Why Pricing Causes So Much Stress

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Well, hello, this is Kimberly. It's episode 355, and I'm so thankful that you are here today because we are talking about pricing. The one thing that brings so much drama to so many business owners. Many of you are like, am I charging too much? Am I not charging enough? What's the perfect price? What am I doing with my life with this pricing? It's driving me crazy. I know people that have stayed up at night just worried and worried about their pricing. So, anyways, today we're going to talk about it. And finally, you're going to know by the end of this, you're going to be like, okay, I feel good about my price. Okay. We're going to go through four steps that I know are going to help you. If you're new here, welcome. I'm so glad that you found this podcast. I have no doubt it's going to help you along your business journey. Whether you're in the idea stage, starting or growing, this is for you. Whether you have an online business, a store, a mobile business, whatever it is, this is for you. My whole mission is to help you build your business dream and actually enjoy running a successful business doing what you love. And so I help you with all kinds of tips from my last 26 years doing this myself and all the experience that I've had coaching clients so that together we can all build our dream. So I'm so happy you're here.

Free Resources And What’s Coming

SPEAKER_01 1:18

If you're new, get plugged in. There are some free resources down below. First of all, I have a really cool spreadsheet and it's literally just a spreadsheet. So get ready. It's not beautiful, it's just a spreadsheet, but it's called all the apps and tools that I recommend. So you can just click through. You can see for certain things like website design or like banking or just any apps for podcasting, everything. So just make sure you check that out below and get access to that list. I do update it periodically as well. And so if you again, if you scroll down in the show notes, click the link, it'll take you to my website, enter your email, and it'll give you access to that. Plus, I have some other freebies for you. If you're starting a podcast, trying to grow your business, et cetera. There are resources that are here for you. And a heads up, y'all. Some really cool things are coming. I'm so excited. This fall 2026, I have some physical products that are coming. That's all I'm going to say right now. I'm super excited. Like, super excited. And I know they're going to help you. So, anyways, get ready for that. I'll have some more information on that soon here on the podcast. And if you've been listening a while, thank you so much to all my loyal listeners. Y'all have been wonderful and kind and just amazing. And I'm so honored to be a part of your journey. You are doing so many great things out in the world. I see your posts, I see your podcasts, and I'm just so, so proud of you. And again, just so honored to be a little smidgen of your journey. So that is it. Okay, on to the episode.

Why Confidence Changes Buyer Trust

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Well, hello, friends. I'm so happy you're here. We're talking about pricing. And I know many of you experienced a lot of mind drama around this. I have two. Y'all, over the years, you can only imagine. 26 years of me running my own businesses. I had two online gift boutiques that I worried about pricing. I was a photographer. I worried about pricing. I started coaching clients. I worried about pricing. I get it. And even now, I know I tease this in the intro, but I have some physical products coming that I'm super excited about. I've been thinking through pricing, right? But the drama hasn't been there anymore because I feel like I get it now. And today, I want you to get it. When you finally get it about pricing, you can sleep sleep well at night. You can feel confident selling online or on your site. You don't have to cringe, like worried what people are going to think. Am I too high, too low? Like, no more of that. You're going to have full confidence in your pricing. So I know a lot of you sell products. Some of you sell services. Some of you sell a combo of both of those. Some of you sell programs. And it can be hard because you're looking around at your competitors and then you're overthinking your product. Like you're looking at your product going, is this worth the price? Or maybe it's your service and you're like, is it worth it? Y'all, I've been having to buy stuff a lot for my business lately because of the physical products that are coming. I've had designers help me, and designers can be super expensive, like for my new branding and everything, which I absolutely love. You know, paid a lot for that in my eyes. Maybe in other businesses don't think what I paid is expensive, but it is. I've had designers help me with little things. Um, I won't go into all the detail. But yeah, when I'm buying things as a consumer, right? As a business owner, I'm buying help for my business and I think about the pricing. And like for my branding people, right? Shout out to Bliss and Tell Creative, because they did my new branding and my colors and I love it, and it's just an elevated feel. Uh, it was expensive. And I was having to like justify in my mind, and then I was listening to them share what this was going to do for me. And I had to think about it because it was expensive. But I looked at less expensive designers and they just didn't have the elevated look that I'm looking for. They just didn't. It didn't look quite as professional. And I was like, you know what? I want someone who gets me to their woman-owned business. They had helped me with one of my previous online boutiques in this very room. They had helped with that. And so I had to make a decision. Yeah, I'm gonna have to spend the money. But imagine if they over there worried about their pricing so much and were not confident when they were talking to me about it. How would I feel then? Right. I had a certain feel based on the price that they had and the quality of their work and how much I felt that they understood me and my business. But imagine that they acted weird about their pricing, which they did not. They just, this is the price. Like either you take it or you don't, right? Imagine. Then would I feel as confident if they weren't as confident in their pricing? Probably not. Cause I'd be like, then then if they're trying to wiggle around on their price, did they overprice it? And then the opposite has happened. I looked for lower price help with design and it wasn't as good. And I knew it and I paid for it. And I was like, this is not good. I'm not even using this. Like that's happened as well. And am I saying that anyone that's low priced is not good? No, because I actually had someone help me with another project project who was very fairly priced and she did an amazing job. I couldn't imagine anyone doing it better. I mean, maybe some big professional agency that I paid tens of thousands for, but she did a great job. So we have to realize as business owners, when people are buying from us, if we are not confident in our pricing, it shows. And they can feel it. And then they start to question everything. Okay. And I know you know this is important because you wouldn't be worrying about your pricing so much. I know many of you do, especially new business owners, feel very weird. And especially those that are selling services or maybe digital products or maybe courses of old. I know courses aren't quite as popular anymore, but any kind of online like program coaching, it can be very hard as a business owner to feel good about the price because it's a little bit intangible, right? Whereas if you have physical products, I think it's a lot easier. I think it's a lot easier to price it. I don't think there's as much drama. So maybe for you out there, if you're selling physical products, it may not be that hard and you may be like, oh, this is no big deal. But a time may come up where you have major drama about what you should price something at. And so I thought today what we would do is go through, as if I was coaching you, like four things that I think you should know that'll help you feel better about the pricing that you're coming up with and enable you to show up confidently and not give off vibes that you're acting like a weirdo about your pricing. Like this is your price. End of story. Like that's the price, right? Um, I know some businesses do haggle a little bit, right? Because there's something that I'm getting done that's not in the United States. And I'm wondering now, I'm probably going to have to a little bit ask and compare these pricings to make sure that I am getting the lowest price. Okay. But that's in a more of a commodity item versus what a lot of you order offer is not a commodity. It's something that you make, it's something you put your heart and soul into. It's maybe your time, if you're a service provider, it's you, your personality, your energy, your influence, if you're hosting programs or networking events or something live, right? So all that comes into play. So today, let's kick this off. Let's go through this. So I don't know if you're on a walk, if you're cleaning the house, I don't know what you're doing when you're listening to this, maybe you're driving. I want you to think about these four things. Okay. Here they

Step One There Is No Perfect Price

SPEAKER_01 9:07

are. Number one, there is no perfect price. That's if you don't even remember any of the rest of this, remember that there's no perfect price. And you have to laugh at yourself now because if you find yourself having drama about your pricing, remember there is no perfect, like that's the one. That's the one, that's the perfect one, right? There is no perfect price. There are good ones that make you feel happy and make you feel confident and allow you to show up without all the drama, right? There's also prices that are really low that make you feel happy, but you don't make any money. So your business isn't going to be happy. So in the end, you're probably not happy. There is no perfect price at all. Okay. I want to release you from that fantasy that there's a magic number waiting to be discovered or curated or found or unearthed, right? There just really isn't. I know when I started my coaching, for example, years back when the end of 2019, I was offering like a little workshop. And then I started offering coaching. I was mortified, mortified of pricing for an hourly service. Like I just couldn't figure out, I knew what the going rate was for some other coaches and all that stuff, but I just still felt weird. I had the mind drama about it. Now eventually it sunk in and it great. And I've raised my prices over the years and I understand my worth and I understand what I can do for people, right? I understand the difference that it can make for people like you who haven't felt confident in what you're doing in your business. And when you have someone sit with you for an hour or two hours or whatever package it is, right, you become a different business owner because you're like, okay, I know I'm doing the right things. I got confirmation. I'm going to keep doing this. I'm going to focus on this. And it changes your life. Right. So as a consumer, you've probably paid me coaching and you're like, great, like I can move on now. I don't have all this stuff looming over me. And as a coach selling it, I know the value that that can bring to you and your business and running it. Because as you all know, your businesses, well, I hope you know from listening to me with all of this, that this whole entire podcast is that we are always chasing tactics. We're always chasing trends. We're changing the, you know, chasing the latest get rich scheme. And what we we realize at the end is that our business success really depends on us. And it starts with us as humans, as our foundation, who we are, what our preferences are, what our skills are, what our passions are, and the kind of people that we want to serve. Now, I could talk about that for a really long time, but that's the truth that the foundation of your business starts with you. And so many business owners miss this. They immediately jump into I've heard the latest trend is doing TikTok this, TikTok shop, um, doing this on Instagram or having a course or having a podcast. And they pick that one thing because they think that's what's going to make them the money and make them successful. And they're not really doing it based on any consideration about who they are, what their time of life is, what their goals are, and what their definition of success is. They they forget all of that and they end up building a business that has the wrong kind of pricing, the wrong kind of products, that isn't, you know, helping the people that they're meant to serve and becomes a miserable other job instead of a business. So realize today there is no perfect price. And let's start there. Number one, no perfect price ever, right? Even with retail products, you can pick ones that are $29, 29 and 50 cents, $30, $32, $35, $36. There is no perfect price. It's a decision. It's a decision that you are making. It's an intentional decision that can be changed. Usually there is not a lock-in for life on the price that you decide. Usually you can run sales, you can run promos, you can raise your price. There's all kinds of things. Now, it is harder to raise your price, like all of a sudden, if you have it and then you're like, wait, I need to double the price. You can do that. You do need to do some things like tell your people ahead of time and do all those things. Um, you can lower your price, which is something that you can do. But then people who paid full price, right? If it, if it's a permanent lower price, uh, you risk, right? Let's just be honest, you risk hurting the people that paid the other price. So maybe you just do sales and things like that. There's all kinds of strategies that we can use. And if this is you, let's talk about it in coaching. So reach out to me and let's talk about your pricing. But once you know that you understand that there is no perfect price, you will feel so much better about it. Okay. Okay. So number one, there is no perfect price. So release that, take that weight off

Step Two Assess Your Real Costs

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your shoulders. Number two, the first very first thing that I would do with you if we sat in coaching is I'd say, okay, tell me about your product or service and let's assess your costs. Let's look at your actual costs. This is like the floor of what it takes you to create it, if it's time, materials, overhead, what are the costs? Okay. What is the like non-negotiable math part? So if you have a physical product and you make it, what are all the costs that it takes to make that product, right? If you resell a product, okay, what is the cost of you buying the product and you resell it? And if you make, if you offer, let's say, coaching, one-on-one coaching, this one's kind of hard, but what are your costs to create the coaching? It may not be very much. Or maybe you took some time to create a curriculum. Maybe you take time before you meet with a client, after you meet with a client, not just the time with the client. So you have to factor that in. If you're doing a live event or some kind of program, you need to take all the costs from any deliverables that you have, any printables, all the stuff that you're doing. You need a designer, you need an editor. Like, what all do you need? Do you need decorations and invitations and all that stuff? So only you can do that. I want you to get out your pen and paper or spreadsheet online, open up Google Sheets, and start assessing all of your costs, all of your costs. Like, what does it take to put this on or to offer this out into the world? Okay. Okay. So the first one was there's no perfect price. You're always going to remember that. Number two, assess your costs. Number three, find the going rate.

Step Three Find The Going Rate

SPEAKER_01 15:49

I want you to do some research. I want you to look online, look on Amazon, look on Google, Ask Chat GBT or Claude. What is the going rate for your industry for what for the people that you are wanting to serve, right? So, like if you're Walmart and you're looking at the going rate for something, they're going to try to be lower. Or Costco is going to try to be the same price, but give you a whole bunch more or be lower, right? With it. Ideally, lower with more stuff. That's their goal, right? But if you're Target, you may be able to charge a little bit more. If you're a cute little market that's in a remote area where no one has stuff, like if you're selling water where there's no water, uh, you can charge more than the going rate at Costco or Walmart because people need it. Again, there's a whole bunch of psychology that goes into that. But you have to realize understanding your market and you need to do some quick research is worth your time. I'm not saying do this all the time, every day, every second. I'm saying let's assess where you are today based on what you're offering. Okay. Just the going rate. What's the going rate for XYZ? Okay. So that's number three. So number one, number one is no perfect price. Number two is assess your costs. Number three is find the going rate. And number four is to assess where you fall against that going

Step Four Position Against The Market

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rate. Does that make sense? So the going rate, let's say, for an attorney is $500 an hour. And you're a new attorney just out of law school, and you want to offer services, and you're like, okay, where do I fall against that? This other attorney is a high-powered attorney. It's been OJ Simpson's attorney or whoever, right? A high powered attorney. And I'm not that, right? And I'm also in a more rural area. And that one is in a city where there's all these famous people and it's super expensive. So where can I fall? That's what you have to think of. Like, where do I fall against that? And where do I feel comfortable? Do I feel comfortable at half that rate? A third of that rate? What about the people in my area doing the same thing? What did they charge? And I'm not saying to charge what other people are charging, but I do think you need to compare where you fall based on your experience, right? So for me, running my own businesses for 26 years and now having coached hundreds of women with their businesses, and now I'm on year six, going on to year seven, my rates are worthy of going up. And it's the same for you in your products or services, possibly, right? Now, if you have a product, are the rates going up because of inflation, or you just decided yours was worth more? If you decided yours was worth more, why? Is it better quality? Is it organic? Does it have something different? Is it homemade? Is it made in the USA? What is it that would alter that going rate based on how you're offering it, right? On all those factors. So think about it right now. Where do you fall against good the going rate? And what are the factors that kind of change how you are compared to those people, right? Let's say you sell really cute jewelry, you make it, you hand make it, right? And maybe your earrings take you a while to make because they're very detailed, and you've had a lot of experience making jewelry and other things, and it's designed very modern, and you are trying to appeal to higher-end buyers. You do not want to then price it the cheapest price. You are matching the quality, maybe the history or the story of what you're offering, and you're also looking at who you're serving. Because if you're serving high-end clients and you offer something really cheap, I hate to say this, but a lot of times they're going to look at it and be like, that's not the best. Because people, as humans, we all do it. We think higher price items means higher quality and better. And it doesn't always mean that, but that's what we do. And so if you want to be a business owner of integrity and you are spending lots of time to make the products, they are handmade and unique. They're one of a kind. You do have a, you know, artistic background, an artistic background, and you're very experienced, and you're in a nice area and you're appealing to more luxury buyers, then it only makes sense that you would charge a higher price. I mean, it's it's the same in any like shopping area. Like I live outside Houston, Texas, in a nice suburb. And we have a very nice shopping area that has really high-end products and different stores that are all the brands that you know that are high-end, right? And they're expensive, right? But if you go to other areas of Houston where maybe the demographics are such that the mean income is a lot lower, their cute little boutiques and stuff like that are probably not going to be as expensive. They're still going to be cute and they're going to be perfect for their town, but it's going to be different. And the pricing there has got to be more considerate of the people that are around. And vice versa. There is other luxury areas, like you go to Newport Beach, California, that are way nicer, way nicer than the area that I live in. And so a lot of their places, like I know there was a candle place there that my sister took me to because she lives outside Newport Beach, and the candles were like $80 for a little candle. Now they smelled amazing. The quality was amazing, but they're $80, right? And I'm sitting there going, oh my gosh, I could probably get a cheaper candle. Uh, but I will tell you, she gifted me one of the candles and I absolutely love it. It's been one of my favorite candles ever. So see, it was worth it. And it was worth it for her to give it to me. And I absolutely love it. But what I'm telling you is that $80 candle may not sell in some other town, right? With different um demographics and mean income and all that stuff, right? So this number four is like really, really important for you to assess what you're making, how much time, what's the quality, what's the unique positioning that you have, the neat unique story, and who are you marketing it to? That is how you figure out where you compare to the going rate and you price it above or below the going rate accordingly. And you pick a price and you think about it and you think about offering it. You think about how your insides feel, your stomach feels. You know, like when you get butterflies, if you're on an airplane or roller coaster, do you feel good about it? You're like, you know, it's maybe a little lower than I want to charge right now, but I feel really confident selling at that, and I can raise my price. You can raise your price. Okay. You can raise your price. Um, it's a little harder to go down on your price. But that's what I'm saying. I want you to feel good about it. I want you to feel confident more than anything and realize your value and you can move it up. And like if you're just opening a business, you say, This is my price right now, it's gonna move up in 60 days, right? Or if you've been in business a while and you haven't raised your prices and you're like, you're like, I don't make enough money on these things. I think you need to put something out that says I need to raise my prices. And that's what it is. You don't even have to give an explanation. You can say prices will go up effective this date. You don't have to apologize for that, right? So make sure you're thinking about all four of these things when you are thinking through your pricing, and then you end this drama, this loop, this vortex that many of you fall into because you're so worried about how you're perceived. Number one, there is no perfect price. Number two, assess your costs. Let's be pragmatic about it. Number three, look for the going rate. What is the going rate right now? And then number four, figure out how you fall against that going rate and assess that based on your experience, the quality of your products, and the people that you want to serve and your unique market position. This will help you figure out whether you should go higher or lower the going rate, and you can always go up from there. So I hope this helps you. I don't like seeing you in mind drama about your pricing and laying in bed at night worrying about it. I want you to confidently be able to put yourself out there, market your stuff, have it priced on your website, be excited about it, and feel confident that you are giving these people a value and that they are going to love what you offer, whatever it is. It's gonna change their life, it's gonna save them money, it's gonna build their health, it's gonna help their relationships, whatever it is. Just know that you are making a difference and realize the value in that. So you can just move forth with your pricing, price it, and move on with your life. Okay.

Raise Prices Without Apologizing

SPEAKER_01 25:09

And then you can assess later. But I want to make sure you're charging enough because that's really where I see the problem lies. Sometimes people are not charging enough and you're not making enough money on each item that you're selling based on your time. So that's it. Y'all are awesome. If you have questions about your pricing, if you want me to

Get Help With Pricing Coaching

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work through it with you, if you're a service provider, you're offering a program, whatever you may be doing, I'd love to talk it through with you in coaching. You can always reach out to me down below. There's a link, and you can just fill out a contact form and just tell me what's going on, and I can reply and tell you the truth, whether I can help you or not. And we can even jump on a quick like Zoom call for like 10 minutes and just say, hey, hey, nice to meet you. Let me hear about what let me hear you say it, what you are struggling with. And I can meet you and hear about your business, and then I can just, again, be honest with you. Like, yes, I can help you. Let's do a coaching call. Or no, maybe I know someone else. So that's it. Y'all are awesome. I'm so excited for you. So okay, have a great day.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

Until next time, bye now. Now, this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to Kimberlybrock.com, and yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey. And you know what? You don't need to go through this alone. I would love to help. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.