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Pricing Strategies

So we are going tio break down the actual pricing side of things now we talked about money and kind of the psychology behind money our money minds sets are relationships with money. We got some things off our chest in the first hour, so but this segment, we're really going to talk about what that means for the prices of your work, and I find that we've got to kind of go through that touchy feely stuff at the beginning, so that were really comfortable breaking down and looking at what our work needs to be priced at how our work needs to be priced. So the last segment we stopped offer, we ended on two questions where I recommended that you gotta look into a new market to really get what get the value, get the price that you need to get for your work on dh this isn't true for everybody, but I find that it's true for a lot of people on dso, the big take away here, the big lesson here that we're going to work on for the in the workbook for the first a few minutes is, too, that you can't pri...

ce for the market your in price for the market you want to be in don't price for the market, you're in price for the market you want to be in. What does that mean? Well ah lot of people see themselves almost competing with the big boxes I get that question all the time how do I compete with people or with how do I compete with the wal marts with the targets with the best buy's you guys probably aren't committing with best buy but you get what I'm saying how do I compete with that? How do I compete with those kind of prices with that kind of distribution chain with those kind with that kind of outsourcing? The answer is you don't then on the other side of things I get well, you know so many people selling on etsy or other online marketplaces air undercutting their prices how do I compete with that? The answer is you don't you can't price your work based on big box store prices you can't price your work based on markets where the prices artificially lowered for all sorts of different reasons sometimes it's because people don't know any better sometimes it's because of the type of customers that are coming there and sometimes it's just this crowd think thing that is going on various if I on ly price my work lower surely I will sell more but instead there are other markets that we can sell in think about the places that you go to buy handmade goods one market that I used to love shopping in philadelphia was the art starcraft bizarre and they have just hundreds of vendors that come in and take over penn's landing and this is a high end show it's not the highest end but the high end show these are full time makers who come out for the weekend to sell their wares and it's a curated show so the the girls behind art star are making sure that each person that's their represents what they want to be representing in terms of their own boutique. So that market is a great place to see products that are priced properly and to be in a market where others around you are pricing appropriately. But maybe you don't have a big show like that maybe you've got the downtown boutique where you know it's a big draw for your downtown area they sell lots of handmade, independently produced goods. What did those products cost? Perhaps their their prices are more than you can afford that's fine, but take a look at that because that might be the market you need to be in. You know the other things that you can look at our stores like anthropology, even stores like nordstrom, thes air places where your customers might also be shopping, so when they're coming to your sight when they're coming to your etsy shop or your web store, they're comparing your work to the rest of that marketplace? No, they're comparing your work to this other marketplace where prices are significantly different than what you're used teo and so if your prices air dramatically different they're going to say well what's what's wrong with this like why is this so cheap and cheap in that case is not a selling point right? We covered that earlier and so you really need to think about the market that you want to be associated with weird where else should your customers be shopping? Where else are your customers really shopping and how can you price to be in that market instead of the market that you may have thought of yourself in to this point let me make this point with a completely different industry I want to introduce you to st fourteen coffee hi jenna misha if you are watching so why friends in historia owned this amazing coffee shop called st fourteen they sell stumptown they brew stumptown coffee on dh based due espresso drinks. They do food. It is an amazing coffee shop and it is definitely the best coffee shop on the north coast of oregon if not the entire coast of oregon it's just like a big city coffee shop in this teeny weenie town if awesome so street fourteen raised their prices dramatically actually has continued to raise their prices dramatically over the last year since my friends took over ownership in october of last year uh because they knew what market they were coming from they had been selling coffee in berlin and they knew the portland market really well they've been all over the world drinking coffee and they know what people are willing to pay in fact they know what people expect to pay for quality cup of coffee in fact, my boyfriend was just strolling around san francisco yesterday and paid seven dollars for a cup of coffee no joke I would have to I love me some coffee all right, so this is a particular market for coffee high end, high quality big on experience big on meaning market for coffee but what should a cup of coffee costs you can go to the gas station and pay sixty nine cents for it you can go to mcdonald's and pay a dollar for it you can go to dunkin donuts and pay a little bit more. Oh yes don't have dunkin donuts out here in east coast girl awesome all right s so so you can go to a store like that and pay a little bit more or you could choose to have this high end experience that we've actually gotten used tio by the starbucks is of the world right and so there's this whole vast array of markets for coffee so if you were a coffee purveyor and coffee really meant something to you you had you gave a lot of value to the experience of coffee you really love an amazing cop of single origin coffee you value the pore over experience you love talking to people about coffee would you would you price your cup of coffee to be in the gas station market where would you price your cup of coffee to be in the high end market where people are paying because they love their coffee would you be paying tohave would you be charging tohave the kind of connections with your customers that come when people really love what it is that you're selling or what you price in a way that invites the people who are just stopping in on the road trip and they are desperate for coffee and probably extremely grouchy so do you want to be in that market or do you want to be in this market price your products in the market you want to be in not the market you are in so what all what are the factors that determine a cup a price of a cup of coffee? You know I mentioned just those different kind of different finite markets gas station fast food, quick retailer and then the high end experience but what makes those experiences different one of them is the type of customer and why they are there what are they trying to accomplish with that cup of coffee? Are they just trying to get through that twelve hour road trip or are they coming in and wanting to savor their morning caught the cup of coffee experience and then there's all that we go room in the middle of course but there's this hole there's a hole different set of experiences, different reasons people use that cup of coffee right? What else do core decor makes people pay different things the way a place feels and tell you street fourteen feels like a million bucks it's got this amazing vintage fluorescent sign in the er neon sign in the back that says coffee shop it's got an amazing looking espresso machine it's got this awesome metal countertop thing it's got big chunky wood everywhere I I love being in the space and trust me if you were to come to historia any given hour of the day there's a very good chance I could be there on a love being in that space and I pay a premium to be in that space instead of the gas station. Oh other factors what other factors determine price and the ideas from out here materials certainly so the kind of coffee that street fourteen bruises a very different material than the kind of coffee that gas stations brew in fact not to coffee coffee geek out on you but it's actually a different kind of coffee bean most of the time your gas station coffee has a very high quantity of rib busted beef on your very high end coffee generally speaking this is not across the board is going to be you know you're high end arabica beans so you've actually got different materials going on that's a great point yes different materials different quality of materials going along with that process the wave the beans are or the way the coffee is brewed the process for that changes between those two marketplaces the gas station brews and a drip brewer and it sits on heat all day long over and over and over again at st fourteen they are brewing small batches yes we do some drip they do some poor over they do lots of espresso and so the process is extremely different each drink is crafted individually for the people that pay for it and so people are willing to pay a lot more for it sounds a lot like what a lot of you guys do right? Um merchandising just the way it's beyond just the space itself but the things that are put in it the way things are arranged what all is featured there it wouldn't make sense to have a really high end cup of coffee along with the mass produced cookies right? That doesn't make sense but they bake all they bake all their their baked goods in house the cookies are made they're the muffins come out of their oven these are high quality baked goods next to the high quite the cut high quality cup of coffee too many hard sees going on they're on dh so that makes sense pricing has to make sense we'll get into that more later how do other products relate to the price you're willing to pay? This is a big one and this is one the the owners of st fourteen we've talked about this a lot how much are we willing to pay for a cup of coffee based on what we pay for other high quality beverages what do you pay for a good bottle of wine? Ten twenty, fifty one hundred thousand dollars for a bottle of wine that seven hundred fifty milliliters not much liquid what do you pay for a beer? What do you pay for a bud light versus ah you know craft style beer those products actually also when you compare them to this product can affect the price of a cup of coffee. So the people who are coming in to st fourteen might be people who really enjoy ah great glass of wine or people who really enjoy a great pint of beer and they're used to paying a premium on that those glasses and so they're also happy to pay a premium on coffee so there's this whole range of things that influence price that have nothing to dio with just the dollars and cents of running this shop and by pricing to those factors the owners of st fourteen have been able to make a much higher profit than what they've been making before, and to that end, they've also created a whole new, loyal following for the shop, as well as becoming a destination in our town from, you know, the tourists that come in from portland or seattle or from down the coast, and so not only have they made mohr per cup of coffee because they've raised their price, but they brought more people into the store, had more transactions become busier, allowed the and that's allowed them to do all sorts of other changes to the store. All right, so what does this have to do with what you make way have to think about the the factors that are influencing the price of your product? So, first of all, where your products are sold, of course, influences the price I mentioned earlier at sea versus a boutique, those two different selling experiences, those do different retailers essentially influence price on dh? If all you're doing is selling on an online market place where there's an artificially low price, you will be tempted to lower your price, and you certainly won't be tempted to raise your price, however you're you're selling in a high end boutique, and you're surrounded by goods that are priced much higher than your products, you probably will be tempted to raise your price, and you won't be tempted to lower your price and it's that kind of soft influence that can make all the difference also how your products are merchandised. I mentioned that in the coffee example as well. So yesterday, at the end of the day, we talked about the conversations that our customers are having in the stories of their before zahn they're after is and how they're using our goods, and I talked about including that in your product descriptions in testimonials and also in your photography and photography is the chief way we have of merchandising our products online. So what does that mean? It means how your necklace is styled on a model, what she's wearing who she is, what surroundings she's in it's, how you're housewares appear in a home it's how your kitchen gadget looks in the in the pot or the bull that you're working in, how your products are merchandise tell a story, and that story often influences price in a major way. Who is viewing them also influenced this price? You guys mentioned kind of being having those money scripts reinforced to you about you know, why is this so much? I wish this didn't cost so much? How dare you charge this much on dh when those when you are constantly dealing with that type of customer you are being influenced on the price of your work. Essentially, people are telling you to lower your prices, and eventually many people will succumb to that. However, if in like, in my case with the web design, if everyone is constantly telling me to raise my price because they're used to paying prices that are, you know, x times higher than what I'm charging, then I'm going to be influenced to raise my price, and I'm goingto understand the value of my work in a new way. So who is viewing your price? They may not actually obviously be changing the price of your item, but they influence you in a way that makes you that causes you to change the price of your item on then what it's sold next to is your item showing up in a big box store or along with items that could be from big box stores? Or are your products being sold next to high end works of art, pieces of high design, fine craft goods? What you sell your products next to has a big influence on what you can charge, and so if you're taking your products and you're putting them in places, if you're selling them to wholesalers, for instance, that are selling your product next to something comparable or something that's, you know, that's an upsell to that or something that your product might be an upsell teo that influences the price of what you can charge for your work so let's actually dive into the workbook and start applying the start brainstorming the things that you need to be able to take this information and apply it to your work. So the first question is what market do you want to be in? What market do you want to be in? What do you want to have influencing your work the people, the other goods? The way things are merchandised the stores the environments that your product is sold in? What market do you want your products to be in? Teo help you start figuring this out to put this in slightly more tangible terms, I've asked you in your workbook to name five brands you'd like your product to be sold next to name five brands you'd like your product to be sold next to megan I'm going to pick on you and ask you to tell me some brands you like your product to be sold next to and remind us again what your product is sure so itself mainly pennant in print and I can see them um in a boutique next to uh girls comptel the tea towels because that's not their way to decorate your home and I know she has a huge following I can also see them next to meghan ominous jewelry because it's also artistic in that sense um that was a sphere is are there any kind of like big brands that aren't necessarily independent designers because that's another really viable way to think about this? You don't have to think about this in terms of just independent designers or artists or makers. You could think about this also in terms of of the brands that you do see in march, larger stores you know, I mentioned, you know, big department stores, high end department stores, those stores sell brands that we associate with a particular market, right? I mean, it is not a brand, it is a shop, but sfmoma or museum shops when her mixed night, yeah, I love that idea that's a great market for you to be in a canoe. Give us some examples I wrote down some kind of stores that I could see my jewelry and ran away like anthropology or made, while jonathan adler actually has kind of a similar aesthetic to mind, but also the museums shops seems to be a good venue. Beautiful, awesome slash. I'd like to get your take on this because we've been talking about products wondering if you could name some brands that you would just like to be seen a scene aside as you know, a thinker and a writer and a speaker um I have a really random list that's great okay apple okay oprah y you an anthropology fantastic and so each of those brands some we know some we don't but they tell stories about the quality of their products the aesthetic of their products what we assume will come from them what we expect from them and when we can imagine our products next to them we start to assume some of that story as well we start to take on that story for ourselves, for our brand, for our products and we stopped thinking of ourselves as the underdog which I don't like I don't want to think about myself is the underdog I don't want to think about you guys is the underdog so you start getting rid of that story which could definitely influenced your pricing and you start being influenced more by the story of those brands so this I think is a really important exercise for people are there any good answers coming in from online? Yes there are actually kate tale teller gayler pest l says well first of all they do ink and water colored color designs for paperwork's home goods and laced light patterns they said kinfolk magazine frankie magazine anthropology and various museum gift shops fantastic great gambler we're seeing wei are seeing a lot of people just name these other stores where they could find things and I'd love to push people to name those brands like you're talking about yeah, not just where you I think we see a lot of anthropology but what is it at anthropologie? Yeah, I think that you want to be next to yeah, I think that's a really great question and maybe if you don't know the specific brands that anthropology cells because if you're anything like me, you just you see the sign and you start like magnetically being drawn inside right? Investigate go to the store, go to the website, look up the brands that anthropology is selling and actually do some research you know, we talked about market research in terms of customers all the time and you know, just like we did all day yesterday but there's a lot of value and actually researching the brands that are in your market as well and certainly stores and magazines are brands and that those are great answers, but yeah, I think it's really helpful to kind of drill down into the specific products as well, and yesterday we talked about being that detective and really sleuthing and getting to know things from a different perspective. So name that brand type of castle, so they're now coming in if we can share a couple of yeah, please, casey sharp says I make art jewelry and I'd love to be on the same level as ford and orlando lola books and melanie linker don't even know all those brains. I don't know them either, but she does. Yeah. And and then, uh, cassandra, tom droz creates contemporary fine art abstract paintings and wants to be in high end furniture stores such as elle decor. And then I guess twelve, which also does have a magazine as well. Yeah, fantastic. Thanks, guys. I so appreciate this answers. All right, so the next question your workbook is what factors are currently influencing the price of your product. So two dates historically what's been influencing your pricing beyond the materials beyond the overhead beyond the labor. What factors have you been considering when you price your work and these might be things that were top of mind before this, but for these might be things that you didn't even realize were influencing your price. But when I kind of laid out all these things, you know, something's sprung to mind. Anna, can you give me some ideas so he would being currently and price my work, fear of pricing too high, okay, and alienating, um, alienating a certain group of people that might only value it on the price tag. And not what we talked about earlier about value, which really resonated with me, by the way, I think that's one of the main factors along with just basic you know what did it cost me to make this and then factor in what profit I want to make but I think it's definitely like like, oh god is this let me dollar for dollar you know and then see how high I can get it and then back off a little bit but seriously you know yeah, yeah oh god like thirty eight I could never charge that ok, let me do thirty four and see how that sits with me, you know? Yeah and so what I'm hearing from you to is that there is a particular market segment there's a particular group of customers that buy pressed you you could probably come up with names of people that you don't want to alienate based on the price of your work and I think that's super common we have these people in mind that we know when we cross a certain threshold it's just not gonna work out anymore and you know pricing isn't infinite you can't just charge whatever the heck you want for something and I would never suggest that but at the same time when you know what your work is worth in terms of materials about labor and overhead and you know what your work is worth in terms of the market and those other influencing factors if you need to pass that threshold, that nagging group of people that you know no, you're going to be alienated can really hold you back from from that threshold where you can find a new segment of customers so I think you know that's just such a common common bag so har um my thing is my state of mind and needing to pay bills is influencing your like with her too, but I didn't want to just repeat the question yeah pete the answer but yeah, that's basically like how much I owe and everything like that like I just feel like I just want to get out after that like so I'm just selling like anything you know, I'm not selling the new work, I'm not pricing the new work yet, you know? I mean, it was like I need to get rid of the old stuff yeah, so you're selling from your pricing from a place of desperation, all the things vast, incredibly common as well we do get ourselves into holes you are certainly not alone and when we we sort of have to price and sell based on that desperation it shows and it makes things so difficulty for us because, you know, we don't want to project that onto our customers and we do end up doing that steaks for everyone involved, it makes those transactions way less than beautiful, so great answer yes really harbor here knowing how much might product actually cost me to make it and you know it's like I mean, I know the materials and stuff, but yeah, so anyways I end up doing mostly market driven pricing rather than what I think that, uh what I think the market compare yeah, but so I end up doing a lot more comparing to other people and but I know that that's not good for you because it really matters who you're comparing yourself tio, if you're comparing yourself to the low end of the market, you might be completely missing this vast, thriving marketplace of people who are spending a lot more money on very similar work yet, and you absolutely must know to the dollars and cents what your product cost you. So we're getting to that I know, I know you're excited about that, but that's math that we all have to do because that's a starting point all right, a number of things that people are yeah plead answering this question online, we have amber and m r x mittens, and perhaps this is what we're going to get into, but my main product is fashion accessories, other factors influencing my price, our profit margin margin for sales rubs and I self insure products I ship so include a small insurance fee, my prices for items I sell online yeah, and those words might make certain people's eyes roll so we're going to get into profit margin wings and yes those totally yeah yeah and I know I have to hi ember awesome great okay, uh third question in this kind of bigger question ofwhat market do you want to be in where ideally would you like your products to be sold? And I know we got a lot of anthropology is so like let's push past anthropology they could only buy so much which is still a lot but where ideally would you like your products to be told so far I want it to be so well specifically I do I do the fashion design and I have I have a lingerie line, so I ideally I want it to be, like, sold in places like asian asian provocateur and actually I use a lot of so rusk I can't even pronounce that swarovski crystals so I actually wanted to be sold at the store at the swarovski stores I think that's a great pool. So how are your prices now or the price is that you envisioned for your products comparable to the price is that those stores are already selling crime look way on the I'm not even putting my artwork in there I keep justifying it and I keep saying to myself, oh that's just discovering new designs like I'll make more you know I mean where like I will charge more because it will look better yeah yeah but I know it's just me saying that I certainly meghan where would you like your artwork to be sold I want the originals to be sold at moma nice not in the store on the walls on the walls I like that I like that and how are the originals you're pricing for originals comparing to what people are people would expect to pay for a piece of art that's in moma they don't get those originals yet they only get the originals I'm willing to live go for moving purposes and goes I'm not high enough okay god uh when and where do you want your story to be told local fashion fatigues dress shops I was also thinking actually maybe quilt shops because which is kind of random but just because my designs kind of relate teoh guy totally that I think that's a great idea howard how do your prices compare tio what those stores are already selling um I think well they're probably lower it's ok? They're not all like I probably okay but then some other things are a little bit off yeah so gotta yeah all right so next question is a very very important question so I want you to think about your virtual focus group from yesterday who those individual most valued customers are that you're really wanting to target those people that you love to xerox a thousand times so that you just had a constant stream of amazing customers people who are super excited about your work and very very happy to pay for it where is your cousin? Where is your customer currently shopping for comparable products where is that virtual focus group going to buy things that are not unlike what you are already selling you know if it's if you sell jewelry where your customers going to shop to find other jewelry where if you are a um a new artist an illustrator you sell prince where your customers currently going to shop for prince what are those stores? One other stores anna where your customers currently shopping for baby in children's clothing um etc at all the craft fairs uh indie boutiques um I think that kind of covers it okay as faras I hope they're not going to be the aggressor target or anything that's not really like my same people. Yeah sure. Great. Uh sasha where else do your customers currently going for the kind of information that kind of personal development that you're putting out there personal development idea well, again I have a random list I mean someone like renee brown oh magazine ted talks evolving wisdom that company of all their courses then I just got done therapy I mean, a lot of people come to me I mean maybe therapy work for them or maybe it didn't but it sort of provide something similar yeah definitely and so there's a pricing yeah there's an easy way to start figuring the pricing on that two therapists charge by the hour you often charge by the hour for individual work so you can look at the comparable price as well. All right, next question what is your customer spending on comparable products? What is your customer spending on compra probable products again if you're a jewelry designer what do your customers currently spending on other people's jewelry on other jewelry they pick up the department store jewelry they pick up the boutique what do you think they're spending on julia what do you know? They're spending on jewelry? You're an artist what are they selling or what are they spending on other prince? What are they spending on originals? What are they spending on other clothing if you are a fashion designer if you make pottery what are your customer spending on other pottery? Other housewares like that? Megan what do you think your customers they're spending on prince he was much more than I am charging they will tell us what it is I'm eighty two hundred for a prince and fantastic and what are you driving twenty eight? You don't have to say it like that, but but I do know that when I look at other open edition prints and I've done other people that you've worked with, she looked at there open edition I do know that thirty is the max for a minute that I've seen awesome and I love how you've gotten very particular about that research that's really good honey what what are your customers spending on jewelry uh well like on saudi rings I'm guessing fourteen to twenty dollars on lander seventeen okay um hearings um I find it a little bit difficult actually because um I feel like my jewelry is a little I spend a lot of time doing it and there's a lot of um there are a lot of people that are doing laser cut stuff and so I guess what I struggle with is how do I put myself into that market because my product is more detailed and there's a lot more craft involved and it's more hand crafted than mass produced sort of thing anyway so but I suppose the most comparable ones were probably about sixty dollars and mine are fifty six to sixty um let me stop you there because I think this is a great opportunity for little teachable moment so it sounds to me like you're comparing your work specifically against other laser cut jewelry I want to challenge you to think outside the laser cut finish and think about mohr of that fine craft jewelry side of things because of exactly what you said and I think your work you know, looking at it on kenna looking at it on you looking at it up here it's clear it is not the same product as most of the laser cut jewelry most laser cut jewelry I've seen and I've been to a lot of shows I've seen a lot of laser cut jewelry is you know, it's one that one layer and yeah it's there's some intricate cutting in it and we know that the laser does that that's totally awesome but what I see from you are these amazing layers there's different colors there's different you know, there's a medal on some of these that's a lot different than the laser cuts just because you use the same process and just because you use a lot of the same materials doesn't make doesn't make that jewelry a comparable product to your product. So if you were to venture out of the laser cut market and start comparing yourself comparing your products rather two different type jewelry and maybe it's julie with more metal in it even than yours has I think that might help you think about breaking into a different price point with some of your work on don't get me wrong I don't think you're pricing is totally often we'll definitely talk more about that today I don't think it's totally off it all but I think you have an opportunity to maybe spread out your price range a little bit and I also think you have an opportunity to perhaps create some bigger pieces that could really be statement pieces that you could charge a lot for and get a really good bang for your buck in terms of profit and leverage there. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay, awesome. I got for for my fashion. Uh, my customer is spending a thousand to fifty thousand dollars. Ah, on them. Okay. And where they're going for those but with me about not for you, where they're going to shop for comparable products. I don't know. I can't find these. Oh, I guess, like gucci are exactly alike. What? The other one? The one with the little okay, right. So you might need to go, you know? Yeah. Things. Yeah. So I yesterday I gave the homework to someone online. Teo, go teo high end shopping mall and do some people watching. I think you might need to do exactly that as well. And, you know, I also mentioned a fine craft shows find profiteers for you to go. Teo, I think you need to spend some time not just not just selling at flying craft shows. I think you need to maybe go toe one or two to start and really dig into what art, clothing, art, fashion, really costs and who's really selling it and ask the designers. Where else are you selling? You know what boutiques is the sand and then you can do your research from there you've got layers of research to dio but that's going to make a huge difference in how you present your work how you position at how you create a message that that reinforces the value of what it is that you're creating I have a question about that if you don't have the if you know what you're going to do and I know exactly what I'm going to do but if you don't have the funds for at the moment like how can I how can I find like uh someone that could help me with my website and some that can help him with the things that I I don't have the skills for him and can't maybe I just feel like I can't afford spending time learning this other part of it like the computer work because I know that I'm only didn't do it for this much so I don't see the value you in it like I guess I don't know and then and then what do I do with it old stuff that I'm either not excited about or that I just need to get rid of because I don't want to be a hoarder even I mean like I don't want to hoard my stuff I want to create new things I don't want to keep my old stuff okay, so first question, you know, bootstrapping is really only one way to create a business, and I know this is not like a popular topic, but eva, maybe that you need an investor, that investor could be a friend, that investor could be family member. That investor could be somebody else that you meet and, you know, really loves your work. You know, we used to have patrons back in the day, and patrons would support artists in making their art. I'm not suggesting necessarily that kind of relationship, but but, yeah, I think you know it can. It can almost be for as common as it is in one place of the business world. It seems that we would get into this side of things that looking for an investor or taking a bank loan, or even you know, and this is probably not the best way to go. Even charging a website on a credit card feel like a defeat. Or it can feel like the last possible thing that you could even. Think of, but, you know, taking an investor in your business might be a way to do it now, I am not an invest in a new expert in that, and there are certain legalities and accounting things that need to go on to make that relationship really work, so I'd encourage you to look look for that elsewhere, but that should be one possibility that you float around it's definitely difficult to get a business like yours off the ground, and it does cost money. I think a lot of people try and start businesses that don't cost any money on dh, I certainly did, but in, but in growing my business, I've invested a lot back into it, and I've spent a lot of money to get to different spots, and you might be in a place where, you know, you started with very little, and you've done a lot, you've created a lot, but to get to the next step, you might need to make a big investment, which might work choir outside funds. And so that might be something that you look at in terms of getting rid of your rest of your work. O r the work that's sitting there that you are moving on from, you know, I don't think that's a great opportunity for discounting and for having kind of a almost like a flash sale, we're going to talk a little bit more about the problem of discounting later on because I do have a lot of problems with it but this is one really good ah reason to do it I think the best way you can go about doing that though is to make an a event of it so you have a sale almost like a garage sale or a studio sale you know? And you have send out invitations you make at a party and you just get rid of stuff or you know you could do the same thing online there's lots of different ways to do that, but I think you know, if you need to get rid of inventory to move into a different market, then you know, having some sort of event around that is key andi just kind of holding on to old inventory at a discounted price isn't going to help you it just doesn't move you got to give people a sense of urgency about it. Okay, so when is it okay for you to go below how much it cost you when you want to get rid of it? Yeah. Yeah, it was acceptable. Yeah, well and you have to ask that's I mean that's actually a very personal question I think that's less of a business question and more my okay with because I want the money or I need the money selling this for less than I caught less than it costs me because I have a vision of where I'm moving to yeah, that would yeah okay, thank you yeah I want to get just a little bit of feedback from the net on where their customers are currently shopping for comparable products and how much those products cost a owl interpretations who is a b to b ghostwriter copywriter competitors charge about twelve hundred dollars plus for copyrighting services but I'm not sure about ghost writing competitors and actually didn't say what he's charging but I don't know ok agree for less or more yeah and that could be a really difficult market because a lot of people don't talk about it especially you know it's ghost writing it it can be difficult to talk about and that is terrorist something that we're seeing a lot of people ask about you a lot of what was I talking about other than somewhat sasha is about products they're asking what about services? What about services? Yeah, what about services? Same thing you know where other people are going to get similar services to yours? So you know for me I know what other business strategists are charging some charge weigh less than me some charge way more than me on dh for right now I'm pretty comfortable positioned where I am in the market, but yeah, you do the same thing. Your services may not be offered in a store, but you know of other service providers who do similar things to what you do, and if you don't know of them it's time to go find them, you can find them on twitter, you can find them on facebook, you know, one thing I really love to do, and this this works for product designers, product makers and for service providers is I like to have a list on twitter of my colleagues, so essentially people who are doing very much the same thing that I'm doing, I compile them all in a list on twitter, so there's, maybe twenty, the thirty people on that list at any given time, and I watched their twitter feed and I watched their twenty, twitter feed for all sorts of different things, but often I see, you know, a new product announcement, or I see announcement of a new service or a new offering, and so I can click on that and, you know, just see alright, what what kind of trend does this signify? Where is the market going? Have I missed something? Do I need to change something? And so it's kind of a constant conversation pricing is always kind of a constant conversation and so you know being you know using twitter for something like that which is a very natural conversation platform could be a great way to find that stuff out yeah awesome so let's keep moving um the next thing we want to think about is what does your product mean to your customers what does your product I mean to your customers we talked a lot about this yesterday so no excuses on not being able to come up with these answers but I want to make sure that we're covering this as well on the pricing side because all that stuff that we talked about yesterday you know the hole's not drill's talking about you know the conversations that people are having that stuff all influences price as well we need to know what our products mean to our customers so I've got four questions for you on this four questions and you may have a difficult time answering one question versus another question that's okay take it easy on yourself these air kind of prompts to get you thinking about what the meaning of your product is actually in your customer's life so the first question is what does your product reflect to your customer about themselves what does your product reflect to them about themselves in other words what does it help them see in themselves what does it remind them of? You know lena has that virtue's necklace siri's have that that's an easy one so we'll just use this as an example those virtues help people remind themselves of that particular virtue that they have in themselves or that they want to have in themselves and a constant reminder that you know, I'm trying to exercise this I'm trying tio I'm trying to bring this out in myself and so there's a lot of meaning baked into that necklace in terms of what it allows people to see and themselves so which is your product allow your customers to see in themselves the next question is what does it allow them to do more easily cheaply conveniently beautifully or any other fully word that you want to insert in there but most products allow us to do something for less money with more convenience mohr beautifully um more easily and so it's important that we know what that something is it goes a lot back to the idea of what does your product help your customer accomplish but putting it in terms of cheaply easily conveniently and remember it doesn't have to be a cheap product to help someone do things more cheaply you know for instance people can pay for my high end business coaching which is not cheap and that still allows them to make less mistakes in their business it helps them lower their learning curve in terms of growing their business which means they're saving a ton of money in failed launches or failed marketing messages or wasted time so it's still helping them to something for less money even though it's not cheap so what does your product allow your customers to do more easily cheaply conveniently beautifully or some other fully word next question is what does your product symbolize to your customers? What does your product symbolize to your customers? What is it a symbol of what is it point teo outside of themselves the last question is how does your product allow them to how does your product allow your customer to be perceived by others? How does your product allow your customers to be perceived by others? Yesterday I talked a lot about my meghan almond jewelry allowing me to feel perceived as a professional strong confidence and so that's what that jewelry means to may it means being perceived as all those things by the people that I'm presenting teo or the people that I'm working with or just you know even the people that I see on an afternoon stroll so just in general any answers to those questions I'd love to know what you think your product means to your customer anna um for the first one I put that helps my house my customers reflect a sense of humor personality, joy and then it allows them to both give a unique and personal gift or expressed themselves or help someone else express themselves so I think all those things kind of awesome great megan it reflects their the childhood it's, a glimpse into this world that they used to believe in hot off the internet. So that way, we have amber kane, who make scarves and says, my scars remind women that they are important, that they have value, and that they have an important voice and story to share. And then she goes on and says, my scarves make it easier for people to pack lightly when they're travelling. I love that. Make it, yeah, exactly. That is a great value point, but one more. Ah, let's. See, my pamela in georgia says my paintings and photography allow my customers to project an understanding of art, creativity and well.