01 / Build the business
Price a service, including revisions.
For a fixed-price service, price the agreed deliverables plus the time to review, revise, test, and hand them over. Define an included revision before estimating its hours. Assess genuinely new work separately, then agree on its price and delivery impact before starting it.
You will leave with: A cost estimate, a project quote with clear revision boundaries, and a process for pricing additional work. The worked example is a small service; adapt the assumptions to your offer.
Know what you are pricing
Bring a specific customer problem and a proposed result. A price cannot resolve an undefined scope. If you still do not know whether the problem matters, investigate that first instead of using a discount to create interest.
All dollar amounts, hours, percentages, and customer situations below are fictional planning assumptions. They are not industry benchmarks, payment-provider rates, or a recommended price for your business.
1. Define the result and billing unit
Write the deliverables, boundaries, customer inputs, and completion criteria. Choose a billing unit that matches how the work and value occur.
| Model | When it may fit | Boundary to make explicit |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed project price | A defined result with reasonably predictable work | Deliverables, revisions, assumptions, and change requests |
| Hourly or daily | The work is useful but its extent is uncertain | Rate, estimate, spending cap, and approval for extra time |
| Recurring fee | The customer receives a defined ongoing service | What each period includes and how the service ends |
For a software product, the unit might be an account, seat, or measured usage. Check that customers can understand the bill and that heavy use does not make delivery uneconomic. Recurring revenue needs an ongoing reason for the customer to pay.
One offer, with limits
Nina's fictional onboarding service for a wedding photographer includes one intake form, three email templates, one handoff session, and one revision in the customer's existing tools. It excludes custom integrations, software licenses, and ongoing administration.
2. Define an included revision before pricing it
Describe which changes the base price includes, how the customer will supply feedback, and how you will handle a request that changes the agreed deliverables.
“One revision” is incomplete unless both people understand what can change. For Nina's offer, it means one collected set of comments on the wording and order of the existing form questions and emails. It does not mean another form, a new workflow, or a different software setup.
| Request | Classification | How Nina handles it |
|---|---|---|
| Reword the existing questions in the included feedback round | Included revision | Complete it within the quoted scope; the base estimate already allows time for it. |
| Restore a required question that Nina omitted from the agreed brief | Correction | Bring the work into line with the brief. In this offer, her own errors do not consume the customer's revision round. |
| Make another preference-based wording pass after the included round | Additional revision | Check the agreed limits, estimate the request, and agree on any additional charge before doing it. |
| Add a second intake form for another service | Scope change | Define the new deliverable and estimate its cost and schedule separately. |
Ask for one person to combine the customer's feedback, and agree on a review window that works for both sides. Choose the number of rounds from the work and approval process; there is no single count to copy into every offer. If a request is ambiguous, compare it with the original brief together before labeling it extra work.
Fiverr's own order guidance distinguishes the agreed revision allowance from requests outside the original scope. Its platform process is one example; use the terms that actually apply to your project.Managing revision requests — Fiverr Help Center.
3. Count the work behind the result
Estimate delivery time, direct expenses, transaction costs, and a reasonable share of overhead. Count each cost once and show which assumptions are uncertain.
Include preparation, meetings, revisions, handoff, and likely support time. Owner time has an economic cost even when you do not pay yourself an hourly wage. Use an explicit compensation assumption so a seemingly profitable offer does not depend on unpaid work.
| Cost | Assumption | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Owner time | 6 hours × $50 per hour | $300 |
| Direct expenses | Project-specific costs | $20 |
| Allocated overhead | $200 monthly overhead ÷ 5 expected projects | $40 |
| Cost before percentage fees | $300 + $20 + $40 | $360 |
Nina's six-hour estimate contains four hours for setup, testing, and handoff, one for the included revision, and one for uncertainty. Those are planning assumptions, not a hidden hourly cap on the customer's agreed revision. If the promised work takes longer, Nina records the overrun rather than automatically billing the difference.
The five-project assumption matters. With only two projects, the same monthly overhead would allocate $100 to each. Check your monthly cash needs and realistic capacity separately; a good margin on one job does not guarantee enough total work to cover the business.
The SBA's startup-cost and break-even guidance helps distinguish fixed costs, variable costs, and the sales volume needed to cover them.Business costs and break-even analysis — SBA.
4. Calculate a floor, then stress-test it
Calculate the price needed to cover your modeled costs and target margin. Recalculate with more delivery time or lower volume before choosing a quote.
In this simplified model, C is cost per project before percentage fees, f is fees as a fraction of the selling price, and m is the target margin after those costs. The price is C ÷ (1 − f − m). This only works when f + m is less than 1 and the fees actually follow that structure. Add any fixed per-transaction charge to C.
Worked calculation
Cost before percentage fees: $360
Illustrative percentage fee: 4% of the selling price
Target margin after modeled costs: 20% of the selling price
Price floor = $360 ÷ (1 − 0.04 − 0.20) = $473.684…
Rounded up to cents: $473.69. Trial quote: $500.
At $500, the modeled fee is $20. That leaves $120 after the $360 cost estimate, or 24% of revenue. This is a planning surplus before income tax and any omitted costs, with owner compensation already included in the estimate. Use the fees and tax treatment that actually apply to your business.
What three extra hours do to the offer
At nine hours instead of six, owner time costs $450. Add $20 of direct expenses and $40 of overhead: the project now costs $510 before percentage fees.
At the same $500 price and $20 fee, the modeled result is a $30 loss. Nina needs to investigate the extra work, tighten the scope, or reconsider the price. The original margin cannot absorb unlimited revisions.
Keep markup and margin separate. With no other costs, a $100 cost sold for $125 has a 25% markup on cost and a 20% margin on revenue. Adding 20% to cost does not produce a 20% margin.
5. Check the price against the customer's choices
Compare offers with similar scope and ask buyers what the result is worth in their current workflow. Treat your cost floor as a constraint, not evidence of willingness to pay.
Record the alternative, what it includes, total price, extra costs, and source date. A template pack, a done-for-you setup, and a custom system solve different amounts of work. Comparing their headline prices without those differences can mislead you.
Stripe's competitive-pricing guide describes looking beyond headline prices to the structure and contents of competing offers.Compare competitors' pricing and scope.
Ask about the customer's current effort, prior purchases, and what improvement would matter. Keep estimated time savings labeled as estimates. Do not turn an assumed hourly value into a promised return on investment.
If suitable buyers do not value the result enough to support your costs, consider a smaller scope, a less expensive delivery method, or a different customer problem. A mathematically sound floor does not make an offer viable.
For the distinction between a cost-based starting point and customer value, see Stripe's pricing overview.Cost-based and value-based pricing.
6. Put one understandable offer in writing
State the price beside the deliverables, exclusions, schedule, payment terms, and process for extra work. Resolve unclear assumptions before the customer accepts.
An illustrative offer outline
Client-onboarding setup — $500 project fee
Includes: one intake form, three email templates, one handoff session, and one collected feedback round on their existing wording and order.
Uses: the customer's existing tools and supplied workflow.
Excludes: custom integrations, software licenses, and ongoing administration.
Timing: five business days after the agreed inputs are received, subject to the agreed start date.
Before acceptance: confirm payment schedule, any applicable tax, review criteria, and cancellation terms in writing.
Feedback: agree on one person to collect comments and a practical review window. Corrections of Nina's own errors do not use the included round.
Extra work: quote changes separately and begin only after approval.
This outline makes a pricing discussion concrete; it is not a complete service contract. Replace the assumptions with terms you can fulfill. If you reduce the price by reducing scope, explain exactly what the customer will receive.
7. Price a change request before doing the work
Compare the request with the accepted scope. For additional work, estimate the new effort, explain the price and schedule impact, and record the customer's decision.
A cost overrun and a new customer request are different events. First establish what changed. Then include the added work to clarify the request, create the result, review it, and test it. Count only additional costs; do not allocate the original project's overhead a second time without a reason.
A second form: cost, price, and total
In this fictional continuation, Nina's customer wants a second intake form for corporate portraits. It is outside the original one-form offer. Nina estimates two hours to create it, half an hour for its included feedback round, and half an hour to test it: three additional hours.
At her existing $50 owner-time assumption, the added cost is $150. She assumes no new direct expense or allocated overhead for this addition. Using the same illustrative 4% fee and 20% target margin, the change-price floor is $150 ÷ (1 − 0.04 − 0.20) = $197.368…; rounded up, $197.37.
She proposes a $200 addition. The modeled fee on it is $8, leaving $42 after the $150 cost, or 21% of the added revenue. The original $500 plus the $200 addition makes a $700 project. These calculations test the economics; the buyer still decides whether the addition is worth its price.
A change quote the customer can decide on
Requested change: add one corporate-portrait intake form in the existing tool, with one collected feedback round and testing.
Scope difference: the accepted $500 offer includes one wedding intake form; this adds a second form for another service.
Additional price: $200. Revised project total: $700, with the agreed payment terms and any applicable tax stated separately.
Timing: in this example, delivery moves one business day later if the customer approves and supplies the agreed inputs by the proposed start date.
Decision: keep the original scope, approve the addition and revised timing, or discuss a smaller change. Please confirm your choice before I start the addition.
If the deadline cannot move, assess what you can actually deliver. Offer to defer the addition or agree on a different scope instead of promising an impossible turnaround. Record the selected option, revised deliverables, total price, timing, and approval date beside the original quote. Do not treat silence as approval.
Asana's change-control guidance covers recording a request, assessing its effect, deciding, and updating the plan. The example above applies that process to a solo service business.Change control process — Asana.
8. Test the quote and review delivery
Discuss the same defined offer with suitable buyers, record their decisions and reasons, then compare actual delivery costs with your estimate.
Track who received which version of the offer, the date, the quoted price, the decision, and unresolved questions. A buyer saying “too expensive” could mean a budget limit, unclear value, the wrong scope, or a comparison with a different solution. Ask what they are comparing before changing the price.
After a completed job, record hours by activity, direct costs, fees, and extra requests. Revise the estimate when the work shows it was wrong. Honor accepted terms; apply a new quote to future work or agree a change with the existing customer.
For a first engagement, join the cost review to the customer's completion checks and handoff record.Run a paid pilot: delivery and closeout worksheet.
A handful of quotes can reveal useful objections but cannot establish an optimal price. Change one important condition at a time and document it. Your next decision should reflect both what buyers value and what you can deliver sustainably.
Your offer-pricing worksheet
Copy the fields and replace every example assumption with your own. Keep price, scope, and calculation versions together so you can compare the quote with delivery.
- Offer and billing unit
- Customer: ____. Result: ____. Unit (project/hour/period/other): ____. Includes: ____. Excludes: ____. Inputs and revisions: ____.
- Revision boundaries
- Included refinements and number of rounds: ____. Who collects feedback: ____. Review window: ____. How corrections are handled: ____. Example of extra scope: ____.
- Cost estimate
- Hours for delivery, review, revisions, testing, handoff, and uncertainty: ____. Total hours × compensation assumption: ____. Direct expenses: ____. Allocated overhead and volume assumption: ____. Fixed fees: ____. Total before percentage fees (C): ____.
- Price calculation
- Percentage fee fraction (f): ____. Target margin fraction (m): ____. If f + m < 1, floor = C / (1 - f - m): ____. Trial price: ____. Applicable tax treatment: ____.
- Stress test
- Extra hours or costs to test: ____. Lower-volume overhead: ____. Revised cost: ____. Result at the trial price: ____. Change needed: ____.
- Customer alternatives
- Alternative: ____. Comparable scope: ____. Total price and extras: ____. Source/date: ____. Buyer evidence about value: ____.
- Change request
- Request/date: ____. Original scope it affects: ____. Classification (included revision/correction/additional revision/scope change): ____. Additional hours and costs: ____. Price and revised total: ____. Schedule/options: ____. Customer decision and approval date: ____.
- Quote and review
- Offer version/date: ____. Price and payment terms: ____. Delivery/review terms: ____. Buyer response: ____. Actual hours/costs: ____. Next pricing decision: ____.
Plain text. Open it in any text editor or paste it into your notes.
Your next action
Choose one offer and describe its included revision. Estimate all delivery and feedback time, then calculate the cost before choosing a price to test.