5 Hard Truths About Pricing and Positioning a Small Business

Most pricing problems aren't math problems. They're positioning problems.

When customers can't tell what makes you different, the only thing left to compare is price. And when you're not sure what you're worth, you set your rates by what feels safe instead of what the work deserves.

Here are five hard truths we keep coming back to, and what to actually do about each one.

1. Raise your rates before you feel ready

You'll never feel ready. Your skill grows faster than your confidence, and your pricing should follow your skill. The discomfort means you're growing.

Most owners set their prices once, early on, when they were less experienced and needed the work. Then they leave them there for years while their work gets better and their costs go up.

What to do:

• Look at what you charge now and when you last changed it. If you can't remember, that's your answer.
• Raise prices for new customers first. It's lower pressure and it lets you test the new number.
• Give existing customers notice and a date. Most will understand, especially if you've been reliable.
• Don't apologize in the announcement. State the new price and the date it starts.

2. Niche down until it scares you

Trying to serve everyone makes you forgettable to everyone. The narrower your focus, the louder your reputation gets inside that world.

It feels risky because it looks like you're turning away business. In practice, a clear focus makes it easier for the right people to find you and easier for others to refer you. "She does bookkeeping for restaurants" is something people remember and repeat. "She does bookkeeping" isn't.

What to do:

• Look at your best customers. What do they have in common? Industry, size, location, the problem they came to you with.
• Write one sentence that names who you serve and what you solve for them. Put it on your website, your profiles and your business card.
• You can still take work outside the niche. You just stop advertising to everyone.

3. Nobody wants a logo. They want to be taken seriously

The deliverable is never the point. Your client wants respect, trust and a seat at a bigger table, and the logo is just how they get there. Sell the seat.

This applies to almost any business. People don't want a haircut, they want to feel good walking into Monday. They don't want a tax return, they want to stop worrying about the IRS. When you describe what you do only as the thing you hand over, you're inviting customers to shop it on price.

What to do:

• For each main service, finish this sentence: "After working with us, customers can finally..."
• Lead your website headline, your quotes and your sales conversations with that answer.
• Then list the deliverables. They still matter. They just come second.

4. Your portfolio attracts what it shows

If you post work you hate, you'll get hired to do more of it. Show only the work you want to be known for, even if that means showing less.

People hire you for what they've seen you do. If your gallery is full of jobs you took to pay the bills, you'll keep getting those jobs.

What to do:

• Go through your website, social profiles and printed samples. Remove anything you wouldn't want more of.
• A small portfolio of the right work beats a big one of everything.
• If you don't have enough examples of the work you want, make some. A self-initiated project counts.

5. Your network is who remembers you

A thousand business cards don't make a network. The people who think of you when an opportunity comes up do. Be memorable, be useful and follow up.

Handing out cards at an event is the start, not the finish. The follow-up is where most of the value is, and it's where most people drop off.

What to do:

• Follow up within a few days of meeting someone. Mention something specific you talked about.
• Be useful first. Send an article, make an introduction, answer a question.
• Make your card worth keeping. A card that looks and feels good is more likely to stay in a wallet than end up in a drawer.

Where to start

Pick one of these five and act on it this week. Rewrite your one-sentence niche, clean up your portfolio or set a date for your new prices. Small moves in positioning add up fast.

If your brand doesn't look like the business you've grown into, that's worth fixing too. Our packages start with Flame On at $1,225, and our business essentials start with business cards from $25.99. When you're ready to talk it through, start a project brief.

— Alan