Horror clients. Bad Projects. Chasing payments. Mismatched expectations. I’ve seen it all in my years of running the agency.
Here are pricing mistakes you should avoid making:
1. Always take an advance up front.
50% if possible. The money is for blocking your time and ensuring the client is equally committed to the project.
2. Charge more than you’re comfortable with.
The imposter syndrome makes you undervalue what you do. Don’t settle for less. Push yourself to meet your own high expectations for charging more.
3. Increase your rates between 5-20% for every new customer
If a client didn’t negotiate what you quoted last time, it means they could have paid more. Try increasing your prices with the next customer and see how they respond. Keep doing it until you get pushback from 2-3 new customers.
4. “You’re expensive”
You have two ways on how you can implement that feedback:
- fine tune your story to match the pricing
- find a customer (niche) who can afford you
5. Delink your pricing from time and resources
If you play the time and resources game, it is a race to the bottom. Or you play the volume game. Either way, cost and overheads will reduce your profit margins
6. More stakeholders involved at the client end, higher your prices should be
Ideally, there should be one point of contact with sufficient authority within their organization to make decisions and help move the project forward. If every review session or feedback needs a committee review, then price that in.
7. Don’t negotiate down beyond 10%
When you quote a price, it’s a reflection of how you see yourself. If during negotiations you reduce your price by half, the client will consider you a pushover.
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