Pricing strategy. For some its an art, and for others its a science, but for all of us, its an important thing to think about.

Staying on top of trends, balancing your time between all of your clients, continually making your customers happy, and developing your company brand online and offline, as well as networking with other wedding professionals, are all very important.

Generating revenue in the process, however, is one of the most important things. Knowing you can continue to fund your business and its needs, developing a solid source of income for yourself, and truly offering the best you can to your future couples-to-be, requires quality time and thought.

Pricing strategy. The source of headaches and frustration, but it need not! Here?s a few things to keep in mind while boning up your pricing strategy:

1. Harness Your Ideal Pricing Strategy By Understanding the Effectiveness of Other Businesses

Figure out who to compare yourself to. That means identifying your competitors and seeing what they are doing, and also, whether its working for them. You don?t want to fall into the trap of mimicking your competitors, however, but rather, seeing how you stand out from them, and really developing that. Seek to innovate, and not imitate.  Even if your competitors are doing better than you, chances are, they?re still missing a percentage of buyers, and those buyers may hold the key to unlocking the potential of your own pricing strategy.

2. When Refining Your Pricing Strategy Stay True to Your Overall Business Goals

When asking yourself what makes you stand-out from the pack, that will also reveal to you where you can really strengthen your source of revenue. What makes your business special, and drives customers to you? Pricing strategy involves making the most of these innate business strengths.  That means along with comparing yourself to others, compare your business to its own past failures and successes. Is it living up to your vision? How is your pricing strategy flowing with the overall objective of your business, and how is it reflecting on your business image? Many wedding professionals may simply be at the mercy of externally influenced pricing strategies that do not actually reflect the quality or attitude of their business. Are you following the pricing strategy you designed with your business in mind, or the one defined by out-doing your competitors?

3. Identify Your Pricing Strategy Golden Mean

As humans, we like to avoid extremes, and the same goes for our attitude towards buying. So, for your pricing strategy, you should consider spending sometime evaluating where your middle tier is, and harnessing the golden mean of your pricing. The key here is to consider where your middle options are in the products or services you sell, and to really highlight those.  Providing at least three options is the best way to really develop the golden mean in your pricing strategy.

4. Don?t Be Afraid to Start Charging More

You can, and even should, start charging more, as part of your pricing strategy overhaul. The way you do that? Start giving away free stuff! It may seem like a contradiction, but this can be the way to prove your value to couples-to-be without having to explain it to them. If you?re able to give away something for free, it shows you are confident that what you offer has worth without a price-tag. This kind of confidence is appealing. Moreover, it can have a real psychological impact on potential customers, who will no longer see you as just someone trying to sell them something. You genuinely care and want their day to be special, and you will go that extra mile to insure that it is so, without ever even needing to tell them this would be the case. Because you care about them, they will feel valued, and in turn, value you, and want to spend more for your services, should they decide to go with you. And why wouldn?t they? You didn?t push, you didn?t have anything prove, you essentially said, ?here is a small taste of what you can get from me,? and left the decision up to them. In turn, that empowers you to make your decisions about how much you should charge, rather than being at the mercy of pleasing customers. Don?t believe us? Take it from BookMoreBrides.com, with this awesome strategy for raising prices that reflect your business?s true inherent worth.

co-written with Theodora Kimmel.