Pricing your work: 5 tips to help you get your pricing right

Have you taken the time to carefully consider how you price your creative work, or did you take a guess at it?

Pricing and money are two big triggers for many creatives and without consideration or planning, it’s easy to get stuck in a trap of undercharging, underearning and overworking.

If you’ve not opened a bank statement since the year 2K, you’ve got no idea how much you spend or earn each month and you rely on your accountant to work out your finances for you, please know that you’re not alone (been there, done that). It takes courage to get to grips with your pricing and your money, but doing so is the first step to making your business work for you.

Here are my top 5 tips for getting your pricing right:

• Get clear on your cost of doing business

This means going through your business bank statements and understanding exactly how much money comes in each month and how much goes out. If you’ve not done this before, it’s going to be an uncomfortable experience, however, it’s key to properly pricing your creative work. Download my Ultimate Pricing Guide for a step by step walk through on this here.

• Factor in your salary

Paying yourself is important. Just like the process of going through your business bank account above, you’ll need to go through your personal account to determine how much money you need to pay yourself each month. There’s a guide to help you with this here.

• Check for money leaks

Where are you wasting money? Can you re-negotiate insurance premiums to save money? Cancel unused subscriptions? Switch banks to reduce fees? Consolidate debt? Every penny and cent you waste is money you have to work for. Plug up the leaks and you free up cash for your salary and, also very important, fun stuff.

• Set money goals

What are you working your ass off for? Money loves a purpose. If your goal is to pay off your house in the next five years, buy a new car, upgrade your kit, go on a month long holiday or send your kids to a better school, get clear on the amount of money you need to fulfill your goal. You’re not working to just exist, you’re working to create a life you enjoy which requires money – exactly how much?

• Decide how many hours you want to work each month

Once you know how much income you need to generate each month to meet your costs and your money goals, you can decide how many hours you’re going to work in order to get the cash in. Your monthly income target divided by the number of hours you want to work will give you your hourly rate which you can use to set your pricing.

I spent years overworking and under earning because I hadn’t taken the time to figure any of this stuff out. Once I got clear on my costs of doing business and placed an accurately determined value on my time and skill, everything changed.

Pricing strategy is a big piece in the business puzzle and if you need some help, I’m here to support you. Please make use of my free Ultimate Pricing Guide which you can access here and if you’re ready for some 1:1 guidance, you can book a complimentary 45 minute exploratory call in with me here.