How to Master Your Pricing as an Entrepreneur

While the business world turns upside down, many people are considering entrepreneurship or how to start a side gig and create new revenues. But one of the hardest challenges when you're starting out as an entrepreneur is figuring out what to charge for your services.

I talked about this issue with my friend Jenny Blake - a successful author, coach, and speaker - for my book, Entrepreneurial You. Below, you can find some of her best tips about how to launch your business and set pricing as an entrepreneur or solopreneur.

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Here are five tips Jenny shared for new, established, and aspiring entrepreneurs:

1.   Build your confidence over time. One of the key things to remember as you start pricing your services is that you can build confidence from each prior engagement. When Jenny started presenting workshops, she did her first one for free. The next time, she charged $500. For her third workshop, she changed her fee to $1000 - and by now, it's tens of thousands. By building incrementally, your confidence will grow.

2.   Create financial security using a retainer model. Without a steady paycheck, it can be nerve-wracking to know if you'll be able to cover your expenses every month. Rather than contracting with clients for single hourly sessions, the key to financial stability is to determine what service you can offer that will reliably stick around one month to the next. By establishing a fixed payment structure with several clients, Jenny could sustain herself with the confidence borne of knowing that a certain percentage of her income was guaranteed each month.

3.   Focus on direct revenue, not indirect revenue. When starting out, lots of people tend to focus on building an impressive website or trying to get their social media accounts stacked with numbers. Those are great to have, but they don’t lead to immediate revenue. Instead, early on, take that time to focus on reaching out to your network for potential clients and making sales calls. Branding is important, but early on in your business, Jenny recommends spending 80% of your time on direct revenue-generating activities.

4.   Don't chase tiny sales. About halfway into her career as an entrepreneur, Jenny realized it was better to spend her time focusing on making larger sales of premium products and services to big clients - as opposed to chasing down hundreds of tiny sales for things like ebooks. That changed her business strategy, because she realized it was easier (and less stressful) to share the majority of her work for free and thereby build a large community that, in turn, yields prospects for larger sales.

5.   Ask the right questions. Entrepreneurship can feel risky or uncertain at times, so Jenny prompted herself to think bigger by asking questions such as, “What if I earned twice as much in half the time?” and “How can I optimize for revenue and joy?” Keeping these questions in front of your mind can guide you to a life of balance that works for you.

Starting a new venture - or being self-employed during a time of economic turmoil - isn't easy. But by following these strategies, you'll be far better equipped to thrive and build a meaningful and successful business.

If you have questions about pricing your services, starting a new business, creating a side venture - or any of Jenny’s advice - please join Jenny and me for a special LinkedIn Live next Thursday, April 9th at 1pm ET/10am PT. You can tune in at that time here and you can click to add this to your calendar to join us.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please comment below to share your questions and ideas, and also click "share" so your colleagues on LinkedIn can read it, as well.

Stay happy and healthy,

Dorie