My old boss told me I was pricing jobs like a scared kid, not a business owner.

He said 'Add 20% for the headache tax you'll get later' over a beer in Cincinnati, and honestly, I started charging what my work was actually worth. Anyone else get that kind of blunt talk that fixed their pricing?

3 comments

3 Comments

oliverhernandez2d ago

Yeah, I used to think being the cheapest option was how you got clients. Then a friend who runs a food truck told me I was basically paying people to yell at me, and that hit different. Started adding a "problem solving" fee to every quote, and weirdly, the good clients stuck around and the bad ones just faded away. That blunt talk flipped a switch in my head about what my time and stress are actually worth.

rubyk262d ago

Hold up, @oliverhernandez, a whole separate fee just for problem solving? That feels like putting a fancy name on what you should already be charging for. Isn't the whole job basically solving problems? Like if you're fixing a website, the "fix" is the service. Adding another line item seems like a quick way to make a normal quote look confusing. Maybe the cheap clients left because the bill just got weird, not because they were bad.

rowan9692d ago

That "problem solving fee" is just a line item, but the real fix was changing your mindset. You stopped seeing your price as the main thing and started valuing your own peace. The good clients get that, the cheap ones never will.