No one likes to be asked, “How much?”. So much can go wrong in all sorts of ways. Because of that, most people act as if that question was “What did you price this at the last time you were asked this?”
It’s a shortcut for sure, but it’s NOT a toll-free one.
The “toll” in question usually takes the shape of underpricing, and is caused by a combination of:
– Inflation and cost of living changes, rampant these days, will change the usefulness of the “same” amount of money you charged before.
– Even very similar projects will probably end up with different outcomes every time.
– You are getting better, which means you now bring more value than you did a year ago.
– Competition fluctuates, and the chance that the market conditions are the same as back then is slim.
– Different clients will see the same provided outcome as more or less valuable, affecting the acceptable price range
In other words – a 200$ job from three years ago is probably closer to a 400$ job today, even if it’s the same amount of work. Charging 200$ for it is a clear-cut case of underpricing, for all of the reasons stated above.
There is, however, a way of keeping the price low without underpricing – keep the price, but lower the value. That’s called shrinkflation and may be a “cure worse than the disease”.
The only third option is taking too little money for a good job, effectively robbing yourself.