Stop Charging $500 When They'll Pay $2,000
Confession: Lost $63,000 last year. Not from bad deals. From scared pricing. Let me show you the math that changed everything: CLIENT: Small law firm PROBLEM: 6 hours daily on contract review MY FIRST QUOTE: $500 WHAT I BUILT: PDF data extraction to their CRM TIME TO BUILD: 3 hours THEIR REALITY: - Paralegal cost: $25/hour - Daily waste: 6 hours = $150 - Monthly waste: $3,000 - Annual waste: $36,000 I saved them $36,000/year and charged $500. They would've paid $5,000 without blinking. THE PRICING FORMULA THAT WORKS: Step 1: Calculate their pain "How many hours per week on [manual task]?" "What's the hourly cost?" = Monthly waste Step 2: Price at 10-20% of annual waste $36,000 waste = $3,600-$7,200 fair price Step 3: Add monthly maintenance Usually 10% of setup fee THE CONFIDENCE BUILDER: Start saying these numbers out loud: - "That'll be two thousand dollars" - "My setup fee is twenty-five hundred" - "Monthly maintenance runs three hundred" Say it until it feels normal. Because it IS normal. ACTUAL PRICES I'VE CHARGED: - Invoice automation: $1,800 + $200/month - Form processing: $2,200 + $250/month - Document extraction: $1,900 + $225/month - Report generation: $2,400 + $300/month - Contract parsing: $2,100 + $275/month All built with the same tools. Same complexity. Different confidence. THE MINDSET SHIFT: You're not charging for your time. You're charging for their transformation. 3 hours of your work = 1,560 hours of their freedom HOMEWORK: Write this down: "My minimum setup fee is $1,500" Post it where you'll see it daily. Next person who asks your price, say it. Watch what happens. Who's done undercharging?