{"id":4907,"date":"2016-06-06T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.risingtidesociety.com\/?p=4907"},"modified":"2023-03-24T04:33:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T11:33:40","slug":"answers-to-your-pricing-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hbb.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/answers-to-your-pricing-questions","title":{"rendered":"Answers to Your Pricing Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When should you show your prices?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We have a choice as small business owners as to when we want to reveal our prices to potential customers. Specifically in a service-based industry (where although you may providing a physical product\u2014USB drive or gallery\u2014the main \u2018product\u2019 is your talent\/time), you have three options for displaying prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. On your website, do not show any details at all, only an email address to contact for more information.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2.  Reveal a starting rate, such as \u201cWedding collections start at $4000. Please contact me for more information.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3.  Show all available services with detailed pricing. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    There are pros and cons to all options and ultimately, you should experiment and find out what works best for your business model. With #1, you may receive an abundance of inquiries that are haphazardly written just to receive a price quote. . . even though they have a budget of $500 and your prices start at $4000. With #2, you\u2019ll receive less inquiries but hopefully more quality inquiries. However, a con would be the potential of \u2018scaring\u2019 someone off with the $4000 price tag. If they had a great meeting or conversation with you, perhaps their $2800 budget could be adjusted when they fall in love with your work. Finally, with #3, the complete transparency could be \u2018too much too soon’. Perhaps you’ll need to allow the client get to know you by sending a personal email before your share more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How should you show your prices?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Even if you\u2019ve decided showing all of your service pricing right away (before clients inquire) you still have pricing presentation options to consider. For example, on your website, prices could be shared as simple text or you could link to an external document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I believe it\u2019s important to focus on two elements: simplicity and creativity. Simplicity is absolutely key. If your client can\u2019t understand your pricing within a minute of skimming your page, you\u2019ll lose them. Nobody likes complicated. Similarly, few people like ugly design! Finding the perfect marriage between simple and creative is our goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you\u2019re stuck for ideas on displaying your pricing, you could try designing a pricing guide<\/a> in Adobe InDesign. You can include photos of your work, a page for your biography and personal photos, pricing details, a testimonials page and contact information. Keep your gorgeous work in front of your potential customer\u2019s eyes as they view your pricing, side by side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another great option could be an automated email, in exchange for the potential customer\u2019s email address. This is easy to set up, and if you receive a lot of inquiries, it\u2019s a great way to weed out those that may not be a good fit. In your automated email, you could provide pricing details and more questions about what they are looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Finally, a separate page on your website is an awesome option. You could directly link to the pricing page, with full details if desired\u2014but you can also keep this as an \u2018unlinked\u2019 page and email clients a direct link after correspondence. This strategy has a few benefits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. You can access a website from anywhere (don\u2019t always have to attach a PDF from your computer)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. When you make any updates to the pricing guide, customers won\u2019t be stuck with \u2018old copies\u2019 of a PDF\u2014the website will always be the most up-to-date.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      \u201cAre your prices flexible?\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Whether from friends, family or an email out of the blue, we\u2019ve all heard the question, \u201cAre your prices flexible?\u201d or “Can you do it cheaper?<\/a>” Although I would never recommend stating, \u201cPrices are flexible\u201d on your website, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily correct to always answer \u201cNo\u201d either. It\u2019s your business, and you are responsible for setting accurate prices to make a living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Personally, I\u2019ve put a lot of time and energy into determining my business costs (both fixed and variable), deciding how many weddings and portrait sessions I will photograph each year and what I need to make per job to be profitable. By truly knowing my numbers (and not \u2018guessing\u2019 or choosing numbers\/discounts out of the air!), it does give me the flexibility to compromise pricing for clients I\u2019d love to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In addition, sometimes my business will receive last-minute inquiries\u2014wedding dates only a month away\u2014and I have the Saturday available. If it\u2019s the difference between not booking that weekend because the clients can\u2019t afford the full price or booking the wedding at 75% of my regular rate\u2026 I’m usually willing to be flexible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      You have to value your time and talent, so by no means am I preaching consistent discounts or undervalued rates. But at the end of the day, we all have the goal of running a profitable business. If you need to \u2018move product\u2019 (to borrow a saying from the retail world) in your service-based business, knowing your business numbers will allow you the freedom to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      If you\u2019re a photographer interested in learning more about how to run a financially profitable business, I have a free e-book called, \u201c5 Questions to Ask About Your Photography Pricing<\/a>\u201d that you can download here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

       <\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I believe it\u2019s important to focus on two elements: simplicity and creativity. Simplicity is absolutely key. If your client can\u2019t understand your pricing within a minute of skimming your page, you\u2019ll lose them. Nobody likes complicated. Similarly, few people like ugly design! Finding the perfect marriage between simple and creative is our goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":76059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[264],"class_list":["post-4907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-best-practices","tag-pricing"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/hbb.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/june-1.jpg",280,362,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/hbb.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/june-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/hbb.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/june-1-232x300.jpg",232,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/hbb.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/june-1.jpg",280,362,false],"large":["https:\/\/hbb.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/june-1.jpg",280,362,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/hbb.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/june-1.jpg",280,362,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/hbb.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/june-1.jpg",280,362,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"

      I believe it\u2019s important to focus on two elements: simplicity and creativity. Simplicity is absolutely key. If your client can\u2019t understand your pricing within a minute of skimming your page, you\u2019ll lose them. Nobody likes complicated. Similarly, few people like ugly design! Finding the perfect marriage between simple and creative is our goal.<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"Business best practices<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"Jamie Delaine","url":"https:\/\/hbb.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/author\/jamiedelaine"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","yoast_head":"\nAnswers to Your Pricing Questions - HoneyBook<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you\u2019re stuck for ideas on displaying your pricing, you could try designing a pricing guide in Adobe Indesign.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hbbadmin.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/answers-to-your-pricing-questions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Answers to Your Pricing Questions - HoneyBook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you\u2019re stuck for ideas on displaying your pricing, you could try designing a pricing guide in Adobe Indesign.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hbbadmin.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/answers-to-your-pricing-questions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HoneyBook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/honeybook.co\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-06T05:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-24T11:33:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hbbadmin.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/june-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"362\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Delaine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@honeybook\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@honeybook\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Delaine\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hbbadmin.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/answers-to-your-pricing-questions\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hbbadmin.dev.reliablepenguin.com\/blog\/answers-to-your-pricing-questions\",\"name\":\"Answers to Your Pricing Questions - 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