Setting a Number You Can Say Out Loud
Module: What to Actually Charge
Okay. You've done the math. You know your real costs, gas and your own hours included. You've maybe even worked it on paper for your own idea.
Now comes the part that actually trips people up, and it's not the math. It's saying the number.
I mean that literally. Can you say it out loud to another human being without your voice doing something weird? Without adding "but I could probably do it for less"? Without laughing a little, like you're embarrassed to be asking for money for something you love doing?
If not, we've got work to do. Not math work. This part's different.
Why the math isn't enough
You can have a spreadsheet that says $180 is the right number for a job, and still hear yourself quote $120 because the words $180 wouldn't come out of your mouth. I've done it. I quoted a graduation open house low because I knew the family was tight on money, and I lost about sixty bucks on it. I don't regret that one, actually — I knew what I was doing and why. But that's different from quoting low because you panicked.
Here's an opinion I'll just say plain: charge for your time or you don't have a business, you have an expensive way to be nice. I've said that before in this class and I'll keep saying it, because it's the whole ballgame. A number you can't say out loud isn't a real number. It's a wish with a discount built in.
The exercise
Take the number you came up with last lesson. Write it on a sticky note, big, and put it somewhere you'll see it — the fridge, the bathroom mirror, wherever.
Then say it out loud. Alone in your kitchen first, to nobody. "It's $180 for a dozen dozen cookies." Say it flat, like you're reading a price tag, not like you're apologizing for it.
Do that ten times. I know that sounds silly. It works anyway. The tenth time comes out steadier than the first, every time I've watched somebody do this.
Then say it to somebody in your house. Your spouse, your kid, your roommate, whoever's around. Ask them: did that sound like a real business talking, or did it sound like I was hoping you'd talk me down?
Garrett and the ward party
I've got a story about this that still gets me.
Years back I did the food for a ward party — one of those nights where you cook for eighty people and everybody says thank you and means it. My son Garrett was maybe sixteen, helping me carry warming trays in from the truck. Good kid, does what's asked, doesn't complain much.
Partway through setup he asked me, casual as anything, "So what's the profit on tonight?"
I opened my mouth to answer and realized I didn't have one. I'd donated the ingredients, I hadn't charged for my hours, I hadn't even tracked what I'd spent at the store that week versus what came out of the ward budget. There wasn't a number. There wasn't even a shape of a number.
Garrett looked at me and said, "So it's a hobby, Dad."
He wasn't trying to be smart about it. He was just doing the math a sixteen-year-old does when the math is that simple. And he wasn't wrong. That night was me being a neighbor, not a business, and that's a fine thing to be. But I hadn't decided that on purpose. I'd just drifted there, the way you drift when you're bad at saying numbers out loud.
That's the difference this lesson's about. Some nights you're the neighbor. That's good and real and I still do it plenty. But you should know which one you're being before the trays go in the truck, not after your kid asks you at the loading dock.
A practical note on where the number goes wrong
Most people who can't say their number out loud aren't bad at math. They're worried about one specific thing: what if the person says no.
Here's what I've learned. If nobody ever says no to your price, your price is too low. I'm not saying you want a pile of no's. I'm saying a little bit of "hm, let me think about it" from customers means you're in the right neighborhood. If everybody says yes instantly and cheerfully every time, you left money in the room.
And on the flip side — I once got so nervous about a price increase that I sent the quote at eleven at night and then couldn't sleep, genuinely lay there running scenarios. The client wrote back the next morning, agreed, no fuss. I was the only person in that exchange who thought the number was crazy. Worth remembering.
Before next time
Pick one number from your own math and practice saying it out loud, to yourself and to one other person, before our next class. Notice where your voice wobbles. That's usually exactly where the real work is.