Not all products and services cost the same. The price you’re paying or setting for the services or products in your business depends on many different factors. I recently read Christy Wright‘s book Business Boutique: A Woman’s Guide for Making Money Doing What She Loves, and I love how she put it about setting your price and charging what you’re worth:
“When you’re setting your price, you’re not only charging for cost of goods, expenses, and time invested, you’re also charging what you’re worth. You’re charging for the unique gifts, talents, skills, education, knowledge, perspective, ideas, quality, and style you bring to the work you do.”
In the book she shares the anecdote of the carpenter from Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith.
A man was suffering a persistent problem with his house. The floor squeaked. No matter what he tried, nothing worked. Finally, he called a carpenter who friends said was a true craftsman. The craftsman walked into the room and heard the squeak. He sat down his toolbox, pulled out a hammer and a nail, and pounded the nail into the floor with three blows. The squeak was gone forever. The carpenter pulled out an invoice slip, on which he wrote the total of $45. Above the total were two line items:
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Hammering $2.
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Knowing where to hammer $43.
“So don’t just charge for hammering. Charge for knowing where to hammer.”
Remember this anecdote when you’re hiring a professional, or setting the prices for your own products or services.
So, how much to charge for your work? While there’s no exact formula for pricing, there are several factors that you need to take into account. If you’re interested more in how much to charge for your products or services, and setting your pricing strategy, I couldn’t recommend Christy’s book highly enough. In it you can learn everything about setting up your business, not just what, but also how, and why.
