How to price your nutrition services
In this article, you will learn how to price your nutrition services depending on your competition, your coaching style, your goals, and every other parameter that really matters!
I don’t know about you, but when I was in school I wasn’t taught how to price my packages for my consulting business. I wasn’t even given the going rates in our field. When it came time to sit down and figure out my pricing, I was a mess! I didn’t want to price my services too high because I knew that people would shy away from that steep bottom line. I was also shocked to learn that if I priced my services too low, people were going to think that I was inexperienced or not providing the best product. Obviously, people would think that I was under-selling myself.
At it’s most basic level, your pricing strategy should be as follows:
- Operating Expenses
- Costs
- Profit You would like to Make
However, as you gain experience, you will have to tweak your pricing to follow the market.
Knowing these tips below will help you come up with the optimum pricing for your product/service and allow you and your clients to benefit from the very beginning.
- Know your Competition
- Coaching vs One-time Service
- Know Your Costs and Salary Goals
- How to Pick the Best Pricing Model
- How to Factor in your Location (is online an option?)
- Pre-Testing/Testing Your Prices
Know Your Competition
I was never one for homework, but when dealing in business, it is crucial. Knowing what your competition is providing and at what price will help you price your services effectively.
Maybe someone has a similar product priced really low. But when you go through their reviews, you see they provide horrible service. The second person you find is marketing themselves as “the best” in the business and charges double what the other guy does. You do a quick search of their website and they have 10 different certifications and hundreds of positive reviews.
Consider what others are charging and you will have a price range to work with. To figure out where you should be in that spectrum think about these key areas:
- Your Skill Level
- Level of Experience
- Your Training/Certifications
- The Reputation you have Build
- Your Location
Making sure that you can explain the added value that you offer to potential clients is something you have to keep in mind. If you cannot justify it in your pricing then don’t include it.
Coaching VS One-Time Services
Before I even dive into which price model would work best for you, you need to decide on a business model. In terms of Nutrition Consulting, that would mean thinking about whether you are looking to act as a coach with an on-going package or if you want to sell one-time deals. This is crucial in how you decide to price your product.
I myself decided to go with package pricing in the beginning because I was working at a gym. However, once I met with more than a handful of clients – I felt like something was missing. I found that more often than not, I didn’t feel like I was doing the most I could for them. Providing them with information and the tools to better themselves is great. However, if they weren’t coming in with guns a blazin’, ready to rock that plan, then they fell off the wagon and that was it. I never heard from them again. Or once they did the 4 week plan, they weren’t wanting anything more. I then decided to remodel my business to be more Maybe that works for you, though!
So decide, do you want to coach people in a lifestyle change or do you just want to bang out plans for people, such as athletes or very motivated individuals? Maybe you want to set up classes for people to take with you. Whatever it is, make sure you have your product down pat and tested before you mass market it.
Know Your Costs and Salary Goals
The goal of owing your own business is to work as little as possible, with the largest profit.
Let’s say you already know that you need to make $45,000/year and only want to work 20 hours/week (1040 hours/per year – yes, please!). That works out to roughly $43.25 per hour.
You also need to determine your costs of running your business. This includes some pretty obvious (or maybe not to some of you) things:
- Website Fees
- Banking Fees
- Materials for Promotion
- Advertising
- Rent
- Cell Phone
- Internet Costs
- Insurance
- Licenses
- Accountant Fees
Once you have figured out all your costs add those to your hourly rate (from the calculation above) to get the minimum you should charge per hour. Let’s give you a theoretical example, just so we are clear.
I want to make $45k per year and I have $7200 in expenses each year.
45,000 + 7,200 = $52,200 / 1040 hours worked = $50 per hour and a minimum of 20 hours of work per week.
Your hourly rate depends on the factors below:
- Your Industry
- How Well You Market Yourself
- Your Expertise Level
- Your Visibility in the Industry or Authority Status
- Provable Referrals and Recommendations
- Your Already-Proven Results
- How Many Clients You Need
- What Your Competitors are Charging
This gives you a basis of how much you need to charge for your packages or your flat rate fees. Check out these price models you can use below to decide what is best for your business.
How to Pick the Best Price Model
There are a lot of different pricing models in the world of business. I have only listed four that I think are the most relevant to Nutritionists, mainly because we provide a service or product.
- Tiered Pricing– Tiered pricing is based on volume. Think of “Buy one, get one free” or “Buy 4 weeks of meal plans for $100 or one week for $35”. If you turned this into a graphic representation, it would look similar to an inverted pyramid. This pricing model works well for physical goods, combined with multiple buyer types.
- Freebie Marketing– Most of us are very familiar with this pricing model. Give a free consult or a free week of meal planning to your target market. Your client sees this value but also gets through the door. Let’s say you get them in for a free consult. Chat with them, get to know them, give them value and information based on their main concern right then and there. Then near the end of the meeting, you say “I will send you all the information we talked about in an email today. I also have a special offer this month one a meal planning class. For $250, I give you a 4 week meal plan with shopping lists, take you shopping, show you how to prep 4 easy meals in your home, and also give you ongoing email support.”
- Based on Value– You can charge more than other Nutritionists in your field if you offer a product that is of high value. This is especially true if your services are unique or have a feature your competitors don’t provide… Perhaps instead of offering just a consult for a fee, you offer a consult with four weeks of tips based on their main health concerns or issues. Or if you are ghostwriting for a blog, you offer original photos, unlike other competitors. This model works especially well for a service-based business.
- Flat Fee/Hour Rate– this is the model usually used by service providers, which most nutritionists are. Clients often need fixed pricing in order to know exactly what they are going to pay regardless of the number of hours you are going to work on their plan. This is relevant whether or not you are working for someone or working for yourself.
For example, if you were charging $1200 for a lifestyle overhaul, your client would know that regardless of how many hours it took, they would get a program made specifically for them without any hidden fees. An hourly rate can be calculated from a flat fee model and is definitely something you should keep in mind when building packages. You need to make sure that your hourly rate in flat fee price is in line with the industry’s standards, as well as what you need to make per hour.
A $1200 package takes you about 12 hours to complete = $100/per hour of work
Location Does Affect Your Prices
When your services are provided online or among other consultants – location is everything.
In a real life scenario another practitioner can be located near the front of the space you both working out of. They can offer horrible service that is over-priced and is clearly unsubstantial to yours. When a potential client that is motivated to lose 20 pounds, walks through the front door, they see the consultant near the entrance. This extremely motivated client doesn’t even have a chance to check out your enhanced services, at the back of the office, for a better price. They will go for the first offering they see.
How do you get your info to the entrance of the building?
Extend your reach:
- Write a blog
- Be on every social media platform
- Commenting on other weight loss/nutrition blogs or forums
- Buying ads
- General public
- Send out local flyers, for your potential clients in your area
- Mail postcards or send out emails to previous clients
- Sell the “added value”, not the main idea of the package
- Then sell the package – emphasize its quality
Be Visible
Head to other people’s health and wellness forums, social media and blogs regularly. Make sure you are always giving advice and information on the topic you are selling. Answer any questions you see that a related to your business. Talk about your business constantly. Be approachable. If you are there answering questions, constantly promoting your business and what you do – you will be top of their mind when they are looking to buy.
Most importantly, sell your product on quality, exceeding expectations, deadlines and who you are as a person. Can you relate to your client or can they relate to you? Competing on price alone leads you into a situation of “who can do cheaper”. If they are trying to find the cheapest service possible, they will ditch you as soon as they find someone who is offering your services for less. They will never see the added value you offer. If you have read “How to find your Niche” then you know it is about focusing on the client you want and not just any client you can get!
How to Test your Pricing
One of the best ways to test your pricing is to do a “limited time offer” Of your product. Testing the pricing for potential demand in the real world will help you get recommendations from potential clients and hopefully some testimonials to use on social media and your website. Having any feedback before you finalize your packages or pricing will let you make changes as necessary, so you know you are offering the best product out there. You can do this in quite a few ways:
Free copies – Make sure that the client knows the product comes with a condition; in turn, they give you a detailed review of the product. You can give them a list of questions to answer about the product.
Free samples – If you sell a physical product, like a meal plan, give them a week for free. Just like above, they will need to give a detailed review. One thing to remember when doing this is to include the cost of the free samples into your initial pricing calculations.
Closed Forum Special Offers – If you are part of a collective group, forum or a membership that has a chat area, you can test the product here. Be sure to check the rules about selling within these groups. Quite often they will have a very specific area that you can sell in.
Partner up – Offer a limited-time, limited-number of your product with a special price before you launch. This is best done when given to your niche’s influencers. Think about giving it to a Naturopathic doctor so he can recommend you to anyone in your niche, that comes through their doors.
Once you have tested your pricing with more than one of the steps above, you can accurately gage what price your product should be set at when you put it out to the general public. Pre-testing is an integral part of your pricing strategy and you should ensure you leave adequate amounts of time for it in your business plan.
Before you set your prices, be sure to take into account for the following:
- Your experience
- Your credentials, certifications, qualifications
- Who your clients are
- Your strengths and weaknesses
- Your skill sets (what you can do that others can’t)
- Cost of materials (promotional ads, or free product)
- Your competitors
- Operating expenses (cost of your computer, rent, upgrade courses you have to take, insurance, business license, etc…)
- Location and visibility (if you are not ideally situated, how are you going to get the word out?)
- Do you have to hire staff or outsource? Will you be growing your business in the future?
- Profit you are aiming for
There is a lot to think about when setting your prices. But having all this information at your fingertips should go a long way in helping you set prices confidently. Knowing what you are worth is the best way to ensure your services provide your customers with the best service, and you, with maximum profit.