What Should I Charge?

Pricing & Getting Paid

The Case Study: One Business, Five Pricing Scenarios

Let's follow one business through six pricing decisions. Each one changes everything: revenue, margin, hours worked, effective hourly rate, and annual take-home. These aren't hypotheticals. These are the exact math 300+ owners wish someone had shown them before year one.

Six Prices, Same Business

From your Module 3 P&L walkthrough, you learned that revenue means nothing without understanding what's underneath it. Now apply that to the decision that controls every line of your P&L: your price.

The detailer in tier 6 is not better at detailing than the tier 1 detailer. They made one decision differently: they decided what kind of business they were building before they set their price. Pricing is not what you charge. It is who you serve.

The Hidden Tax on Every Transaction

In Module 3, you saw how each P&L line eats into profit. Here's one most owners never add: payment processing fees.

That's a full-time employee's wages going to Stripe, Square, or your processor every year. At $30K/month, you're paying $900/month just to accept payments. Build this into your floor price, not your margin.

Scope Creep: The Revenue You're Giving Away

The Price Conversation

One of the most common reasons owners don't raise prices is not math. It's the fear of the conversation. Build your personalized script here and copy it directly.

Unit Economics: The Model Behind the Price

Every pricing decision flows into four numbers. If you don't know these, you're guessing. If you're guessing, you're losing.

Calculate Your True Price

The Second Half: Getting Paid

Deposits: Get Paid Before You Start

Any job over a few hundred dollars gets a deposit. A third to half, up front, before you order materials or block the calendar. This is not rude. It is how serious businesses operate, and customers who balk at a standard deposit are showing you exactly how they'll behave at final invoice. The deposit isn't just cash flow. It's a filter.

The exact script, said at the moment they accept the quote:

Say it like you say your prices: flat, friendly, no apology. Owners who deliver this script plainly almost never get pushback. Owners who wince through it invite negotiation.

Invoice the Day You Finish. Not Friday. Not Month-End.

Terms: Due on Receipt Is the Default

The Stop-Work Rule

The rule, decided today so you never have to decide it under pressure: no new work for any client more than 30 days past due. Not out of spite. Out of math. Working for a non-paying client doubles your exposure with every job. The hole gets deeper on your fuel and materials.

The polite script, and it works because it's polite:

Notice the framing. Not a threat, not an apology. A door they can open any time with a payment. Most clients pay within days of hearing this, because they were sliding you exactly as far as you allowed.

Firing a Non-Payer

Some clients don't pay slow. They don't pay. The signs: past 60 days, two broken payment promises, and a new excuse each call. Every hour you keep serving them is an hour taken from clients who pay. Fire them, and do it clean:

No lecture, no heat, in writing. If the balance never comes, small claims court handles disputes up to $5,000 to $15,000 depending on your state, no attorney required, filing fees under $100. One afternoon there is worth more than six months of unanswered texts. But the real lesson runs backward: a deposit and a stop-work rule would have capped this loss at one invoice instead of four.

Knowledge Check

You do not need more clients. You need better math. One price increase, properly executed, can generate more take-home income than acquiring 10 new clients at your current rate.