When you're new and unsure of yourself, pricing low feels like the cautious choice. If it's cheap, surely more people will say yes — and if something goes wrong, at least you didn't overcharge anyone. It's a reasonable-sounding instinct. It's also usually wrong.
Price affects more than your income
A low price doesn't just mean less money per sale. It changes the type of customer you attract and how they treat the relationship:
- Bargain-focused customers are often the hardest to please and the quickest to complain.
- A very low price can quietly signal low quality, even if the work is genuinely good.
- Once you set a low price, raising it later on existing customers feels far harder than starting higher.
None of this means you should charge more than what you offer is worth. It means "low" is not automatically "safe" — it has real costs that don't show up on the invoice.
Why new business owners underprice
It's rarely about the market. It's usually about confidence. If you're not fully sure your work is worth paying for, it's hard to ask someone else to believe it is. Underpricing is often a symptom of self-doubt, dressed up as a business decision.
If you wouldn't feel a little uncomfortable saying your price out loud, it might be too low.
A more useful way to think about it
- Price based on the value the customer gets, not just the hours you spent.
- Look at what others offering something similar charge — and don't assume you have to be the cheapest.
- If you're nervous about a price, test it on a handful of people before assuming it's too high.
You can always adjust later. But starting from a place of "this reflects what it's actually worth," rather than "this is the safest possible number," tends to build a healthier business — and attract customers who take your work seriously.
Not sure how to price what you offer?
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