Pricing Determines Small Business Success


How do you calculate pricing for your small business? We’ve put together this roundup of awesome posts we hope will help. Pricing is a hugely important part of your small business strategy. Don’t make haphazard decisions about what you are charging today.

Operations

Using price discrimination to drive sales. Sometimes pricing shouldn’t be the same for every customer. Making decisions on how to segment your customer base can start with price discrimination. Here are some examples of the principle at work. Small Business Marketing Strategies

How to price for profit. Small business pricing strategy is a key aspect of driving profit. After all, if your pricing strategy doesn’t bring in sufficient profit for your products or services, the quality of those products or services and the effectiveness of your marketing and customer service won’t matter. CMV Live

Insights

The truth about small business pricing. This cranky letter to the editor from a small business owner bemoans the challenges faced by small business owners when competing against big boxes AND the reason paying less is not always a good thing. The lesson? Don’t complain. Seek your own pricing advantage. HJNews.com

Why low prices aren’t everything. If you think competing on price is the only way to gain the upper hand in your niche, take a lesson from the new J.C. Penny strategy. You may not need to cut your prices to win. But deciding on a basis for your pricing and the value you feel you deliver are critical. Bloomberg Businessweek

Tips

Taking a page from the Apple playbook. You know how important it is to keep coming out with new products and services for your small business, but how can continuing to offer older products at discount also help keep your competitors at bay? IT World

A survival guide for small retailers. Pricing is at the heart of the competition between small retailers, bigger stores and online retailers. But to win, small retail business must learn to first think beyond competing on price alone and then reach out to vendors who have a stake in their survival. USA Today

Strategies

How pricing strategies can backfire. Whatever your strategy for pricing products and services, be sure customers can see the value of what you do. This experience from an Israeli company shows what can happen when a pricing strategy goes wrong. Haarets.com

Help your pricing strategy by giving your business a story. Take a lesson from the New York Knicks and the boost in ticket prices the team has experienced as a result of “Linsanity.” Every business needs a story and the better yours is the more value customers place in what you offer. Huffington Post

Trends

Have you raised your prices with higher confidence? We’ve reported before that small business confidence continues to rise presumably due to a better economic outlook. Along with this higher confidence, some small businesses have finally begun raising their prices. How about you? Reuters

What farmers markets can teach small business owners. Farmers markets can be a great boon for small businesses that offer agricultural products, but, as with every other small business, one of the most important considerations is pricing. How does pricing affect your business? Fox Small Business Center

4 Comments ▼
4 Reactions
  1. That’s a great article on price discrimination, and something to think hard about. Every small business needs to personalize more, so why not prices?

  2. As the owner of a gas station, obviously pricing matters so a great degree for us. However, I will say that in many cases if you treat your customers right, pricing matters a lot less. Many of our customers will come to our store for purchases regardless of the price because they like the way we treat them more then being treated like cattle at a large chain store.

  3. Great read! I do practice price discrimination and make it my point to emphasis the value before showing my price.

    Most are willing to pay more if they clearly see the value in it. I used to stress over getting the right price (and most times cutting myself short) but now I focus on clearly articulating the value of my services.

  4. I’ve found that pricing is directly connected to confidence. When you are more confident in your value, and your team’s confidence you are more likely to price high, and hold your price in the face of negotiation pressure. It’s so important to build a great team, and protect your confidence as a business owner…