Guide9 min

How to price your first offer without guessing

A four-step method for setting a price you can defend, raise, and repeat — instead of picking a number and hoping.

New operators price by feel, get one uncomfortable 'yes' too fast, and then anchor their entire business to a number they invented in a moment of nerves. There is a better sequence.

First, cost out delivery honestly. Your hours at a real rate, tools, subcontractors, and the revision cycles you know will happen. Most people forget revisions and then resent them.

Second, define the outcome in the client's numbers. Not what you do — what changes for them, quantified as best you can. A price anchored to an outcome survives scrutiny. A price anchored to hours invites negotiation on hours.

Third, set three tiers where the middle one is what you want to sell. Fourth, write down the conditions under which the price goes up — scope beyond the definition, compressed timeline, extra stakeholders. Say those out loud in the first call so raising the price later is not a confrontation.

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