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Small Business Clinic

Your offer: three services and a price

Customers want to know exactly what they get and exactly what it costs. That is your offer. Keep it to three services.

Three services, not ten

Give the customer a simple choice. Small, medium, large. Basic, plus, full. Whatever words fit your business.

Write down exactly what each one includes. "Dusting, vacuuming, kitchen counters, bathroom" — not "cleaning." A customer who knows what they are buying does not argue afterward.

Also write down what you do not do. "I do not do electrical or plumbing." "I do not do paint repair." Saying no to the wrong jobs is how you stay good at the right ones.

We do not guess prices

A guessed price is either too low, and you work for nothing, or too high, and no one calls. Price is three things added together:

  1. Your time. How many hours does the job take? What is an hour of your work worth? Decide a number.
  2. Your supplies. Soap, gas, bags, parts. What does one job actually use up?
  3. Your profit. The part that makes it a business and not a favor. Start with 20 to 30 percent on top.

Time plus supplies plus profit is the price. Write the math down for each of your three services so you can explain it if someone asks.

Call three competitors

Before you set your prices, find out what three other people charge for the same thing on the South Side. Call them. Ask for a quote as if you were a customer. Write down what they said.

Then decide: same price if you can be faster or better, a little lower to start if you need your first customers, or higher if you offer something they do not. Never lower just because you are nervous.

The price sheet

Put your three services and prices on one page. This is what you hand to a customer, text to them, or put on your website. Use the template in Getting paid and keeping track.

In the portal

When you have called your three competitors and decided your prices, tell the interviewer. It will update the menu in your plan and fix the arithmetic for how many jobs a month you need.

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