Whether you’re just starting out offering ergonomics services or looking to sign a new client, you’re probably asking yourself, “How much should I charge for my services?” Deciding how to price your services can be a difficult task, but it’s an important part of establishing a profitable ergonomic business. 

I get it. It’s not simple. Charge too high, and you might turn-off your potential clients. Charge too low, and you’ll gain less profit. When it comes to pricing your ergonomic services, it’s all about striking a balance between attracting paying clients and making a profit. But how can you find a balance that will allow you to build a consulting business where you’re providing value to people and get fairly paid for it? In this post, I’ll be sharing 3 essential tips to help you manage this important task in your business. Let’s dig in.

The Dangers of Undercharging Your Services

I understand that when you're just starting off offering ergonomic services to your community or when you’re building a relationship with your ideal client, you may feel the need to undercut your prices to encourage them to move forward with you. However, there may actually be more risk in setting your rates too low. 

Here’s why:

• When you’re undercharging your services, you’re also underselling your skills and years of experience.
• Lowering your rate makes it difficult to manage a profitable business because you’re going to be on this treadmill of constantly bringing in new clients and working for long hours, yet still barely making enough income.
• Setting your pricing too low will also undervalue the Ergonomics Industry. If you charge low rates for your Ergonomics Services, your client might think that it’s the same for everyone, making it hard for other Ergonomics Consultants to make a fair living.

So when you lower your prices in an attempt to attract potential clients or to make it easier for them to move forward with you, you’re actually doing a disservice not only to yourself but also to your business and the Ergonomics profession.

Keep in mind: Your fee is an expression of how you view your business. So if you don’t value your services and charge correctly, your clients won’t value your services either.   

Factors to Consider in Pricing Your Services

It can certainly be challenging to decide how much you want to charge, as you want your Ergonomic Services to be sustainable to cover your expenses, profitable for you, and valuable to your clients. While there’s no right or wrong way when it comes to deciding how much you should charge, consider the following tips below to help you make a more informed decision.

Tip #1: Factor in your costs when setting your rates

Keep in mind that as a business owner, your rates need to cover more than just your pay. So the first important tip you need to consider is to look at your day-to-day expenses. How much does it cost you to provide your services to your clients? Let’s say you charge your clients $300 an hour for an ergonomic assessment and report. As a business owner, you must factor in all your costs including travel fees, equipment, administrative fees, and other hidden costs that might come along the way. In order for your consulting business to survive and grow, make sure to set pricing that makes sense for your business expenses. 

Tip #2: Look at the value of your services

Setting the rates for your services involves more than just covering your business expenses. You also need to consider the value (benefits) of your services. To your clients, the important aspect in determining how much they’re willing to pay for your services may not be how much time it takes you to finish an assessment or how fast you can get the reports done. Rather, they want to know what the value of that service and your expertise is to them because they care more about the result. People pay for our expertise to get their problems solved.

So from this value perspective, you need to consider everything you’re bringing to the table. As Ergonomics Consultants, we help clients keep their employees safe and productive, stop expensive workers’ compensation claims, facilitate return to work, etc. It’s essential to consider these things when we're thinking about pricing because we're not offering a commodity, we're providing a highly skilled service that can positively impact their organization’s bottom line. So make sure that you evaluate the value of your services and charge accordingly.

Tip #3: Estimate the time to complete the work

Looking at your business costs and value aren’t the only factors you need to consider when pricing your Ergonomic Services. The time you put into your work matters as well. The more time you spend on providing services, the more you should earn. So the last tip is to estimate how much time you’ll invest conducting an ergonomic assessment. This includes vendor research, interviews, as well as drafting and editing your report.

I know that a simple office ergonomics assessment report can take between 30 minutes to 1 hour to complete, but what happens if it’s a complex case? Let’s say that you charge low prices to try to get your foot in the door, but then you realize later on that it's a complex case that requires a significant amount of due diligence. What’s the result? You’re pressed for time, overworked. Perhaps you'll think this isn’t the right career for you because you're not making enough money to support yourself and your family. Spending your time doing Ergonomics assessments, training the employees, and recommending solutions translate to your clients saving their time. Your valuable time should also be taken into consideration when setting your pricing.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, how much you charge your clients will depend on you and what your business needs. However, these three tips that I mentioned will help you simplify your decision-making process. Remember these 3 key factors: cost, value, and time.

Setting your pricing is an essential aspect of building a profitable ergonomic consulting business. Take the next step towards growing your business by joining the Accelerate: The Business of Ergonomics program. This is your go-to system to get started with marketing your ergonomics services and get to where you want to be. Sign up to this list now so you’ll be the first one to know when I open the next enrollment.