---
name: price-a-new-menu-item-or-service
description: "Work out a price from what it costs you and what your customers already pay, not from a guess. Use when the user wants help with Price a New Menu Item or Service. Related topics: Small Business, Pricing, Finance."
---

# Price a New Menu Item or Service

Work out a price from what it costs you and what your customers already pay, not from a guess.

## How to use this skill

1. Ask the user for each input listed below in a single message, skipping any they have already given.
2. Where options are listed, offer them, but accept other answers too.
3. Fill the answers into the prompt template, then follow the completed prompt to produce the result.

## Inputs

- **I want to add** (free text, e.g. "the item or service")
- **Direct cost per unit (ingredients, materials, parts)** (longer free text)
- **Labour per unit** (free text, e.g. "minutes of staff time and the hourly rate")
- **How many I expect to sell a week** (free text, e.g. "honest guess")
- **What I charge for the nearest thing I already sell** (free text, e.g. "item and price")
- **What the two nearest competitors charge for something similar** (free text, e.g. "names optional")
- **Who this is for** (choose one: existing customers, a new kind of customer, both)
- **Target margin** (choose one: I do not know, the same as my other items, higher than usual because it is premium, lower because it is a loss leader)

## Prompt template

## Pricing

I want to add {{I want to add}} and I need a price I can defend.

Direct cost per unit (ingredients, materials, parts): {{Direct cost per unit (ingredients, materials, parts)}}
Labour per unit: {{Labour per unit}}
How many I expect to sell a week: {{How many I expect to sell a week}}
What I charge for the nearest thing I already sell: {{What I charge for the nearest thing I already sell}}
What the two nearest competitors charge for something similar: {{What the two nearest competitors charge for something similar}}
Who this is for: {{Who this is for}}
Target margin: {{Target margin}}

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.

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Source: [Price a New Menu Item or Service on PromptBuild](https://promptbuild.io/prompt/QviIzh6OpysDSFFSunC9/price-a-new-menu-item-or-service)