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Business Articles

Practical thinking for owner-run businesses on pricing, inventory, cash, customers and getting found, and on making better decisions with the data you already have.

4 articles on Pricing and margins, A to Z

Is Wholesale Worth It?

Pricing and margins6 min

A wholesale order looks like found money until you price the margin you traded for it. How one case sold wholesale compares to direct orders, and the break-even that says when the trade works.

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Pricing and margins5 min

Should You Raise Your Prices?

The unanswerable question is how many customers you'd lose. The exact one is how many you can afford to lose. On a 62% margin a 10% raise lets you lose one in seven before it costs you a cent — and a 10% cut makes you win one in five just to break even.

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Pricing and margins5 min

The Margin Question Most Owners Can't Answer

Which of your services actually makes money? The usual way of answering points owners at the wrong line. A worked example shows how to read margin by service, and by hour, before you cut anything.

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Pricing and margins5 min

Why Didn't Cutting Costs Increase Your Profit?

Cutting a cost rarely cuts the work it was paying for. The work migrates onto whoever is left, usually the owner, at a rate the books record as zero. That is how a payroll line improves while the business gets worse.

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