The Pricing Lady

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One thing I've seen an explosion of recently is membership sites and with that comes the question what do I charge my members. It can feel tricky. Often people use membership sites early on as a tool to create a community who's then later a "captive audience" for upselling - you can then sell them higher value offers.

In the end pricing for membership sites will always come down to who am I targeting, what's the value I'm offering and how am I using this offer - like where does it fit in the customer journey.

Sarah Santacroce started her membership site for just that reason: to create community. This sprung from her Hippie background - she just wanted to be there to serve people. She wasn't really thinking about it from the perspective of a business owner. And that's part of what led to her under pricing the offer and consequent burn out.

In This Episode:

I sit down with Sarah to talk about her journey and understand the do's and don'ts from her experience of setting prices for a membership site. After over a decade of running a successful LinkedIn Consulting business, she was inspired to create a global movement that encourages people to bring more empathy and kindness to business & marketing.

As a ‘Hippie turned Business Coach’, Sarah has written two books, hosts the Humane Marketing podcast and works with heart-centered entrepreneurs to question their assumptions when it comes to marketing & give them permission to market their business their way, the gentle way!

Sarah shares with us her own pricing journey as well as how she approached pricing for her membership site and how it's evolved. If you've thought about having such a site and are curious about one woman's experience, then this episode is definitely for you.

Podcast Highlights

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:03 Getting to Know Sarah
• 6:00 The Value Sarah Brings to Clients
• 7:01 Pricing at the Beginning
• 10:02 Burnout Changed Things
• 13:10 Be there and Discuss
• 19:07 Different Platforms
• 21:01 Takeaway from Discussion
• 23:50 Wrapping It Up

How to Reach Sarah:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sarahsantacroce

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahsantacroce/

The One Page Marketing Plan: humane.marketing/1page

Let’s Talk

Looking for pricing support or interested in a partnership? Start here.

Connect on LinkedIn

Connect with me on LinkedIn for practical pricing insights, new episodes, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Why Pricing Feels So Hard

Curious why pricing feels so difficult? Explore the decisions behind confident pricing.

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Recognizing when to make changes in your pricing is an important part of managing prices in any business. I've had many people on the show who shared with us that it took them quite a long time to both realize and then accept that they would need to change prices in their business. You may struggle with that as well. And it often has quite a negative impact on business, especially growing a younger business.

This is why it's so important for you to be able to identify and then monitor the main price drivers that affect what you charge.

If you're periodically checking those things and/or when you're monitoring the ups and downs of those price drivers, you'll be able to not just see the signs that you need to make a change. Often you'll see those signs before they become a real issue. You can get ahead of things - awesome! You'll have more time to mitigate circumstances related to those price drivers (like find a new supplier if the current one's price has become too high). Plus you gift yourself more time to decide what to do with your price and how to implement any changes in the most effective way.

In This Episode:

In this solocast episode I share with you 5 signs that'll help you know when to make those important changes to your pricing. Use what you learn to think reflect on the things that are impacting your prices. Make a plan so you can keep a watchful eye on those drivers and how they change. It'll help you be more prepared and ready for what needs to comes next.

Enjoy the episode and of course if you have questions you can always reach out and ask.

Podcast Highlights

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:11 Why Your Prices are Going to Change
• 4:08 Be Careful in Communicating the Price Change
• 5:45 Some Ways are More Effective than Others
• 7:33 Wrapping It Up

Let’s Talk

Looking for pricing support or interested in a partnership? Start here.

Connect on LinkedIn

Connect with me on LinkedIn for practical pricing insights, new episodes, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Why Pricing Feels So Hard

Curious why pricing feels so difficult? Explore the decisions behind confident pricing.

Send us a text

It's often the case that when you don't feel confident about what you charge you make judgements or even decisions for your customers. Ones that aren't yours to make. It often shows up in the form of granting unnecessary discounts. For example if you've offered discounts before someone asks for one, before they've objected or before you've understood how they value your offer.

Unnecessary discounting is one way in which businesses sabotage themselves. Don't get me wrong there's a time and place for discounting in some businesses. But more often than not people have offered discounts not because it was a sound business decision. The three main reasons they've done it are fear, it's what they learned from being a consumer or that's what everyone else seems to be doing. None of those are good business reasons. You have to be smarter about your discounting tactics, otherwise it destroys value, it hurts your confidence and it will definitely drain your profits.

In This Episode:

In this episode, I sit down with Rahgna (RJ) Lewis, the CEO of RJ Lewis Digital. Rahgna Lewis is an Army wife and a mother of three. A tinker by nature and a recovering web developer, she created what is now RJ Lewis Digital in 2010 – a boutique agency that specializes in operations strategy and business management. RJ and her team collaborate with small business owners and teams to refine processes, implement procedures, and incorporate the tools they need to get work done — smoothly.

Rahgna shares with us her pricing journey. She reflects on how at the beginning she was offering discounts no one even asked for. What led to her doing that? How did she realize there was an issue? What impact did it have? And how was she able to turn things around? What does she recommend to those of you who find themselves behaving in a similar way? She shares that and so much more.

Enjoy the episode.

Podcast Highlights

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:06 Getting to Know Rahgna
• 3:29 Pricing at the Beginning
• 7:40 Things Rahgna Learned in Pricing
• 9:13 Offering discounts
• 12:06 A journey of Self-Discovery
• 15:00 Wrapping it Up

How to Reach Rahgna:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rjzbossaf

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rjzbossaf/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rjzbossaf/

Telegram: https://t.me/theownersperspective

Link to all-in-one audio & video editing tool: https://www.descript.com/

Don't go yet. If you're enjoying the show please rate and review. It helps us spread the word to more people and ultimately get more small businesses on the path to sustainable profitability and business success. Thanks for Listening.

Let’s Talk

Looking for pricing support or interested in a partnership? Start here.

Connect on LinkedIn

Connect with me on LinkedIn for practical pricing insights, new episodes, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Why Pricing Feels So Hard

Curious why pricing feels so difficult? Explore the decisions behind confident pricing.

Send us a text

Let's take a look behind the scenes.

In this special 100th podcast episode I’ve asked colleague and friend Pauliina Rasi to come on the show and interview me. It’s time for me to be the one in the hot seat and to answer your & her questions. It was exciting and a little daunting.

Looking back on my business journey. It’s been just over 5 years since I started the business. At first it had multiple personalities – pricing, communication and mindfulness. Seriously, I tried to do them all. I quickly realized it was confusing for clients and a lot of work for me. Pricing was clearly where I could make the biggest difference, so I rolled it all together. That’s right the mindfulness and communication elements are still there, they are tools that I use to help you improve your business and pricing. While I emphasize the Pricing elements and it’s why most people come to me, they quickly realize I’m helping them with so much more.

Reflecting upon the podcast, I realized I didn’t have a specific goal other than to bring you listeners great content. To help you improve your businesses through a better understanding of Pricing, it’s tactics and strategies and how to use them in your business. It’s been challenging at times for sure, I even thought of stopping once or twice. In the end, I knew it was best to continue. It’s all been part of the journey and it’s led me to where I am today. 100 episodes, 54 guests and thousands of downloads have led me to one conclusion – I’m in for the next 100. Are you?

I’ll continue to strive to bring you the great content you desire and seek. While also bringing in new topics, ideas and guests. I mean it when I say if you have an idea or a suggestion for the show, please share it with me. If there’s someone you’d like to see come on the show – share that too. That’s one way I will continue to build an even better experience for you.

In This Episode:

Pauliina and I discussed my path to becoming The Pricing Lady. I share some of the experiences I’ve had in my business, some things I’ve learned from the show, my favorite episodes (ugh it’s so difficult to choose), as well as some of my ideas for the future.

Thanks for celebrating with me and enjoy the show!

Podcast Highlights

• 0:00 Intro
• 4:57 Getting to Know Janene
• 10:17 Pricing and Engineering
• 11:30 First Steps as an Entrepreneur
• 17:30 Early Lessons Learned the Hard Way
• 20:20 Impact of Geography and Culture on Pricing Strategy
• 22:25 History of TPL The Podcast
• 29:49 Your Mindset is Everything
• 35:33 A Way of Being and Behaving
• 43:26 Janene's Recos
• 45:54 Going Forward
• 48:33 Janene's Dream Guest
• 49:45 Wrapping It Up

Let’s Talk

Looking for pricing support or interested in a partnership? Start here.

Connect on LinkedIn

Connect with me on LinkedIn for practical pricing insights, new episodes, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Why Pricing Feels So Hard

Curious why pricing feels so difficult? Explore the decisions behind confident pricing.

Send us a text

When it finally dawned on me that I'd done nearly 100 episodes, I couldn't really believe it. Have I really come that far and been doing this that long. It almost feels like yesterday that I started. An entrepreneur's journey is by no means an easy one. But when you can stick with it the rewards are many. And I've asked three very special guests to join me to celebrate as we approach the 100th episode.

Amanda Berlin, has been a guest more than once on the show, she was also the first coach I worked with in my business. She always has great insights and an interesting way of expressing things. It's such a pleasure to have her joining me.

One of the impressions I had of  Dr. Carrie Graham, after she was a guest on the show was her ability to share so openly for the better of you listeners. Such authenticity can be hard to find, she does it with both grace and power. Something we can all do with more of.

Last but far from least, Simone Köchli. Her passion for sustainability and making an impact is contagious. She's a follower of the show and I remember during one of our conversation she shared how she went through so many episodes to really understand pricing better for her, her co-founders and the business.

In This Episode:

They are each amazing in their own right, and lucky me (and you) I've brought them here together so we can learn from their lives and experience. In this episode we celebrate the podcast, the journey of the entrepreneur and so much more. Enjoy the show.

Podcast Highlights

• 0:00 Intro
• 2.38 Getting to Know the Guests
• 3:06 Childhood dreams  & aspirations
• 7.46 Best course you ever took
• 11.51 What's the value you bring clients
• 16.43 Reflections as a previous guest
• 23.41 Insights from a follower
• 26.07 The whole of your experience
• 29.29 Something you'd like to see on the show
• 32.59 What led you to start your business?
• 37.33 Tip from Carrie
• 42.24 Lesson learned from Simone
• 43.34 What's motivates Amanda?
• 52.35 Wrapping it up

Let’s Talk

Looking for pricing support or interested in a partnership? Start here.

Connect on LinkedIn

Connect with me on LinkedIn for practical pricing insights, new episodes, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Why Pricing Feels So Hard

Curious why pricing feels so difficult? Explore the decisions behind confident pricing.

Send us a text

One of the people I had on the show earlier on observed that Coaches are terrible (in general) at valuing what they bring clients and it has a terrible impact on what they do with their pricing. This isn't really their fault.

With good intentions the coaching programs sometimes provide business advice, like what to charge clients. But this isn't their expertise, often the advise is lacking and sometimes even detrimental to the process of building a coaching business that will be there for the long term. I've worked with many coaches over the years and have experienced their struggles. More importantly I've seen the power of what's possible when they understand the value they bring and can confidently charge for it.

In This Episode:

In this episode I share with you 5 Pricing Tips for Coaches to Build a Stronger Business. This is based on what I've learned in my business, from those I've interviewed and from working with my clients.

Podcast Highlights

• 0:00 Intro
• 3:32 You Buy It For What’s Inside
• 7:08 Elevate Yourself into Expert Mode
• 9:41 They just Do What Everybody Else is Doing
• 11:43 Trying to Fill your Bucket with Profits
• 14:16 Discounts Always Come with a Trade off
• 16:48 Wrapping It Up

Let’s Talk

Looking for pricing support or interested in a partnership? Start here.

Connect on LinkedIn

Connect with me on LinkedIn for practical pricing insights, new episodes, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Why Pricing Feels So Hard

Curious why pricing feels so difficult? Explore the decisions behind confident pricing.

Send us a text

Most of the time the biggest thing standing in your way is you. Often it's subconscious and so your job is to start recognizing when you're in your own way and figure out how to shift things so you can progress. It's also true when it comes to doing pricing in your business. Your mindset, your understanding of pricing and you're ability to work through the blocks that are in your way are tantamount to you getting where you want to go.

That's been true for me, for nearly any business owner and it's true for you too. Not only that as you and your business evolve you will be faced with new opportunities and challenges that require you to....shift again. That's precisely what my guest in this episode shares with us.

In This Episode:

In This Episode, Heidi Gruss, a licensed Psychotherapist and Transformation Strategist shares with us how her own mindset impacted her pricing. We discuss what happened, how she's been able to shift things and what she still does today to stay on track.

Podcast Highlights:

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:15 Getting to Know Heidi
• 4:25 The Value that Heidi's clients Get
• 7:16 Pricing at the Beginning
• 13:36 Changing Your Perspective
• 16:24 Shifting of Mindset
• 21:01 Pricing and Sales Call
• 25:20 Wrapping It Up

How to Reach Heidi:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heidi.gruss

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heidigruss/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidigruss/

Link to How to Eliminate Burnout: https://bit.ly/3bCqOVn

Website: https://www.heidigruss.com/

Don't go yet. If you're enjoying the show please rate and review. It helps us spread the word to more people and ultimately get more small businesses on the path to sustainable profitability and business success. Thanks for Listening.

Let’s Talk

Looking for pricing support or interested in a partnership? Start here.

Connect on LinkedIn

Connect with me on LinkedIn for practical pricing insights, new episodes, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Why Pricing Feels So Hard

Curious why pricing feels so difficult? Explore the decisions behind confident pricing.

Send us a text

What are the things that businesses do well to improve their pricing? That's a great question. I often speak about the mistakes people make but this time I wanted to focus on what you can and should be doing with pricing to help you. We are in unprecedented times, things are changing so fast around us we can example after example of how those who are most adaptable are the ones who come out on top.

Looking at best practices in pricing can help you make sure you're focusing on the right things and taking the best actions at the right time. These are just a few of the pricing best practices that small businesses can use. They are also in my experience the most important.

That's why in this Solocast episode we are taking a look at the 5 Pricing Best Practices for Your Small Business in 2022 and Beyond. Let's make sure you're getting it right sooner rather than later.

Podcast Highlights:

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:12 Pricing Must be Aligned
• 4:38 Pricing Segmentation is Your Friend
• 7:42 Pricing Must be related to the Value you Deliver
• 10:01 Reality of Value Communication
• 11:22 Pricing Needs to be Fair
• 12:58 Your Prices Need to Change
• 15:30 Wrapping It Up

Let’s Talk

Looking for pricing support or interested in a partnership? Start here.

Connect on LinkedIn

Connect with me on LinkedIn for practical pricing insights, new episodes, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Why Pricing Feels So Hard

Curious why pricing feels so difficult? Explore the decisions behind confident pricing.

Send us a text

One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make is not understanding what it is going to take to achieve the profitability they want to make. And yet it is so important to building a successful business. When you don't understand what it will take to achieve your goals (maybe you don't have goals), how could you possibly be doing the right things

...the answer is...

You can't.

That's what my guest on this episode, Maryia Ramanava, shared with us. It was only after having achieved 100 customers that she realized she was not turning a profit. The shock and horror.

In This Episode:

In this episode I sit down with Maryia Ramanava, Founder of No Makeup Marketing. She shares the "dirty laundry" around pricing in the early stages of her business. She's honest about how she was crusing along, totally booked and the moment she realized in spite of all that apparent success she wasn't earning any money. She shares with us what that was like, what she did and how she's used what she learned to shift her business to a more successful track.

You're going to love her story and I'm sure you can learn from her mistakes and successes. Enjoy the episode.

Podcast Highlights:

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:35 Getting to Know Maryia
• 6:42 Pricing at the Beginning
• 10:20 I realized I wasn't Turning a Profit
• 14:53 Wrong Prices can affect your Confidence
• 18:26 What did Maryia do Differently
• 26:05 Pricing will Change over time
• 30:10 Higher Price will never break Anything
• 32:05 Wrapping It Up

How to reach Maryia:

https://www.facebook.com/maryia.ramanava/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/nomakeupmarketing

https://www.instagram.com/maryia.ramanava/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryia-ramanava/

Don't go yet. If you're enjoying the show please rate and review. It helps us spread the word to more people and ultimately get more small businesses on the path to sustainable profitability and business success. Thanks for Listening.

Let’s Talk

Looking for pricing support or interested in a partnership? Start here.

Connect on LinkedIn

Connect with me on LinkedIn for practical pricing insights, new episodes, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Why Pricing Feels So Hard

Curious why pricing feels so difficult? Explore the decisions behind confident pricing.

Send us a text

One of the questions I get most often from people is when should I start looking at pricing. Most experts, myself included will tell you as early as possible. Why? Because you need it to understand the profit story of your business. To understand what it will take to be profitable. To explain to investors, partners, banks and others how effective your business model is. You can't do that without having had a real good look at pricing.

But most, way too many businesses leave it to the last minute and then struggle. That's in some ways what happened with my guest in this episode.

In This Episode:

Pauliina Rasi shares with us her pricing journey as she looks back at where she started with pricing. Why she started there. What it meant for her business and how it felt. As well as how her pricing has evolved, what changes she's made and what it's meant to her and her clients.

She start by sharing that at the beginning pricing wasn't even a thought for her. She was focused on other things. I think you'll find a lot in this episode that resonates with you. Enjoy!

Podcast Highlights:

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:46 Getting to know Pauliina
• 4:12 The Value that Pauliina's Clients Get
• 5:57 Pricing at the Beginning
• 7:49 Time based Pricing
• 9:50 Value for Each Client
• 11:11 Clarity in Strategy
• 12:58 Confidence and Experience Aspect
• 14:38 Pauliina's Framework for Pricing
• 16:18 Setting up your Prices is a Process
• 17:08 When to Invest in Yourself
• 19:02 Wrapping Up

Don't go yet. If you're enjoying the show please rate and review. It helps us spread the word to more people and ultimately get more small businesses on the path to sustainable profitability and business success. Thanks for Listening.

Let’s Talk

Looking for pricing support or interested in a partnership? Start here.

Connect on LinkedIn

Connect with me on LinkedIn for practical pricing insights, new episodes, and behind-the-scenes updates.

Why Pricing Feels So Hard

Curious why pricing feels so difficult? Explore the decisions behind confident pricing.