Introduction
Whenever you start a new business one of the first things that you need to do is establish a price list for the products or services that you are selling. This is simply a list of all of the different products and services that your business offers and how much you will charge for each of them. You will need to really think about and research these prices as it will dictate what your business is going to be like and the type of clientele you will attract.
Step 1
Start creating your price list by writing down all of the products and services that your business has to offer. Create a list of all of these things on a computer spreadsheet. Make sure that you don’t accidentally overlook any of your products or services.
Step 2
Organize your spreadsheet so that all of the like products or services are grouped together. You should further break these groups down according to whether they are a product or a service. Continue doing this until you feel as though everything is as organized as it possibly can be. This is going to be helpful to you later on whenever you start writing down the different prices of all of these things.
Step 3
Now you will need to take some time to do some research. You need to know what your competitors are charging for each of these things. The easiest way to do this is by visiting their websites and viewing the price list there. If this isn’t possible, then you will need to actually get up and go to their physical location in search of this information. It is vital for your business to create a price list that is similar to what your competitors have.
Step 4
After you know what your competitors charge it is time to decide upon what you will charge. Make sure that the prices you write down on your price list will allow you to pay for all of your expenses and still make a profit. There are a few mistakes that you will want to avoid here. One is charging too little and not making enough profit. The other is creating such high prices on your price list that you are unable to draw in clients. If you happen to make either of these mistakes, then your business is bound to suffer. Either way you will not be able to make enough money to pay your expenses and thus you will go into debt.
Step 5
Take the time to print out your price list, demonstrating what you feel are going to be fair prices for both you and your clients. You may want to publish this on your business’ web site or in your store. There are some business owners who do decide to keep this price list private though. In this case you will have to deal with clients asking for quotes. This will work best though if your price list is bound to change based upon the changing costs of your suppliers or service providers.
