Sometimes it’s hard to justify your charges to a customer when you are both thinking only in terms of the time it takes you to perform a task. Underpricing is a mistake that most new contractors make and it can end up ruining a potentially great business.

If you only take into account the thirty minutes of your time it took to write a short blog post, you are selling yourself short. What about the time you spent thinking about the topics and researching them?

You need to place a value on the knowledge that you have acquired, perhaps through years of study or on the job experience that you have clocked up. Don’t forget, too, that you have performed a valuable service for your client that that will result in a boost for their businesses.

Putting aside the old time value structure and placing a per service value on everything you do allows your customer to see a different kind of value.  They aren’t paying for your time; they are paying for the results you bring.

If you break what you do down into pre-priced items, you will find it easier to charge your customers based on what you actually deliver, rather than how long it takes you to deliver it.

Work out:

• How long you spend doing the work
• How long you spend preparing for the work
• How much consultation time may be involved
• The time required for post-service follow up, installation, monitoring etc.
• Work out what it would have cost your client to do it for themselves

This will help you to work out an average price for your service. It’s a good idea to check the marketplace to see how your pricing fits in. Don’t worry if your pricing is at the higher end of the scale. Just think about how the results you are giving your clients translate into dollars and you can instantly see what a good investment they are making in you.

Remember that you aren’t pricing to suit the clients; you are pricing to get what you deserve for the work that you do. Not everyone will be happy to pay what you ask but that’s the way it is in business. If you can show clients the value they will get from the work you do, your price will be justified.

Your final challenge now is to get out there and bring that excellent value to your clients.