Pricing Your Services for Maximum Profits

One of the most important decisions you will make regarding your business is your pricing structure. There are many ways to charge for your services, but you need to make sure that you optimize for the maximum profits. Most important of all, you want to avoid the biggest mistake of pricing your services to low.

Many consultants fall into this trap and end up doing more work than is needed. Don't be afraid to charge for what your services are worth. You may be tempted to offer a special price just to get your foot in the door, but this often leads to more problems than it is worth. You will quickly find yourself over worked and under paid. If a business owner is not willing to pay your prices, than they are not a good candidate anyways.

The goal is to create a monthly stream of revenue for your business, so you will want to price your services accordingly. It is best to think of pricing in terms of a 12 month contract. So, let's take a goal of a $23,000 contract. The first thing you want to do is charge an initial setup fee. In this case we will charge a setup fee of $4,997. This leaves us with a remainder of $18,000 which we will divide across 12 months. We are left with a $1,500 a month for the next 12 months. As you can see, it doesn't take too many clients to add up to a very nice monthly income.

This type of pricing structure gives you a lot of flexibility. You can also price your services based on a 6 month contract and charge less of a startup fee, but a higher monthly fee. The idea is to maximize your profits and balance out your monthly income.
This pricing model is based on an all inclusive marketing plan. It may be tempting to offer a la carte services, but in the long run this will result in lower revenue. It is better to wrap all your individual services into one contract. That way you can offer custom services while maximizing the return on investment for your client. If you only concentrate on one item, like blog posting, you may be missing an opportunity to optimize their sales funnel. A comprehensive marketing plan will always provide higher returns than a piecemeal approach.

At the end of the day, your goal is to provide a service for you customer that enables them to grow their business and rely on your services. This creates a win-win situation for both parties. Implementing the correct pricing structure will ensure that your business stays profitable.

Now you are ready to seek out your first client. Coming up next we will show you the best strategies for locating companies that need your services.