Why Pricing Your Products Feels So Hard

You've Already Paid for Your Product | Confession #3

One of my favorite questions to ask business owners is why they charge what they charge.

Almost every time, I get some version of the same answer.

“I don’t know... I just don’t think I’d pay that much.”

“I’d never spend $30 on a candle.”

“I’d never pay $75 for a tumbler.”

“I could never charge $6 for a cookie.”

Every time I hear it, I smile.

Not because they’re wrong.

Because I think they’re asking the wrong question.

Pizza Made Me Realize Something

Here’s the funny part.

I absolutely spend $6 on cookies from other bakeries. Honestly, probably more often than I should. I love dessert, I love supporting other bakers, and I genuinely enjoy seeing what other people create. If there’s a cookie out there that sounds and looks amazing, there’s a pretty good chance I’m ordering it. Maybe two if it’s really good.

Pizza, though? That’s a different story.

Over the last year, I’ve become slightly obsessed with making pizza. It started as something fun to do for my family, but somewhere along the way it turned into a challenge. I wanted to make the perfect pizza dough.

So I started experimenting.

Different flours, hydration levels, fermentation times, temperatures.

I burned crusts. I made dough that was way too sticky. I made dough that was basically a hockey puck. I bought a pizza steel, peels, containers, and more bags of flour than I’d like to admit.

Eventually, I landed on a pizza that I genuinely think is incredible.

So now when someone tells me they paid $30 for a pizza, my first thought usually isn’t, “That’s overpriced.”

It’s...

“I like mine better.”

That doesn’t mean their pizza isn’t worth $30.

It just means I’ve already spent a whole lot more than $30 creating the version I wanted.

And that’s when something clicked.

Every Business Starts the Same Way

I don’t think most people start businesses because they want to own a business.

I think they start businesses because they believe there has to be a better way.

Think about your own business.

Maybe you make candles because you were tired of buying candles that smelled amazing in the jar but disappeared the second you lit them.

Maybe you’re a contractor because you got tired of seeing people cut corners.

Maybe you’re a photographer because you wanted family photos that actually felt like the family instead of awkward poses and forced smiles.

For me, it was cookies.

I didn’t want another basic chocolate chip cookie.

I wanted giant cookies made with brown butter, premium chocolate, ridiculous flavors, and enough personality that someone would take one bite and immediately text their friend, “You have to try this.”

Long before anyone else became my customer...

I was.

I created the product I wished already existed.

And if I’m being honest, that’s probably true for most business owners.

You’ve Already Paid for Your Product

This is where I think we get pricing completely backwards.

We ask ourselves, “Would I pay this much?”

Maybe.

Maybe not.

But I don’t think that’s the question.

The better question is...

Haven’t I already?

By the time you finally opened your doors, you’d already invested in your product over and over again.

You paid for every piece of equipment.

Every class, book, YouTube video that turned into a 3-hour rabbit hole.

Every failed attempt that nobody ever saw, late night trying to make something just a little bit better.

Every dollar you spent testing, tweaking, learning, and improving wasn’t just an expense.

It was an investment in the product you believed should exist.

Your customers are buying the finished product.

You’re paying for everything it took to create it.

That’s why I think so many business owners struggle with pricing. They’re comparing today’s price tag without acknowledging everything that came before it.

But Here’s Where Business Owners Get Into Trouble

Now, before you think I’m telling you to charge whatever feels right, let me stop you there.

This is where a lot of business advice completely loses me.

You’ve probably heard someone say, “Just charge what you’re worth.”

I don’t love that advice.

Your worth as a person has absolutely nothing to do with your prices.

Your numbers do.

You can believe your product is the best thing you’ve ever created, and I genuinely hope you do. I hope you’re proud of it. I hope you think it’s worth every penny.

But your pricing still has to make sense.

It has to cover your costs.

It has to pay you.

It has to leave enough profit for your business to grow.

Because if your numbers don’t work, eventually you stop getting to make the product you love in the first place.

That’s where belief and bookkeeping finally meet.

Belief is what inspired you to build something better.

Your numbers are what make sure you get to keep building it.

You need both.

Stop Pricing From Fear

After spending years running my own businesses and then looking through the financials of hundreds of others, I’ve realized something.

Most business owners don’t undercharge because they can’t do math.

They undercharge because they’re scared.

They’re scared nobody will buy.

They’re scared people will think they’re too expensive.

They’re scared someone else is cheaper.

I’ve felt every one of those things.

But I’ve also learned that the customers who truly believe in the problem you solved usually don’t spend their time trying to convince you to become cheaper.

They buy because they see the value in what you’ve built.

The same way you did when you decided it was worth building in the first place.

So the next time you catch yourself saying, “I’d never pay that much,” stop for a second.

Ask yourself a different question.

Haven’t I already?

Because if you’ve spent years investing in your skills, your knowledge, your mistakes, and your craft...

You already have.

Now your job isn’t to apologize for your price.

It’s to make sure your numbers support the business you’ve worked so hard to build.

Coming Up Next...

Believing in your product is only half the battle. In the next confession, I’ll show you exactly how I price my products and why copying your competitors is one of the fastest ways to build an unprofitable business.

Spoiler alert: your price has very little to do with what everyone else is charging.

Until the next confession,

Meg