"Undercutting"?

I don't want people to think I'm undercutting them. How much should I charge so that I don't upset the full-time performers in my market?

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The whole notion of "low balling" and "undercutting" is something that gets me riled up. I am a firm believer in the free market. If people want to charge less than me, I couldn't care less. If they want to charge more than me, I couldn't care less. This is America and not only is the idea of different price levels American, the very idea of NOT having price variation (i.e. "Price Fixing") is decidedly UN-American and against the law!

There are a few factors that should come into play when establishing your price but these things should not be a factor:

· What your competitors think
· Your own guilty feelings about earning a profit

Too many people feel that earning a profit is somehow unethical. I've heard people apologize for their prices and then add "But I'm not making any money on this". Why would anyone be in business if they weren't earning a profit? Why would anyone think they need to apologize about earning a profit? You have a moral obligation to earn a profit! If you don't earn a profit then the rest of us have to support you with our taxes.

You need to earn and save and invest and you need to do without apology.

YOU and YOUR CUSTOMERS determine your price. I've found that the people who complain the loudest about "undercutting" are usually the cheapest performers in the market.

It only makes sense. If they are worried about price it is because they are competing on price. If they are competing on price, then they are among the cheapest. Which means they are "undercutting" everyone else who charges more! Ignore them. Price for profit and price with confidence.

For more on pricing, visit my web site: http://JulianSpeaks.com

There are articles on establishing your price on the link to "Free Stuff". You can also sign up for my free business building newsletter. Once a month I send out a newsletter of articles that were too short to become a full-fledged article in the magazine for which I write, or were too long for a simple blog post.