Copying your competitors / Profitable Sign Pricing / Better Sign Shop

Copying your competitors

Learn why copying competitors' pricing is often a bad strategy and discover a better approach to setting your prices. Gain insights into understanding market value and using pricing formulas to succeed in business.

Copying Your Competitors: A Strategic Misstep?

In the competitive world of business, the temptation to copy your competitors' pricing can be strong, especially when you're just starting out. However, this approach is often a recipe for disaster. Let's delve into why mirroring your competitors' prices might not be the best strategy and explore a more effective way to determine your pricing.

When is Copying Acceptable?

The only scenario where copying competitors' prices might be somewhat acceptable is when you're entirely new to the market. At this stage, you might not have a clear idea of the market value for your products or services. In this case, it can be helpful to conduct some basic research—perhaps by calling local competitors or having family members gather information about their pricing. This can help you understand the ballpark figures for your offerings and ensure that you don't price yourself out of the market.

Why You Should Avoid Copying Competitors

Lack of Insight: You don't have visibility into your competitors' internal operations, such as their overhead costs, staffing, profit goals, or annual volume. These factors heavily influence their pricing strategies.
Unique Business Needs: Your business is unique, and what works for them might not be profitable for you.
Avoid Price Wars: Competing on price can lead to a race to the bottom, which is unsustainable in the long run.

Developing Your Pricing Strategy

If copying isn't the right answer, then what is? The key lies in developing a pricing formula tailored to your business. In the next section of videos, Bryant will introduce you to a new pricing formula that you can implement in your business. This approach will help you set prices that are profitable and sustainable.

Additionally, consider utilizing downloadable pricing calculators to refine your pricing strategy. These tools can provide guidance on when and how to adjust your prices, ensuring your business remains competitive and profitable.

Embrace the journey of crafting a pricing strategy that aligns with your business objectives and market dynamics, setting the stage for long-term success.

Transcripts are automatically generated with AI and may contain errors.

00:00:06Speaker 0: In this video, we're gonna be discussing copying your competitors and whether you should do that or not. So first and foremost here, copying your competitors pricing is not something I'll recommend

00:00:17Speaker 0: on an everyday basis.

00:00:19Speaker 0: In most cases, this is genuinely a recipe for disaster.

00:00:23Speaker 0: The only time I can think of that makes this an acceptable practice is when you are new to the business and are not sure what the market value for certain items actually are. So in this example,

00:00:34Speaker 0: maybe you'll call your local competitors. Have your family call your competition and start polling their answers to educate yourself to what market value is for certain products and for certain services that you're going to offer. It's okay here, just like I said before, to be in the ballpark. This way, you don't really price yourself out of a job off the start and become known for that outrageously

00:00:56Speaker 0: high priced sign shop in your town. You'll be out of business just as quick as you got into it. But in almost every other scenario,

00:01:05Speaker 0: I don't recommend

00:01:07Speaker 0: copying your competition.

00:01:08Speaker 0: The answer for that is quite simple. You really don't know what's behind their curtain. You don't know what their overhead is. You don't know how many full time or part time employees they have. You don't know what their profit goals are or even how much they do in volume every year. You don't know what their preferred clientele is or what they're good or what they're even bad at. What I can tell you is this, their numbers will probably

00:01:35Speaker 0: not be profitable for you. And really,

00:01:38Speaker 0: you don't wanna compete with them on price either. So if you can't copy your competitor's pricing,

00:01:43Speaker 0: then what should you do? Well, that's why you're here. Right? In this next section of videos,

00:01:49Speaker 0: my buddy, Bryant, is going to go over your new pricing formula that you will take with you and use in your business on an everyday

00:01:58Speaker 0: basis. Now, if you hadn't done so by now, you may wanna check out some of our downloadable pricing calculators

00:02:04Speaker 0: and we're going to go over how to use them and when to use them. Okay, Bryant. Show them the way.

Prev Lesson

Don't trip over pennies

In this lesson, learn how to avoid the common mistake of overanalyzing pricing details in business operations, especially in the context of managing a shop. By understanding your shop's labor rate, material costs, and desired profit margins, you can set effective prices without getting bogged down in minute details, thus focusing on larger-scale profitability and efficiency.

Next Lesson

Building profit into your pricing

It would be weird if we started anywhere other than profit for a course on profitable sign pricing, right?. If you’re not turning a profit on your signs are large format printing why are we doing this?