo

    27 Jul 06 at 12:17 pm

  4. Aim slightly higher priced than average and sell youself on quality.
    A good job and reputation is worth paying that little extra for!

    DoGGa

    27 Jul 06 at 4:01 pm

  5. Alternatively, take what you need to live on and divide it into job units.
    Or, as Lois says, compare, find one you can emulate, copy/compete

    lordhutton

    27 Jul 06 at 5:42 pm

  6. Less than a BMW, more than a mini… ;-)

    Jenny

    27 Jul 06 at 6:24 pm

  7. Dogs chew bones. Babies cry. It costs this much.

    It’s amazing how many people don’t realize this. It seems sodding expensive to (for example) call out a plumber. Then you think that he has to make an acceptable wage, cover his own sick pay, drive to jobs, give free quotes. Don’t underestimate your overheads.

    chrisb

    27 Jul 06 at 8:20 pm

  8. I’d like to come back to sweavo’s question - What are you charging for?
    [and I LOVE Jenny's comment...hehe]

    Kika

    29 Jul 06 at 8:06 am

  9. I’ve got one job I’ve been asked to do (and the photo is already taken), but I thought it’d be a good idea to get a grip on all sorts of pricing before the fact.

    I’ve already come up with my pricing scheme for the job in hand… the old ‘materials times 4′ seems to be a really good guideline to cover overheads, time etc.

    stu

    29 Jul 06 at 8:38 am

  10. I use the “materials times 4″ idea and alter it for if the job was easy or difficult.

    sarah

    31 Jul 06 at 2:16 pm

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