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You may have heard the term “archetypes” before. Or maybe not. But they are critically important to the success of your business.

Why? Because archetypes define psychological mind states that customers have when looking for products, services, and businesses.

People make “buy or don’t buy decisions” based on emotions and feelings. Archetypes are simply ways of expressing a set of emotions that instantly attract a certain type of customer.

Tap into the one that best defines your brand and you can successfully attract more customers, better clients, and people who are ready to BUY RIGHT NOW.

Okay, this is a lot. But it will become clearer when I describe the 12 brand archetypes and the demand triggers they execute in the right customer:

The Amazing Magician

• You can make the impossible possible
• People connect on a spiritual level with your brand
• Customers are attracted to your personal style and actions

The Magician/Alchemist/Healer archetype is appealing to people who want fast, dramatic change. A brand example would be Apple.

The Ordinary Everyman

• You seem like the guy or girl next door
• You offer people a connection to a community of like-thinking individuals
• Customers feel like they understand and share your viewpoint

The Everyman appeals to customers who strive to be understood and appreciated. The perfect brand example would be Wal-Mart.

The Iconoclast

• You aren’t afraid to tell it like it is
• You don’t have a lot of patience for fools
• You speak from a position of authority … and have the credentials to back it up!

The Rebel/Iconoclast appeals to people who aren’t satisfied with the way the world is and want to change it in their image. A great brand example would be Harley-Davidson.

The Wise Teacher

• You freely share knowledge
• You are passionate about keeping people informed
• Customers admire your intellect and opinions

People who are attracted to the Sage/Mentor/Teacher value wisdom above all else. Brand examples would include The Wall Street Journal.

The Brave Explorer

• You have the courage to boldly go where nobody else has gone before
• You invite people think of themselves in a new and exciting way
• Customers want to be like you

The Explorer/Guide/Seeker archetype appeals to people who are passionate about experience life first-hand. A brand example would be The North Face.

The Entertainer

• You are skilled at making people laugh to forget their problems
• You show people how to enjoy and appreciate the now rather than worrying about later
• Customers love to be around you

The Entertainer/Performer/Comedian appeals to people who like to have fun. A brand example would be Old Spice.

The General

• You get the job done on time, within budget, and above expectations
• You cut through the static and get right to the point to deliver success
• People feel willing to ignore distractions and trust in your proven abilities

The General offers customers seriousness and significance. A brand example would be BMW.

The Lover

• Following the heart is more important than thinking too much
• You forgive people for giving into temptations and desire
• People feel a strong emotional connection to you

The Lover/Caring Friend appeals to customers who value passion over logic. A terrific brand example would be Haagen-Dazs.

The Loving Mother

• You are reliable, caring, and emotionally available
• You give without worrying about receiving anything back in return
• People are impressed with your ability to serve

The Caregiver/Servant/Mother appeals to people who want to be cared for. A brand example would be the American Red Cross.

The Fierce Warrior

• You can achieve amazing goals even when they seem insurmountable
• You offer people toughness combined with keen intellect
• Customers feel like you will inspire them to be responsible

The Hero/Warrior/Protector appeals to customers who want to achieve specific goals or outcomes. A great brand example would be Nike.

The Innocent

• You remind people of when times were simpler
• You exude optimism and hope
• People are attracted to the purity of your beliefs

The Innocent appeals to customers who want to simplify their lives. A brand example would be Coca-Cola.

The Innovative Creator

• You have the ability to show people something new and exciting that they never could have imagined on their own
• You teach people a craft they can use to improve their own creativity
• People want to be around you because they feel inspired by your vision

The Innovative Creator appeals to people who want to believe in something bigger than themselves. The best brand example would be LEGO.

So which archetype best describes you?

Every brand is unique. But the approach Lytron  takes to helping clients discover and understand their specific brand follows a predictable pattern.

Here is the step-by-step branding process we use to create flourishing, successful brands for our clients. While there are many variables – after all, your brand is distinctly about you! – the strategy is proven to be successful.

Step 1 – Connecting with Our Clients

In order to understand your brand, the branding professionals at Lytron  have to understand you. What makes you tick? What do you want out of your business? What do YOU see as your road to success.

Getting to know our clients is the first and – arguably – most important step in the collaborative process of crafting your unique brand. Generally, we begin with a 15- to 20-minute phone call in which we get to know each other and gain an understanding of how we can help each other successful achieve your specific objectives.

Step 2 – Let’s Talk about Brand Design

After our discovery call, it’s time to start thinking visually. How do you envision your brand “looking” like?

We often encourage our clients to visually brainstorm in one of a number of ways:

• Creating a vision board that builds a roadmap to what your specific version of success looks like
• Building a Pinterest page with brand design you like
• Filling out a questionnaire that includes answers that help us navigate your brand to where you genuinely want it to be
• Participating in a 60- to 90-minute Skype chat to get “down and dirty” into branding strategies, ideas, and concepts.

By the end of all this prep work, the Lytron  team generally has everything it needs to get going on your unique and successful branding for your business.

Step 3 – Defining Brand Assets

The next step is identifying the special features of your brand that make it unique. These can include specific products or services but also things like your personality, your company culture, and even your aspirations and hopes for the future.

You define your business by focusing on what makes it unique and identifying the factors that will make prospective customers and clients choose it from among all the other competitors.

Step 4 – Brand Building

The next step is truly magical. Combining our expertise with your passion for your business, Lytron  collaboratively creates a unique and consistent branding strategy for your business.

This can take a variety of forms including everything from logo design, marketing strategies, blog and social media posts, and everything in between.

While the basic steps tend to be universal, where they take us together is always magical. And at Lytron , we can’t wait to get started on our journey together with your business!

Do you want to hear a secret? How about seven of them?

Today, I want to talk about brand psychology. Specifically, the seven most effective ways to use the way most people think to attract new, high-quality clients and customers to your brand.

As you already know, your brand is the most important thing to your business. More important than the products or services you offer. More important than where you are located or what industry you work in. It’s even more important than the size, scope, or profitability of your business.

That’s because your brand represents you: Your values, your passions, your strengths, and your potential.

So naturally, you want to attract people to your brand because it means they have genuine connections with you (and your business). And that leads to long-term rewards, long-term revenues and profits, and long-term SUCCESS!

So how about those secrets?

Secret Number 1 – People Are Motivated by Their Emotions

When most people choose a product, they measure its cost against competitors, conduct an analysis of its benefits vs drawbacks, and compile a spreadsheet on short-term vs long-term value, right? WRONG!

People almost always buy impulsively. And they make buying decisions based on EMOTIONS rather than LOGIC. They only use logic later to justify their decisions.

That’s the way people have been making decisions for thousands of years. It’s simply human nature. And this truism plays a critical role in the success or failure of your business and here’s why:

If you want to convince people to buy your products or services, you need to appeal to their emotion FIRST and their logic SECOND.

Another way to put it is like this: Win their heart and their head will follow.

Secret Number 2 – Humans Are Prone to the Mob Mentality

We all like to think of ourselves as individuals. We think for ourselves, make decisions based exclusively on our own thinking, and aren’t influenced at all by other people, right?

WRONG!

People are by nature social animals. So they are ALWAYS influenced by other people. In fact, we rarely do anything without first consulting … or at least thinking about … what other people would do in the same situation.

Consider the case of picking a restaurant. Imagine you are driving down the street looking for a place to eat because you are very hungry.

You see two restaurants: One has a line out the door and the other looks completely empty. Which one are you going to choose?

Will you pick the empty restaurant because you can get seated right away and satiate your hunger more quickly?

Nope! Most people are much more likely to get in line at the other restaurant. Why? Because there must be a reason why it’s so popular!

It’s human nature to pay attention to group think. We want to be part of the pack. We choose to benefit from the wisdom of the group rather than trying to figure out each little detail of life on our own.

And this plays into your business because …

Secret Number 3 – People Want to Be Part of Something Bigger than Themselves

When people make buy decisions, they usually aren’t just buying an individual product or service. Instead, they are buying into a BRAND.

That brand represents something about themselves: It proves that they are cool, they are smart, they are tuned in, they are successful, they are beautiful, they are loved, and so on.

Specific branding is tied to archetypes, which are proven mechanisms that provide buyers with a shortcut to specific values.

So if you want to connect with more customers, you need to create a brand that offers the same values that your prospective customers are actively searching for.

And you can use these archetypes as a sort of shorthand to make those connections.

Secret Number 4 – People Are Attracted to the Next New Shiny Thing

Okay, let’s just get one thing out of the way: People have short attention spans.

They are attracted to shiny things. New things. The next thing. The next new shiny thing.

And guess what? With the rise of the internet and online social connectivity, people’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter every day.

What does this have to do with your business? Plenty!

It means the window of opportunity you have to attract people’s attention to the products and services you offer is getting smaller and smaller by the minute.

So the way to short-circuit the problem of short attention spans is by selling your BRAND, not your PRODUCTS.

Remember: Brands are feelings. Products are solutions. So when you sell people based on their feelings … they become open to the possibility of using your products to solve their problems in the long-term.

Secret Number 5 – People See Patterns Everywhere

The way our brains work is to cut through tons and tons of stimuli and data by using patterns to get to the most important information.

The human mind is constantly working to identify patterns. It’s how we learn to understand the world around us. It’s what keeps us safe in dangerous situations. It helps us navigate everyday life. And it’s the way we can attract new customers to our brand.

How? By aligning your brand messaging with the kinds of patterns people are looking for.

When people see familiar patterns that coincide with specific emotions, they will instantly and permanently be connected to your brand.

Secret Number 6 – Familiarity Breeds … Attraction

There’s an old axiom that goes, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” In other words, the more time we spend with something, the more we learn to hate it.

But that’s not always the case. At least not when it comes to branding.

Marketers have known for years that the more exposure audiences have with a specific brand message, the more comfortable they become with it.

Think of that jingle that always gets caught in your head. You probably haven’t heard it just once. More likely, you’ve seen it on a TV commercial or heard it on the radio thousands of times. And now it’s part of you.

The same holds true with your brand messaging. Your brand needs to be constant as well as consistent.

Okay, finally …

Secret Number 7 – People Crave Excitement

This final secret has to do with the reward system that is built-in to everybody’s brain.

People live their lives in a state of continual reinforcement. They want to feel that the decisions they make are the right ones. And the best way to satisfy this need is by offering rewards.

What kind of rewards? The most effective ones are those that are attached to specific emotions: Love, sex, hunger, and fun.

All of these cause the body to naturally release a hormone known as dopamine into the bloodstream. Dopamine is what makes us feel good. It makes us feel safe. And it convinces us that we made the right choice, regardless of what that choice was.

7 Secrets to Cracking the Brand Psychology Code-  If your band can make a genuine emotional connection with your prospective customer to the point where it causes their minds to release dopamine, you’ve already won!

7 Secrets to Cracking the Brand Psychology Code – So there you have it: The seven biggest branding secrets based on psychology, physiology, and most importantly .. basic human nature!

7 Secrets to Cracking the Brand Psychology Code – But there’s more. Lots more. To get even more attuned to how you can use your brand to connect emotionally with customers to create raving fans for life … call the branding experts at Lytron  .

The other day, I was thinking about a specific nutritional supplement. Like most people these days, I immediately went to my phone and Googled it.

Not surprisingly, I instantly got connected with literally thousands of businesses wanting to sell me that specific product.

And that caused a lightbulb to go off in my head:

Consumers today have a practically unlimited number of choices.

And that got me thinking about how businesses can stand out from the crowd of competitors to get people to choose their products from among all the thousands of others.

The answer? Emotional Branding.

How People Choose

When people make buying decisions – either online or in real life – the use three basic criteria:

• Personal Perspective
• Psychological State
• Emotion

The most important of these for the people offering products is emotion. If you can find a way to get people to create an emotional attachment to your product, your business, and your brand … then you already have succeeded in capturing the marketplace.

Think about the brands you use in your everyday life. Maybe you prefer Coke to Pepsi. Maybe you drive an Audi rather than a Kia. Or perhaps you like the Green Bay Packers over the Detroit Lions.

Now think about why. Without exception, it’s because you have a deep-seated emotional connection with that specific brand. After all, it’s only human.

Basic Human Emotions

Think back to the Psych 101 class you took in college. Science has identified eight basic human emotions:

• Fear
• Anger
• Surprise
• Joy
• Sadness
• Anticipation
• Trust

If you can connect one of these emotions with your specific brand – preferably not fear, anger or sadness! – you can tap into your prospective customer’s primary human emotional need.

And then you can create a resounding message that creates a genuine connection with buyers.

Emotional Branding Creates Uniqueness – Creating good ties

So how can you create these emotion bonds to transform passive shoppers into customers who are fiercely loyal to your brand? There are a number of effective strategies:

1. Reverse Engineering – Choose one of the “positive” emotions from the list above then work backwards to figure out how to get your brand content to invoke that emotion in buyers.

1. Offer Solutions to Everyday Problems – People are going online to find solutions to universal problems. If you can figure out ways to offer up your brand as that solution, you’ve already won.

1. A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words – Great images make it easier for people to connection emotionally with your brand than dense written content. Images that offer universal solutions — such as life contentment, professional success, happy relationships, and so on – can draw people into your brand and start building those valuable trust bonds.

1. Build a Perfect World – People are naturally hopeful about the future. When you can show how your brand can help make people’s future better, most will be open to buying into that future – especially if you can paint a visual image that connects.

1. Overcome Objections – Simultaneously, most people are naturally skeptical. Identify potential drawbacks to people choosing your brand then preemptively explain why they are invalid.

1. Use Your Storytelling Skills – Finally, create emotional bonds by sharing personal stories about your brand, your company, even your personal life or your happy customers. Stories offer immediate connections with genuine emotion.

Whew! That’s a lot to get started. To learn more, get together with Lytron and start creating emotional branding for your business.

Most people can put their clients in one of two categories: Good clients and bad clients.

You probably already know who your bad clients are.

They’re the ones who require a lot of hand holding, push back against your best ideas, and demand maximum time and attention while providing minimal revenue.

But your good clients?

They appreciate your expertise.

They act on your best ideas.

And they just seem to CLICK with you. Happy face emoji!

Working with good clients is 1,000% easier than working with bad ones. It’s more rewarding, more fun, and most importantly … more profitable!

So here are three actionable things you can do right now to find GREAT clients for your business.

Step 1 – Go Where Your Ideal Clients Are

The famous bank robber Willie Sutton was once asked by an interviewer, “Willie, why do you rob banks?”

He replied, “Because that’s where the money is.”

You may not be a bank robber (at least I hope not), but we all could learn a lesson from Willie Sutton’s somewhat sarcastic answer.

If you want to find great clients who align with your values and interests all you need to do is go where your own values and interests take you.

Sound simple? That’s because it is!

Let’s say you promote fitness products. If so, you probably already are into things like working out, eating right, and working on your personal satisfaction. That means you are comfortable in places like gyms, yoga studios, nutrition centers, and other places where you would naturally gravitate.

Guess what? So are other people who share your interests and values! So that’s where you should begin your search for the ideal clients!

To be crystal clear: The first step to finding good clients is to go places where good clients would naturally hang out. Duh!

These don’t have to be physical places, either. If you are an online marketer, you probably want to spend time hanging out on sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, and so on. (In fact, you probably already do … which is exactly the point!)

If you work with hand-made crafts, try Etsy. And local arts and crafts shows.

If you promote tech, you probably want to spend some time in high-end electronics stores. And in digital chatrooms devoted to new technology.

The point is this: Whatever type of products or services your business offers, you need to start showing up at places where people need/enjoy/are passionate about these types of things hang out.

You may have heard the famous quote: “99 percent of success is just showing up.” For business owners, it’s showing up at places where the likelihood of finding like-minded prospective clients or customers is highest.

Okay, so on to Step 2 …

Step 2 – Share Your Passion

Okay, being in PROXIMITY to people who share your interests isn’t enough. You also have to engage them. And the best way to do that is to share your passions … PASSIONATELY!

Obviously, you want to talk about your products and services, eventually. But first about your personal values …

What makes you happiest …

What makes you angriest …

What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning …

And most importantly what makes you stand up and cheer!

At this stage, you aren’t going to make genuine connections with people by playing is safe. You can’t be afraid of offending or turning off people who don’t share your values, interests, or passions.

You probably aren’t going to win those people over anyway. And if you do, they likely will be the kind of bad clients who are going to demand too much of your time and return little value to your business.

Instead, be honest. Be sincere. Be you. And the people who are drawn to you are going to be the ones most open to hearing about your business.

Step 3 – Prove Yourself

Okay, you’ve put yourself in proximity of people who share your interests. You’ve openly and proudly expressed your passions to get their attention.

What now?

The next step is to demonstrate your ability to solve an actual problem they are experiencing. You need to answer this question for them: How can the products or services your business offers provide an actual solution that will make their lives better?

Answer that successfully and you’ve not only got a new client … you’ve got a customer for life!

A few final points:

• Be as specific and immediate as possible. Avoid vague promises or long-term benefits.
• Use real-world examples to prove yourself.
• Focus on problem-solving, not benefits.

Okay, take a breath.

I get it.

I understand that finding great clients isn’t easy. If it were, everybody could do it and every business owner would be successful. But we both know that’s not the case.

There are winners and there are losers. And YOU are a winner!

You’re better than everybody else, aren’t you? That’s because you are willing to put in the work.

And the more work you put in finding great clients for life right now, the easier it will be later for your business to be successful.

Want to learn more? Lytron has plenty of ideas for making your business successful. Call us. Let’s talk!

If your business isn’t getting the acclaim it deserves from your customers, it could be because they don’t understand your brand.

The brand you present can make or break your business. It determines whether customers make genuine emotional connections with the products or services you offer. And it directly influences both your bottom line and the overall success (or failure) of your business.

If you don’t currently have a clearly defined brand message, it’s not too late. Lytron  specializes in helping businesses just like yours define and promote positive, effective branding that helps ensure your business’s success.

So how is your brand defined? It often comes down to your answers to a couple of key questions.

Lytron Can Help You Discover Your Brand –  What’s Your Personal History?

One way to connect make genuine emotional connections with customers is to incorporate your personal history into the story of your business. If people can relate to your personal history, they can develop positive feelings about your brand, your products or services, and your business.

How you started your business important, but so is the “Why”. Go back to the beginning and think about what motivated you to take this course in the first place. Often, there is a genuine, emotional experience that can be crafted into part of your branding.

Lytron Can Help You Discover Your Brand – What Makes You Unique?

Whatever type of business you are in, there are bound to be competitors. So what makes the products and services you offer unique from everybody else in your industry?

Identify the distinguishing positive characteristics about your business and it can open the door to effective, high-profit branding ideas for your enterprise.

We have lots more ways to develop your business’s own distinct brand. These are just a few of the initial steps we take to help you create genuine, emotional responses among your customers. Call Lytron   to learn more.

 If you’ve been following Lytron  at all, you probably already know that it’s all about the branding.

Branding connects directly with people’s emotions, which allows them to make genuine emotional connections with your business … connections that can last a lifetime.

But if your branding is not working, if it’s not tapping into people’s emotions … or, even worse, if it’s connecting with the WRONG emotions in people … it may be time to consider rebranding.

Okay, so what exactly is rebranding? Does it mean burning your business to the ground and starting all over? Not necessarily.

Rebranding Fact Number 1 – There are Degrees of Rebranding

For some businesses, going back to the drawing board IS the best approach.

New name. New faces. New products. Possibly even a whole new INDUSTRY!

But for most business owners, rebranding comes in a wide variety of forms. For some, it could simply mean tweaking a few things such as coming up with a new logo or refreshing the overall brand message.

Your brand is continually evolving and growing, just like you as a business owner. Think about it: The things that were important to you when you were first starting out are probably vastly different than your priorities today. And tomorrow likely will be fresh challenges … and opportunities.

So while your branding should be consistent, you also shouldn’t be afraid to consider rebranding if it will serve your overall success goal.

Speaking of success goals …

Rebranding Fact Number 2 – Your Business Has Changed

By its very nature, entrepreneurship is all about growth.

Over time, just about everything inside your business changes: The products you offer, the people you employ, even the target audience you seek to connect with.

So the rebranding connection becomes: Does the outside of your business (your brand) still match the inside of your business (your core values). If the answer is “No”, then the solution is simple: It’s time to rebrand!

Rebranding Fact Number 3 – The World Has Changed

Okay, maybe you have stayed the same but the world around you has changed. This is actually a more common scenario.

Think about any industry: For example, the typewriter business.

For a while there in the early 20^th Century, the typewrite business was booming. There was a high demand among businesses worldwide for reliable, efficient, and affordable typewriters. And companies like Underwood, Oliveti, and Royal thrived.

But then the world changed. Technology skyrocketed and typewriters became ancient history.

So in order to survive, these companies had to pivot. And that meant rebranding.

Typewriters may not be the best example … after all, most of these companies failed to adapt and were driven out of the market entirely .. but the point remains the same …

When the world changes, successful companies need to adapt. And that can mean rebranding.

Rebranding Fact Number 4 – Your Brand Is a Little TOO Familiar

Let’s say you’ve been in business for awhile and your sales are strong. In fact, you are so successful that other players have entered the market by emulating your success.

Pretty soon, your brand is indistinguishable from all the competition because you aren’t offering anything unique anymore.

In this instance, rebranding can be effective in order to reposition your brand in opposition to the rest of the marketplace.

Rebranding Fact Number 5 – Restructuring

Businesses don’t stay the same forever. New leadership comes in and (justifiably) wants to put their own stamp on things.

Or companies are sold to new ownership who want to take the enterprise in a new direction.

Or you decide you need to bring in a partner. Or you acquire a competitor. Or your business gets gobbled up by a bigger fish.

All of these things happen to businesses all the time.

In any case, things change.

Rebranding often offers a solution to reimagining your business so that it remains vital to prospective customers despite the shifting sands of the marketplace.

Rebranding Fact Number 6 – Expansion

Most businesses are like sharks: They need to constantly be moving and feeding otherwise they die.

In practical terms, that often means moving into new cultures. Or expanding into new geographic locations.

In this instance, rebranding may offer a practical solution: The need to appeal to a broader audience than originally intended.

For example, European or Asian audiences may not be as open to your all-American branding message.

While your successful branding core can remain the same, there may be opportunities to rebrand your business so that it broadens its appeal.

Rebranding Fact Number 7 – New Blood

Companies always need new customers. But they also need fresh ideas and creative thinking. And that means new top talent.

The brightest minds graduating business school usually aren’t looking to join “dinosaur businesses”, or companies that have been around since the Stone Age.

Young people usually want to go with the new, the exciting, and the companies pushing the envelope with new ideas and high-potential markets.

You need people like that. So if your brand is stale, worn out, or ancient … rebranding could be in your future.

Rebranding Fact Number 8 – All About the Benjamins

When it comes down to it, all business are ruled by one thing: The numbers.

Whether you are privately owned or publicly traded, there is always pressure to perform better: More profits, more sales, more markets, more customers. More MORE!

If you aren’t achieving these objectives or exceeding the expectations of your investors, board of directors, or stockholders, you need to do something to turn the ship around.

Rebranding could hold the key.

Okay, that’s a lot to process. But as you can see, the one constant is that branding needs to be consistent, genuine, and successful.

If it’s not working the way you need it, then you should consider rebranding your business.

And when you are ready to rebrand, Lytron  is ready to help.

Pricing is one of the trickiest elements of running any business. Whether you are selling cars or houses, wingnuts or laptops, the price point you decide on can make or break your business.

Set prices too high and you can freeze yourself out of the marketplace. But setting prices too can not only cut into your profits, but also frame your products as low-end or cut-rate.

Pricing is especially complicated for entrepreneurs who essentially are selling themselves in the form of their brand. Many take an accountant’s approach to profits:

In order to make $XX,XXX amount of money in a week/month/year, I have to make YY,YYY number of sales at a price of $ZZ.

That’s a lot of variables! It’s also TOO MUCH MATH (Brain explodes!)

But the pricing paradox is universal. It’s something that every entrepreneur, business owner, and even corporate CEO have to grapple with all the time.

Yet you shouldn’t let it ruin your day. In fact, the pricing paradox is completely fixable. Setting the perfect price point is even EASY once you know how to do it!

So let’s learn how …

Common Pricing Errors

Before we get to the right way to set pricing, let’s look at the biggest mistake most people make: Underestimating their value.

Like most new entrepreneurs, I entered my chosen marketplace wanting to make a name for myself. But I also had the intelligence to realize that NOBODY KNEW WHO I WAS.

So in order to instantly stand out from all the rest of the competition, I offered my services at drastically discounted prices.

This had two results:

• It instantly brought me a lot of business
• It simultaneously had me working my rear end off and not getting anywhere financially

This is actually very very common … especially among people making the jump from traditional 9-to-5 office work to the exciting world of owning their own business.

When you work for a company, most of the real costs of running that business are behind the scenes. You punch the clock. So you don’t worry about things like paying the rent on office space, utility bills, insurance, taxes, vacations, sick time, and overhead.

But when you jump into the driver’s seat, all of these things are now YOUR responsibility.

So when you set your prices low to establish your reputation and build your client base, you actually often end up LOSING MONEY rather than making it. And that’s not a sustainable business model.

Yes, losses are generally considered to be an acceptable part of a new business. In fact, any MBA program will teach you that they need to be built into your startup costs. But you can’t bleed money forever.

Eventually, you need to get paid what you are worth.

Determining Your Value

Undervaluing your worth when you first launch your business is actually very common. But successful businesses sooner rather than later make the pivot to proper pricing.

The first thing you need to do is understand your true costs. A month or two of running your business should be enough to gain the knowledge you need to estimate your business expenses.

Once you can put a dollar amount to your true costs, then you can start to build the formula you need to set your most beneficial price point.

Raising Prices

Now comes the really tricky part: Convincing all those clients you attracted with bargain basement pricing to start paying you what you actually are worth.

Plus, appealing to new clients who are open to paying your new (higher) prices.

There are a couple of important factors to keep in mind:

• You Are Worth It – You need to prove that your are unique and valuable. Show that the products or services you offer are superior and represent a strong price-value proposition.

• Say Goodbye to Unwilling Clients – If your current clients balk at paying you what you are worth, it’s probably time to say goodbye. You are growing as a business owner and if they aren’t willing to grow with you, then you will need to replace them with new clients who will.

• Make the Transition Easier for Your Clients – But before you write off any old business, make sure you doing everything you can to hold onto them. This may include “grandfathering” in your original clients at a lower rate (temporarily) until you can grow your business at your higher price point. Or it can mean scaling back the products and service your offer at the lower prices and gradually introducing new pricing for bigger and better products or services.

• Offer Additional Value – One of the most effective ways to get higher prices for existing products is to offer additional value. This can take the form of faster or free delivery, improved quality, better and more responsive customer service, and so on. What you offer is going to be specific to our business. But offer SOMETHING.

Your Business Goal

Raising prices is never easy. But it’s almost always necessary.

Ultimately, it comes down to setting your business goal: Do you want to grow and be more successful (YES!) or do you want to be loyal to your existing client base at the ultimate cost of your livelihood (NO!).

When it’s time to raise prices, you will need to be confident enough in your abilities to prove to your existing and future clients that you are worth their investment in your business.

And when you can do that, the result is … PRICELESS!