Business > Marketing > Are You a Price Maker or a Price Taker?
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Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : Angela Booth
"How much do you charge?"
The sweetest words to anyone who provides a service. You love to hear them, right?
Unfortunately, if you're not convinced of the value of your services, they might
dismay you, and if you're confused about the prices you charge you'll never make
the money you could be making.
Twenty-some years ago, my then-husband and I strolled through the glittering
expanse of a new shopping mall doing some late-night shopping. Suddenly he
grabbed his chest and collapsed.
The ambulance arrived. They loaded him; I scrambled in behind.
As the ambulance pulled away, a paramedic asked: "What happened?"
When I told him he said dryly: "It's the prices they charge. It's the prices they
charge..."
Most of the Australian creatives I know charge what the Australian Media
Entertainment and Arts Alliance
( www.alliance.org.au ) recommend. The Alliance's members are freelance
journalists, artists, designers, photographers, PR consultants, and book editors and
proofreaders.
The Alliance's recommended rates are low. However, many freelancers charge even
less than the Alliance's rates. Why?
Fact: creative freelancers lack confidence. They're price takers par excellence, and
*reluctant* price takers at that. And in case you think I'm too down on my
colleagues, I include myself in the reluctant price takers. Or I did. I'm striving to do
better and get more of a grip on pricing.
=> Become a price maker by adding value to your services
Some years ago I watched an interview on Landline (an Australian ABC rural affairs
TV show) about the owner of a banana plantation who was developing a banana
wine.
She said she was tired of being a price taker, she was value-adding to her product
because she intended to be a price maker: finding new uses for her banana crop
enabled her to do that.
So that's the big clue. If you want to be a price maker, you need to add value to your
services.
Author of many books, including Making the Internet Work for Your Business,
copywriter and journalist Angela Booth also writes copy for businesses large and
small, and consults on search engine marketing. Angela has written copy for
companies in many industries, ranging from technology and real estate to the
jewellery trade. Her clients include major corporations like hp (Hewlett Packard),
WestPac Bank, and Acer Computer. For copywriting services and marketing
advice contact Angela at angelabooth.com
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