Wednesday Wisdom: Dig Deep to Uncover Pricing Issues

Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration, for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses

November is both a month of remembrance and thanksgiving wrapped into thirty days. As the bare tree limbs, now stark against the grey clouds look sad without their deep green or blazing red leaves, so does the first few days of this month for Catholics who celebrate All Souls Day and the passing of loved ones. But by month’s end, gathering with family members and friends will remind us of what we have, not what we lost, like the trees leafless now.

Three days ago, a woman entrepreneur with an exceptional pastry business announced her immediate closing stating with a “saddened heart” she was closing her company due to spiking costs of supplies and ingredients explaining how the simple cost of a case of eggs rose from $19 to $65 – a 30% increase. Looking for instant buyers for all her kitchen ware, she wrote, “Honestly this is immensely painful for me and my family. I just need to move forward. I just need to save my home.”

If we’ve been in business long enough, we empathize with this woman who gave it her all to succeed. She couldn’t have predicted Covid-19 and its economic impacts on her business, pricing, sales trends, or customer’s decisions to save rather than spend. I always booked her for our Rochester events every time we had one to support her and because her pastries were heavenly. But having the best tasting or priced products in town doesn’t always make for a success story. Outside elements play negatively with our companies at times.

So what is a woman who owns her own business to do? Dig deep, I say. Dig deep into the mathematical calculations of your business. There is always time for marketing and networking, but we must know our figures, bottom line, revenue projections, marketing factors, and customers’ “appetite” to buy from us more than once-in-awhile. If looking at your hard cold cash facts is difficult for you, find someone to review them with you to make it easier, but don’t ignore what you must know to succeed and flourish.

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom lays the truth as bare as the limbs on the November trees, get to know the black and white of your company’s numbers better. Make adjustments where you need to, change your projections, search for cheaper vendors, workup pricing models, do market research, and try to lower expenses if they are too high. Make deals. Work hard to stop any slides in revenue. Consider revising your holiday marketing and pricing plans. Take advantage of your niche in the market.

We can’t put the leaves back on the trees until spring, a good five months away, but you can do something today to strengthen your five month financial plan if you take the time to dig deep.