What a pain in the wallet!!!

I can’t charge that much…

Who do you think you are charging those prices?

Why should I pay you that kind of money?

Have you heard those lines?

Have you said those lines?

I have. For myself, about my business, for my clients.

And you know what?

Most people have no idea what they should charge their clients.

One more time for those who weren’t paying attention…

Most people have NO IDEA what they should charge their clients.

I had a client who charged $1500 for a cake. Now this was no ordinary cake – this cake was approximately HUGE! A base that was almost five feet long by four feet wide and featured a princess coach pulled by two horses, personalized with the happy couples names and a “Just Married” sign on the back of it. The cake took four grown men to lift and delivery of said cake was never easy.

My client was an artist – a creative who didn’t like to get bogged down by numbers or the business side of business. She thought she was charging more than enough at $8.50 a slice for a wedding cake for 200 people (she gave them a discount because she didn’t want to loose them as a customer). When I asked how she arrived at that pricing, she went on listing ingredients and how much they cost and justified the price by saying “$500 in product, $500 in labor and $500 profit”. This was a model used by family members who were in business in the 1970’s and 80’s – not really taking into account everything else. Actually not taking in anything else.

We sat down and completed a job cost form for this one particular cake – from start to finish, every single ingredient, every step of work that went into it and the amount of money it was going to cost to complete delivery. We pulled receipts for ingredients, she measured each one and timed each part of the process; we reviewed delivery of the original cake, timing, man-power, vehicle expenses, tolls and more. We figured out all overhead costs associated with her brick-and-mortar bakery, payroll, additional costs and more. We calculated overhead percentage, direct costs, gross profit margins and more.

What do you think happened?

The very next time the “Princess Coach Cake” was requested by a customer, my client (extremely nervously) showed many pictures, explained how the cake is actually constructed and gave all the different flavors they could have as well; then, she gave her customer a price of $5000 for 200 guests. The future bride and groom looked at each other, shared a few whispers, turned to my client and said, “It is stunning – we love it. What do you need for a deposit?”

Fast forward to the wedding day. Every attendee, young and old, stopped to stare at this creation. The cake posed for more pictures than the bride and groom!! Ingredients? Paid for. All prep work? Paid for. The guys needed to deliver the masterpiece? Paid for. And a beautiful profit as well.

Moral of the story? When you embrace your worth and the value you bring to your customer or client, you can confidently sell and close the deal. In my Money Mindset VIP Program, we meet for a half-day program (3 1/2 hours) – we do 3 1 hour Zoom chats with 15 minute breaks in between each. In this program, we build your personal money mindset mantra, including beliefs around money and actions; we set a goal for how much your time is worth and what might be preventing you from working efficiently; we move past any limiting thought you have regarding pricing and value; we work on statements regarding money, create premium belief statements for you to carry through each part of your business, practice or organziation.

I hope you will join me for this Money Mindset Mastery VIP Program. You can schedule a time that is convenient for you by clicking here: