Pricing your home apothecary can be (and should be) simple. But how do you know if you’re doing it right? How do you know if you’re undercharging or overcharging? 6 steps to pricing your Home Apothecary products with confidence is here to help. If you’ve been struggling to price your home apothecary products, know you're not alone.
The Dilemmas:
You create your heart out and spend all day making new products. You’re so proud of what you spent HOURS on! But, your customers say “What?! I’m not paying THAT much! I’ll only take it if you give me a discount.” And you do it because you don’t want to lose their business!
OR...
You don’t “officially” have a Home Apothecary Business yet, you feel too guilty to charge for your products… so you give it for free.
Resonate with these 2 scenarios?
One of the most popular topics in the Home Apothecary Businesses world is pricing. It's one thing to just copy other competitors pricing, but to really understand what you should be charging is important for your back end as well.
It’s essential to your success that we first uncover some of the deeper reasons why we tend to struggle with pricing and how to build your confidence moving forward.
6 Steps to Pricing your Home Apothecary Products with Confidence
1. Understand WHY Home Herbalists Feel Awkward & Guilty with Pricing
If you consider the typical prices of apothecary products, they’re not exactly obscene compared to all the other things people buy for enjoyment. Every day people spend thousands of dollars around the world on restaurant meals, watching movies, weekend getaways, etc. People easily and willingly pay good money for products that make their lives better. Why should it be any different with homemade products – like herbal and natural products or goods, things that are actually related to health and wellbeing.
Why do we feel too awkward & guilty to charge what our products are truly worth?
I am convinced that the reason why homemade pricing remains an issue, is because we are confronted with adding a value tab to what we do… and a value tab on what we feel we are worth.
A lack of confidence is the real reason why we overwork ourselves, struggle with pricing, end up bowing to every whim of demanding clients, and get stuck making things we don’t even enjoy making for cheaper prices! There’s this constant analysis going on in our minds “If only I had 1000 likes on my Facebook page, then I would know that I’m good enough to charge full price for my products or services.”
Here’s the secret: If you are not enough WITHOUT it, you will never be enough WITH it. The hard truth is that the “stamp of approval” you feel you need to classify you as a LEGIT Anything, won’t be enough to convince you that you’re “good enough”.
RELATED: How To Start, Grow, & Monetize A Successful Herbal Business
What YOU believe about your value is all that matters here. So, who do you truly BELIEVE you are?
And is that person valuable?
What makes that person valuable?
The price tags you put on your work will always reflect how valuable you believe you are. I had to get to a point where I stopped looking to my clients for validation that I’m okay. In the past, I undercharged for my products because I felt a need to OVER-please my clients so that the odds of them liking me are higher… I was deceived in thinking that the more clients liked & praised me, the more valuable I’d feel.
“The reason we ‘people please’ is not because we care about other people. It’s because we want to control what other people think of us.” – Courtney Chaal
2. The VALUE of Home Apothecary Goods
You may have believed until now that Home Apothecaries is in some way “inferior” to that of mainstream retail apothecaries. It’s important to realize that you’re offering a very unique and valuable service here. You are creating specialty for specific clients with all the love and quality they would get from a personal herbalist.
They’ll also get their products fresh, possibly made to order – not 1 week old or sitting on shelves for everyone to touch and poke as in the grocery store and large, mainstream stores like Sephora. So, on every level, small batch is of HIGHER VALUE than mass-produced commercial products. You offer them the sentimental, high-quality benefits of homemade, and handmade goods.
3. Cheap Prices Attract Cheap Clients
If you’ve been charging too little for your baked goods, you’ve probably run into some pretty darn demanding, unrealistic, bartering sort of clients. Chances are, when it comes to pricing your Home Apothecary products that’s what drove you to start looking for pricing answers! So here’s the deal. Cheap prices will attract budget clients who enjoy nothing more than saving money wherever they can. They unfortunately are the type of clients who take advantage of you. They’ll get you making things you hate, on short notice for less money.
The way you get ideal, committed clients with better character is by charging more. This separates the cheapskates from the true herbal appreciators.
4. Cheap prices “for the love”?
When I started my Home Apothecary I kept all my products super cheap because I wanted them to be affordable for everyone. I was buying the best ingredients, investing hours of my time, and barely turning any profit. There are so many people on social media that say: “You should do it for love, not for money.” And while this may be semi-true it's also flawed logic.
Charging decent prices for your products (charging what they are worth) will enable you to keep on creating amazing products for people.
Creating for family and friends is a tough one; because we love them and feel guilty to accept and ask for payment. But, here’s another perspective: Your friends and family love you and want you to succeed – that is why they are ordering from you. I have a standard discount for all my close friends and family. The discount is 10% off my direct client prices. To offer them a discount will already seem very generous and courteous to them.
Set up a fixed discount rule for friends & family that you are comfortable with and stick to it no matter what. Pricing your Home Apothecary Products and making a rule like this eliminates the need to make an awkward decision every time a family member or friend orders something.
5. Transition From a Freelancer to a BOSS
All home herbalists start out as freelancers. Some clients might start manipulating you by saying their budget is so tight this month because of this and that, so you end up giving them a discount. The client calls the shots. They determine what we make, when we make it and they influence what they pay for it. This means that we base our business strategy and pricing by just REACTING to our clients.
In order to break this cycle, you need to become a BOSS and start running your business like a boss. A boss decides what services and products they do and do not offer. They decide what the prices are. They call the shots and determine the course of their business. A freelancer is just reacting to clients and their business will end up going wherever their clients end up taking them – which could be in circles or downward, and not forward.
There is a COLOSSAL difference between a freelancer and a boss!!
RELATED: The Benefits Of Starting Your Home Apothecary
ALL Home Herbalists do start out as freelancers, but if you desire success for your Apothecary Business, you’ll need to make the mindset shift into the boss world – sooner rather than later.
It’s totally possible that you may read through this entire post and still feel too guilty to charge full price for your products.
NOW I HAVE SOME DEEPER QUESTIONS FOR YOU:
>> Do you constantly feel inferior to other herbalists you see on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube?
>> Are you often undercharging for your products because you feel too like you don't have it all together yet? Ex. branding, email, licensing, organized...
>> Do you want to create more products than just an oil infusion to have more variety in your apothecary?
Then my book How To Start, Grow, & Monetize A Successful Herbal Business is exactly what you need! In this book, you’ll find your unique apothecary style and audience and earn more profit with less stress and zero guilt!
CLICK HERE to get your copy today!
I trust that this post has FINALLY given you everything you needed to settle the issue of Pricing your Home Apothecary Products.
If you have any further questions, share them with me in the comments below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!