Why I Don’t Price My Products Like Everyone Else

How to Price Products Without Guessing | Confessions #4

When I first started selling cookies, there was one piece of pricing advice I heard over and over again.

Charge $1 per ounce.

Five-ounce cookie? $5

Six-ounce cookie? $6

Simple right?

Honestly, it’s not terrible advice... if every bakery is running the exact same business.

The problem is, they aren’t.

One bakery is baking from home. Another is paying commercial rent. One uses premium chocolate. Another buys whatever is on sale. One has employees. Another is doing everything themselves.

The cookies might weigh the same.

The businesses behind them couldn’t be more different.

Looking back, I realized I almost made one of the biggest mistakes a business owner can make.

I almost let someone else’s numbers decide mine.

Pricing Isn’t About Your Competitors

Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely think you should know what your competitors charge. You should know what they sell, how they package it, what customers love about them, and where you fit in the market.

That’s research. Research is smart.

Building your pricing around someone else’s business isn’t. Just because another baker can profitably sell a five-ounce cookie for five dollars doesn’t mean you can. And just because you need to charge seven dollars doesn’t mean you’re overpriced. It just means you’re running a different business.

Everything Counts

One of the biggest mistakes I see product-based businesses make is only pricing the obvious things.

The flour, the butter, chocolate chips. The wax, fragrance oil. The fabric, the beads.

Whatever your product is, most people stop calculating there.

But your business doesn’t.

What about the bakery box?

The cookie bag?

The branded sticker?

The sprinkles you use for decoration?

The gloves you go through every week?

The parchment paper?

The samples you hand out at markets?

The cookies that don’t turn out?

The batch you accidentally overbaked?

The shipping supplies?

The merchant fees?

Those expenses may only be pennies on one order, but pennies have a funny way of turning into thousands of dollars over the course of a year.

If you’re not accounting for them, your business is.

Your Time Counts Too

This is the one that hurts. Business owners are really good at paying themselves for the time they spend making the actual product. They’re not so good at paying themselves for everything else.

The trip to Restaurant Depot.

Answering customer messages at 10:00 at night.

Ordering supplies.

Cleaning the kitchen.

Updating the website.

Posting on social media.

Packaging orders.

Driving to the post office.

Bookkeeping.

None of those things magically happen.

They’re all part of delivering your product, and your pricing has to support them. Otherwise, you’re slowly building a business that depends on you working for free.

Profit Isn’t an Accident

I think this is where a lot of business advice gets it wrong.

People love saying things like, “Charge what you’re worth.” I don’t. Your worth as a person has nothing to do with your prices.

Your business has to make sense on paper.

Your pricing should cover your costs.

It should pay you fairly.

It should leave enough profit to replace equipment, invest in your business, survive slow months, and continue growing.

Profit isn’t what happens if you’re lucky. Profit is something you plan for.

Price for the Business You Want, Not the Business You Have Today

Before you ever decide what to charge, ask yourself one question.

What do I actually want this business to become?

There isn’t a right answer.

Maybe you love working from your home kitchen and never want to leave it. Great. Your pricing should support that.

Maybe your dream is a brick-and-mortar bakery with employees and display cases full of fresh pastries.

Maybe you want your products on store shelves across the country.

Maybe you want to hire a team so you can stop working every weekend.

Or maybe your goal has nothing to do with growing a huge business at all.

Maybe you simply want the freedom to pay your bills without stressing every month.

Maybe you want to replace your full-time income.

Maybe you want to spend more afternoons with your kids instead of staying up until midnight filling orders.

Those goals all require different businesses. And different businesses require different pricing.

New business owners price for where they are today instead of where they want to be tomorrow.

If your dream is to grow, your prices have to create room for growth.

If your dream is freedom, your prices have to buy back your time.

Pricing isn’t just about covering today’s expenses.

It’s about building the future you’re working so hard to create.

My Pricing Philosophy Changed

I don’t start with what everyone else is charging anymore. I start with my own business.

What does it actually cost me to make this product?

How much time goes into it?

What expenses am I forgetting?

What profit does my business need to stay healthy?

Once I know those answers, then I can decide whether my product fits the market. Not the other way around. Because here’s the truth. Your competitors don’t know your numbers. So why are you letting them decide your prices?

Coming Up Next...

Over the next few confessions, we’re going to dig even deeper into pricing, profit, and the numbers that actually keep a business alive.

And if you’ve ever wished there was a better way to price your products than guessing, copying competitors, or hoping for the best... I’m working on something that does exactly that.

I’m building a complete pricing system designed specifically for product-based businesses. Not another generic calculator, but a framework that helps you understand what your products actually need to cost so your business can be profitable.

It’s still in the works, but I can’t wait to share it with you.

Until then, start paying attention to the little things. They’re usually the ones quietly eating your profit.

Next confession: Revenue is Loud. Profit is Quiet.

Until the next confession,

Meg