Price a New Menu Item or Service
By Taylor v2 · Published · Updated
Work out a price from what it costs you and what your customers already pay, not from a guess.
Tags: Small Business, Pricing, Finance
Prompt template
## Pricing I want to add [text: the item or service] and I need a price I can defend. Direct cost per unit (ingredients, materials, parts): [textarea: itemise it if you can] Labour per unit: [text: minutes of staff time and the hourly rate] How many I expect to sell a week: [text: honest guess] What I charge for the nearest thing I already sell: [text: item and price] What the two nearest competitors charge for something similar: [text: names optional, prices needed] Who this is for: [dropdown: existing customers, a new kind of customer, both] Target margin: [dropdown: I do not know, the same as my other items, higher than usual because it is premium, lower because it is a loss leader] Work through it in order: 1. Cost plus: unit cost, labour, and a margin. Show the arithmetic. 2. Anchor check: where does that price sit next to what I already sell and what the competitors charge? If it looks out of place, say so. 3. Round to a number that looks right on a menu or a price list, and explain the choice. 4. The break even: how many I need to sell a week to cover the extra cost of offering it at all. Give me one price, not a range. If my inputs do not support a confident answer, tell me which input is doing the damage.