Do you really think that the successful businesses in your area set their prices by calling their competition? 
Of course they don't. They keep track of their expenses, labor costs, and billable hours, and they set their prices based on what they need to make their profit target.

Doing all that paperwork will take too much time!
If you don't want to take the time to set your prices correctly now, don't worry about it.  You'll have plenty of time in the future to do it right.  Without knowing your costs, you'll probably never earn enough to retire, so you'll have plenty of time to set you profitable prices - eventually.

I don't know where to begin.
To borrow a phrase, Just Do It!  Gather your invoices and begin recording the number of hours sold. Get your business checkbook and total up everything your spent over the last year. Look at what you're paying your technicians, add in the taxes and benefits you provide.  You can do it using pen and paper, a spreadsheet program, or a specialized tool like Numbers Cruncher.  You'll never get there if you don't start. 

Remember that once you get it set up, it's easy to keep up to date with just a few minutes each week.

My business is too (Small, Big, Unique - insert your own excuse here) to use Numbers Cruncher.
If you make, sell, service, or distribute you can use Numbers Cruncher.  It's a specialized tool that can be used by just about any business.  Numbers Cruncher is designed to let you easily do the calculations that all businesses must do.  Numbers Cruncher is used by companies with one employee, companies with thirty field employees, and  any number in between.  It will probably fit your business.

Whether you use Numbers Cruncher or some other method, you must know your own costs and set your own price.  Yours could be one of the many companies that are Going Broke with the Going Rate.

Measure Monthly, Adjust Quarterly
 & Achieve Annual Profit Goals

Call us at 800-841-8542 to schedule a Numbers Cruncher Review so you can be sure that you are making the profits you need every day.       

Freebie of the Month
The freebie of the month is a web site or product that we feel gives you something worth looking at or using that costs you nothing. 

This month it's the Thunderbird Email client.  The strength of this free program is that it has built in spam filtering.  Over the course of a week or so it will learn what you consider spam.  Our experience shows that it filters out over 95% of all spam. It can import your email and address book from Outlook and Outlook Express so getting started is pretty quick. 

If you're a mid level experienced computer user, give Thunderbird Email a look.

One of the key aspects of a good Flat Rate Price Book is a logical organization.  Good organization can help your field personnel in their sales efforts.  A book that allows you to quickly move to the correct solution to your customer's problem with related items nearby can have a significant impact on the customer's perception of the professionalism of your company.  A professionally organized Flat Rate Price Book adds to the impression of value that you want to portray to your customers.

Since the NSPG Flat Rate Price Books are organized by the Task number, the professional image projected by your printed books relies on a logical Task numbering strategy. 

National Standard Price Guide, has a couple of easy to use tools to help you keep your Task organization in top shape.  The first of these is the Task Selector. 

This little pop-up form shows all of your existing Tasks in the currently selected Category. It gives you a quick view of all the related Tasks so that you can keep your Task numbering in the order that makes sense to you.

Want to quickly jump to a Task on the list so you can change the Task number?  Just double click on the Task Number and the main form will open with that Task selected.  Make your changes, save the Task, and then click on the Task No button to reopen the Task Selector to see your changes.

For a more powerful look at your Task organization, you can use the Task Category lookup form (shown below).  This pop-up will allow you to quickly scroll through your entire Flat Rate book, find the Tasks you need, and quickly make any changes you need.

Remember that the easy to use organization tools found only in the NSPG Flat Rate software can help you to make your company look more professional and make closing the sale that much easier.

Advertisement