I Learned It With Zip Ties

I was young — early teens, maybe — when a friend of my dad's stayed with us while he was working in town. He asked me what I'd charge to help him for an afternoon. I named a price. He said he'd expected it to be way more. My instinct was to jump at that. He stopped me. No. Your first offer stands.

The job was mundane. Stocktaking, mostly: sorting and bagging zip ties or cables, the kind of work that just needs hands and patience. I didn't fully understand what had just happened when he turned down my offer to charge more. But something landed that day that I haven't been able to shake.

Your first offer is your position.

Not a starting point. Not an opening bid. Your position.

He'd given me the scope. I had all the information I needed to price the job properly. I just hadn't done the work of figuring out what it was actually worth before I opened my mouth. So I guessed. And I guessed low.

The moment I tried to revise upward, I showed my hand. I hadn't known what it was worth. I'd been guessing.

This is the mistake most people make when they're pricing: whether it's a client quote, a membership rate, or a service package. They think about what sounds reasonable. What won't scare the person off. What feels safe. And then they name that number. It isn't really their number at all. It's a number designed to manage someone else's reaction before they've even had one.

Do the maths first. What does it cost you to deliver this? What is the result worth to them? What would you need to charge to still feel good about this in six months? Work that out properly, not approximately, and then name that number.

Then stop talking.

The silence after you've quoted a price is not an invitation to fill the gap with a discount. That's just the other person thinking. Let them think.

Your money story isn't theirs.

Here's something most people don't notice they're doing: pricing based on their own relationship with money instead of their client's.

The fact that you personally wouldn't spend that much on a membership, or on a workshop, tells you nothing about what the person across from you is willing to pay. That's your history. Your number. What feels like a lot from where you stand.

If you let that shape what you quote, you're not being considerate. You're deciding for them before they've had the chance to decide for themselves. And you're leaving it on the table.

And when you're in a moment of financial pressure, that fear gets louder. But pricing from a place of stress is how you stay there. Underpricing when you need money most is not a way out. It's a way of staying in.

The number in your head right now

Whatever you're about to quote: the design job, the membership restructure, the rate card you've been putting off finalising. There's a number in your head.

Not the number you're planning to say. The number you actually think it's worth.

Those two numbers are often not the same. The gap between them is where you're leaving money, confidence, and credibility on the table. Every single time.

Do the work. Find the real number. Say that one.

Because your first offer stands.