Module 1 of 7
What a price communicates
Position arrives before arithmetic does.
A price is read before it is calculated. Long before anyone examines what you are offering, the number tells them what kind of thing this is, who it is for, and how seriously to take it. Two tutors with identical qualifications charging 300 and 1,200 an hour are not selling the same service in the buyer's mind, and no amount of explanation afterwards moves that first reading.
This cuts both ways, and the direction people miss is the downward one. A price far below the band a buyer expects does not read as generous; it reads as inexperienced, or as a signal that something is missing. Freelancers who cut their rate to win work often find they have simply moved into a market of buyers who choose on price alone and will leave the moment someone cheaper appears.
So decide the position before you do the arithmetic. Where in the range do you intend to sit, and who is the buyer who should feel this price is correct? The arithmetic in the next four modules tells you whether the position you chose is survivable. It does not choose the position for you.
The number is read as a signal before it is examined as a sum. Choose the position first, then check with arithmetic whether it survives.