Pricing F*ck Ups. Ep26.

Your time is the foundation for your value proposition. Hard-earned lessons for indie brands, from the wrong side of pricing. [part 1]

Time, costs, energy will tell your client why you're worth it. You'll charge more.

Tying the inputs on estimates is not pricing. That's billing. Billing involves more financial risk to the buyer.

There's a financial decision every time the estimated time goes over. A project that is supposed to take 7 weeks can turn into 9 months and 10X the original estimate.

It takes away all the value from the relationship. Or at least turns it into your own private hell.

Approach

It's all focused on you. Like the world owes you something "because it takes you time to do".

You go into the moral dilemma of working faster and not charging for that time or working slower to make more money. Or lie.

Turns your expertise and learnings into uncapitalizable assets. You found out a new way to do things with one client BUT when you translate it into a new client context, you can't capitalize (get more) for your learnings. Bad system.

Centers the attention into what it takes to do the job, rather than on what the outcome is. You can spend 10 000 hours doing something and charging for it while it doesn't get your client ahead.

A different way

Pricing is your foundation for value proposition.

It tells your buyers where you stand. What quality you bring. The kind of results you get or help create.

It's less financial risky

Your price upfront. Making a financial decision on a known lowers the risk.

Focuses on the outcome

Detaching your price from the inputs (time, costs, energy) changes the way you're seen. It pushes you and your client to focus on the big thing ahead.