Loading…
22
The guy at the espresso cart near my booth said my margins were "too polite" and it stuck with me
I was grabbing a flat white before opening my booth at a trade show in Columbus 2 weeks ago, and the cart owner (a retired CPA who does espresso now, of all things) asked how business was going. I told him things were steady, up around 18 percent since January, and he just kinda squinted at me and said "sounds like your margins are too polite." I laughed it off but then it sat with me the whole afternoon while I watched people walk past my table and buy a $6 coffee without blinking. So I went home and finally raised my prices 12 percent on my two best selling items, which I'd been putting off for almost a year because I was scared of losing regulars. Lost maybe 3 customers out of 60 over the next 3 weeks and my weekly take went up $410. The word "polite" keeps echoing in my head now whenever I catch myself undercharging for something I know is good. It's weird how a random comment from someone who isn't even in your industry can hit harder than any business podcast. Has anyone else had a stranger drop one line that made them finally change a price they've been sitting on for way too long?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
ray1361d ago
Margins are too polite" is a great way to put it. A buddy of mine ran a small woodworking shop and had been charging the same rate for custom shelves for like four years, even though his costs went up and his work got better. His sister in law, who knows nothing about woodworking, asked him at a cookout what he charges and when he told her she just said "wait, that's it?" and walked away. He raised his rates the next week and didn't lose a single client, and the new ones he picked up didn't even blink. That one line from someone outside the trade got him to do what a year of his own math couldn't. It's like you need a person who isn't in it to hear how silly the number sounds.
5