Try This Exercise To Discover Your Ideal Pricing

If you're reading this, you should double your rates. Here's why:

  • You want to do the best job possible
  • You genuinely want your clients to get results
  • You should be paid fairly for your work

By undercutting your own prices it seems like you will be able to get more clients which is what you need to grow your business. But, the truth is, the opposite is true. Raising your rates will attract better clients and enable you to do your best work so that you can drive the results your clients are counting on your for.

Last week we talked about all the outside pressures and criticisms that are trying to keep you down. Today, let's talk about YOU! Sometimes your harshest critic is the voice inside your own head. Let's change that right now!

Plus, try this easy exercise to figure out your ideal pricing for your next WordPress project.

If I told you to double what you normally charge for your WordPress projects, what would your reaction be? Maybe something like:

  • I don't want to overcharge my clients.
  • Nobody will hire me at that price.
  • Am I really worth that much?

If that sounds like you, then let's talk about the alternative for a second.

What Are Your Income Goals?

Let's do a quick three-step exercise together.

  1. Write down how much revenue you would like your business to be generating for you on a monthly basis.
  2. Write down the average amount your charge for your projects.
  3. How many projects do you have to do every month to hit your revenue goals?
    (Avg Project Price) * (Number of Projects) = (Ideal Monthly Revenue)
    (Number of Projects) = (Ideal Monthly Revenue) / (Avg Project Price)

For most of the people I talk to, this works out to something like this:

Avg Project Price = $1,250
Ideal Monthly Revenue = $5,000 / month (or more) – This would be $60,000 per year.
$5,000 monthly revenue goal / $1,250 per project = 4 projects per month

So, with those numbers, you need to close, build, and deploy 4 projects per month. That's about 1 project every week.

Do you feel like it is realistic for you to:

  • Get that many leads
  • Close that many leads
  • Build that many sites
  • Get content, deal with hosting, DNS, etc.

From my experience, it generally takes 4 to 6 weeks on average to build a site for a client. Even if you try to stagger the projects so you're working on multiple sites at the same time, this is still far more work than most people can manage on their own. This is basically the recipe for burnout. 

  • Unpredictable income
  • Feast and famine problem
  • Working crazy hours
  • Constantly feeling like you need to be doing more.

When you're building sites you feel like you need to be working on getting and closing leads. When your working on your marketing you feel like you should be building the sites for the clients you have right now.

The Deeper Problem

As stressful as this may seem, hitting your income goals, closing clients every week, deploying a completed project every week… those are all things that rob you of the joy of running your own business but those things are the worst problem.

The deepest problem is that you are working yourself to the point of exhaustion and you are not actually helping your clients grow their businesses. Your clients are counting on you, they are investing in you, and you are not delivering the results your clients need.

That all adds up to a triple-decker poop sandwich!

  1. It's burning you out
  2. Your clients aren't getting results
  3. Your client's customers are not finding the products and services they need

If you aren't charging enough EVERYBODY loses!

What Is Holding You Back?

If this is sounding like your situation, then what is holding you back? Are you thinking that if you raise your prices then…

  • Your clients will just work with someone cheaper?
  • They'll just build a site themselves on Wix or something?
  • You don't feel like you're valuable enough to command those rates?

But, we JUST discovered together that the alternative – continuing to charge low prices – isn't working either. So, you have to make a decision and there are three choices:

  1. Just give up on your business
  2. Continue to burn yourself without being able to really help your clients
  3. Shift the structure of your business

Making The Shift – The New Approach To WordPress Consulting

We're in a new era of WordPress consulting. The old approach of selling web design, graphic design, responsive design, etc. no longer wins clients. People can get all of that stuff for extremely low prices. Sites like Upwork and Fiveer are driving those prices down. DIY site builders like Wix and Squarespace are fully automating these things in a way that enables business owners to do these things on their own.

If you want to differentiate yourself from all of this… If you want to break out of the price wars… Here is the secret.

You need to use your skills and expertise to lead your clients to heights they would not have been able to achieve on their own. I'm not talking about just making the website look prettier. I'm talking about using the internet – not just their website – to deliver the outcomes your clients are really looking for. In other words, RESULTS!

Everyone knows that simply putting a 5-page website with a contact form on the internet does not actually do anything meaningful for your client. You know it,  I know it, and your clients know it too. That's why they aren't willing to pay much for that sort of thing – no matter how pretty it looks.

Your clients are counting on you to do more than that. They need you to help them:

  • Get more clients
  • Get more leads
  • Get more calls

Today that involves a lot more than just migrating Word Docs to WordPress. It involves more than just “building websites.” It involves YOU!

What You Need To Win

The bottom line is this. Your clients don't need websites. They don't need graphic design. They don't need WordPress maintenance plans. They need YOU! You can bring all of those things and more. Your clients are never going to see the results they need if nobody is there – on an ongoing basis – to help and support them.

If you're thinking this sounds exactly like what you want to be doing, but you feel stuck trying to figure out how to get there, let's talk about it together. Let's talk about:

  • What types of clients you want to work with the most
  • What prices you should be charging to get the best results both for you AND your clients
  • What services you can offer that go beyond just building websites that will enable you to build sustainable recurring revenue for your business

It's a totally free call. There's nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Let's Talk ➤