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Hey rebel solopreneurs 🦸♀️🦸♂️
Most solopreneurs pick a price the same way.
They Google what other people charge. They pick something in the middle. They hope for the best.
First client says "let me think about it."
Never hears back.
Drops the price. Gets a client. Feels relief. Feels resentful.
There's a better way — and it takes 15 minutes.
⛳️ Here's the scenario
Meet Ryan.
Eight years as a brand strategist at a mid-size agency.
He'd run positioning projects for companies raising Series B. Built visual identity systems from scratch. Presented to boards of directors.
He left to go solo six months ago.
The work was good. The pricing was a disaster.
He charged $75 an hour because that's what a forum post said to start with.
His first real client had asked for a full brand strategy — positioning, messaging, visual direction. Six weeks of work. He quoted $3,200.
The client signed in under two minutes.
That felt like a win.
Then a colleague told him the same project usually runs $15,000-$25,000.
Ryan nearly fell off his chair.
He'd left $12,000 on the table and had no idea.
One evening, he was at a bookshop looking for something on freelance pricing when he started chatting to the man behind the counter.
Quiet. Deliberate. Reading a dog-eared copy of Priceless.
Turned out he'd spent 20 years as a pricing consultant — helping law firms, architects, and consultants move from hourly billing to value-based rates. His clients had doubled their income without taking on a single extra project. (Ryan's jaw dropped.)
The man took one look at Ryan's rate card.
And then he showed him what it should look like.
❌ What Ryan had: "$75/hour — brand strategy projects"
✅ What it became: "Brand Foundation Package — $8,500. Includes: positioning statement, messaging framework, visual direction. 6-week engagement. Payment: 50% upfront."
Same work. Clear scope. Three times the price. No hourly rate in sight.
"How do you even arrive at a number like that?"
The man leaned back against the shelf.
"Three things. Most people skip all three."
💡 First — price the outcome, not the time.
"Your client doesn't care how long it took. They care what they walk away with. A brand foundation that raises their next round is worth $50,000 to them. Charging $75 an hour for that is like pricing a Picasso by the hour it took to paint."
💡 Second — anchor your price to the value your client gets — not what you need to earn.
"Hourly rates make clients think about time. Value-based rates make clients think about what they're buying. Find out what the outcome is worth to them — then price at 10-20% of that number."
💡 Third — structure your offer so it's easy to say yes.
"Scope. Deliverables. Timeline. Price. Payment terms. One clear package beats a menu of options every time. People don't want to build their own offer — they want to buy the thing that solves their problem."
He wrote three prompts on a bookmark and handed it over.
"Run these before your next pricing conversation. Takes 15 minutes."
Here's what each prompt does:
▶️ Prompt 1 — Find the value your client gets: Takes your service and your client type and calculates the business outcome your work produces — so you have a number to anchor your price to.
▶️ Prompt 2 — Build a clear offer package: Takes your service and turns it into a clean, scoped package with deliverables, timeline, and price — no hourly rate needed.
▶️ Prompt 3 — Write your pricing pitch: Writes the exact words to use when a client asks "what do you charge?" — calm, confident, no apologising.
Ryan opened his AI sidekick and got to work.
🎯 Step 1: Find the value your client gets
⏱️ 5 minutes
Before you pick a number, you need to know what the outcome is worth to your client. This prompt figures that out for you.
My service: {e.g. brand strategy for early-stage startups —
positioning, messaging, visual direction}
My typical client: {e.g. Series A startup, 10-30 people,
preparing to raise Series B or launch to a new market}
1. What specific business outcome does my service help them achieve?
2. What would it cost them to NOT have this done well?
(lost deals, delayed fundraising, wasted marketing spend — be specific)
3. What would they pay a big agency to do the same work?
4. Based on this, what's a fair range for a one-person specialist
to charge? (as a fixed project fee, not hourly)
Show your reasoning. Be direct. Give me a number range.
Here's what changed:
❌ Before: "I charge $75/hour. A brand project usually takes about 40-50 hours so... maybe $3,500?"
✅ After: "Business outcome: A clear positioning and messaging system they can use in pitch decks, sales calls, and marketing — immediately. Without it, startups waste $30,000-$80,000 on marketing that doesn't convert because nobody knows what to say."
"Agency equivalent: A boutique brand agency charges $20,000-$40,000 for this scope."
"Fair solo specialist range: $7,000-$15,000 per project. You bring senior expertise without the agency overhead. Clients get the same quality at 40-60% of the agency price — and get to work directly with the strategist, not an account manager."
Ryan stared at it.
He'd been charging $75 an hour.
The value he delivered was worth ten times that.
Now he needed a clean package to put in front of clients.
That's Step 2.
🔍 Step 2: Build a clear offer package
⏱️ 5 minutes
This prompt takes your service and turns it into a ready-to-send offer — with a clear scope, clear deliverables, and a fixed price. No hourly rate, no ambiguity.
My service: {e.g. brand strategy for Series A startups}
What I deliver: {e.g. positioning statement, messaging framework,
visual direction guidelines, brand voice document}
Typical timeline: {e.g. 6 weeks}
Price range from Step 1: {e.g. $7,000-$15,000}
Build me a clear offer package:
1. Package name (specific, outcome-focused — not "Brand Package")
2. What's included (5-7 deliverables, plain English)
3. What's NOT included (scope boundaries — 2-3 lines)
4. Timeline
5. Recommended price point (pick one number, not a range)
6. Payment terms
7. One-line summary of what the client walks away with
Write it like something I could paste directly into a proposal.
Here's what changed:
❌ Before: "Brand strategy project — $75/hour. Estimated 40-50 hours. Includes positioning and some visual direction."
✅ After: "Brand Foundation — $9,500
What you get:
Positioning statement (the one sentence that makes you the obvious choice)
Messaging framework (what to say on your website, in pitches, in sales calls)
Visual direction guidelines (colour, type, imagery — not a full logo system)
Brand voice guide (how you sound in writing)
1-hour handover session to walk your team through everything
Not included: logo design, website copy, ongoing content creation
Timeline: 6 weeks Payment: 50% to start, 50% on delivery You leave with a complete brand system ready to use on day one."
Ryan read it back to himself.
This felt like something worth $9,500.
The old version felt like something worth $75 an hour.
Same work. Completely different framing.
Now he needed the words to say it out loud.
That's Step 3.
🧠 Step 3: Write your pricing pitch
⏱️ 5 minutes
This prompt writes the exact words to say when a prospect asks "what do you charge?" — confident, clear, no hesitation, no apologising.
My offer: {e.g. Brand Foundation — $9,500, 6-week engagement}
My client type: {e.g. Series A startups preparing to raise or go to market}
Write me 3 versions of a pricing response — for these 3 situations:
1. First call — prospect asks "what do you charge?" before I've explained the offer
2. Proposal follow-up — they've seen the offer, they're quiet, I need to check in
3. Pushback — they say "that's more than we expected"
Rules:
- No apologising for the price
- No "it depends" — give them something concrete
- No hedging language — confident, warm, direct
- Short. Nothing longer than 5 sentences per response.
Here's what changed:
❌ Before: "So my rate is $75 an hour... and usually a project like this takes maybe 40-50 hours, so it's probably around $3,000-$4,000 or so? It depends on scope."
✅ After: "First call response: 'My Brand Foundation package runs $9,500 for a 6-week engagement. That includes positioning, messaging, visual direction, and a brand voice guide — everything you need to go to market or into a pitch with a clear, consistent story. Want me to walk you through what's included?'"
"Pushback response: 'I get that. Most of my clients come from agencies where this scope runs $20,000-$35,000. I work with one client at a time, which means you get direct access to me — not an account manager. The price reflects that. Happy to answer any questions about what you're getting.'"
[Ryan's AI sidekick filled in the proposal follow-up version...]
He read the pushback response three times.
That was it.
No apologising. No caving.
Just a calm, confident explanation of why the price made sense.
🏆 Ryan's results
Before:
$75/hour rate set by a forum post, not by any logic
Left $12,000 on the table on his first real project
No idea what to say when a client asked about price
After:
A clear package at $9,500 with defined scope and deliverables
A pricing pitch he could say out loud without flinching
First proposal at the new rate — signed within 48 hours
Total time: 15 minutes. Not another $12,000 mistake.
His AI sidekick calculated the value, built the package, and wrote the pitch. Ryan made the call. BAM.
Three prompts. A price anchored to value, not guesswork. Words that make clients want to say yes.
That's it, my fellow outliers!
Yours 'helping you hire the best AI Sidekicks team who work 24/7 with almost zero cost' Vijay Peduru 🦸♂️