In June of 2013, we were feeling really pinched for money. We had just pitched a full soup-to-nuts dream project for $16,000, the high end of what we were charging at the time. The client said they really wanted to work with us, that we were their first choice, but that we were also the most expensive option, and asked us to come down to $11,000.
I told them we could if we took out X, Y and Z. They said they needed X, Y and Z. So I said no, with my stomach in knots, fully believing I had just lost the client and the income I was counting on.
A few weeks later, they came back and said okay.
Holding that number is half of the answer to "how much should I charge?" The other half is the number itself. Start with what you need to keep, not with what other consultants charge. Your price is the number that gets you to your Freedom Number in the hours you actually have. Then the work is getting clients to say yes to it.
Work out the number first
I often talk about the importance of knowing your Freedom Number: the actual annual revenue you need to support the life you want after taxes and business expenses. Without putting pen to paper and finding your unique Freedom Number, most people are wildly off about what they actually need to make, and what they need to charge.
For example, let's say a common project currently takes you 80 hours to deliver, and your Freedom Number is $321,000. That project needs to cost $26,750 to support your financial and freedom goals. That figure is an illustration. Yours depends on your own Freedom Number and the client hours you have available.
"How the hell do I get clients to say yes to that?"
Once you figure out what prices actually support your Freedom Number and financial goals, you're going to start thinking, "How the hell do I get clients to say yes to that?"
Maybe you need to charge $20,000 for a package you're currently selling for $8,000. Maybe it's $15,000 instead of $5,000. The gap feels enormous. And you're probably thinking the solution is just to raise your prices and cross your fingers people say yes.
That doesn't work. (You already knew that.)
If you want to increase your profitability and pricing, there are only 2 levers you can pull.
Lever #1: Increase the real and perceived value of what you deliver. When clients believe your work is worth more, they'll happily pay more. This lever is about both the substance of your expertise and the psychology of how it's packaged. It starts with a paid first step, the Lead Product.
Lever #2: Decrease the time it takes to deliver it. Most experts are stuck in bloated projects that stretch for months, drain their energy, and let clients take over their calendar. That's what Intensives are for.
Most experts only pull one. Pulling both creates exponential results.
Make it a fixed number
Fixed price points eliminate negotiation before it starts, signal confidence, and make it easier for the right clients to say yes quickly. So whatever your number turns out to be, say it as a number, not as "starting at."
If you're not there yet
If you aren't regularly hitting the price points that support your Good goal, you're still in the startup stage of your business. Your prices aren't supporting your basic lifestyle yet, so you must invest heavily in generating demand and in getting the reps you need to increase the real (and perceived) value of your work.
Getting those reps in is how we were able to raise our 1-day Brandup from $3,000 to $10,000 in under a year. We did dozens of these projects in those early months, which meant we got really good at them. With each one, we learned something new, finessed the process, and looked for ways to add value so the next one was even stronger.
By the time I realized we should raise our prices, we were already wildly underpriced for the demand we'd generated. Were we hustling? Yes. Was that short-term hustle worth it for the knowledge we gained? Absolutely.
Once we were consistently charging $10,000 for a 1-day and $15,000 for a 2-day, everything shifted. The month-to-month ups and downs no longer mattered.
Holding the number
Knowing the number is one thing. Holding it when someone pushes is another.
When that $16,000 client came back, I understood for the first time, in my body and not just in theory, that holding my ground didn't cost me the client. It was the thing that earned their respect.
Start here
Run your own numbers in the Freedom Calculator. Then look at the gap between that price and what you charge now, and decide which lever you pull first.
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