7个理由，你的小生意或自由职业无法赚到足够的钱（下）

点此阅读：7个理由，你的小生意或自由职业无法赚到足够的钱（上）

5. Pricing doesn’t include enough margin.

5. 定价不足以容纳利润增长的空间。

The unbillable time that you spend selling is a real cost that could mean the difference between a fat profit margin and not making enough money. Additional unbillable time that is necessary for your business includes time you spend on operations: keeping your books in order, invoicing and collecting payments, maintaining your website and maintaining your brand.

你花在销售上的不可计费时间是一笔真正的成本，这可能意味着丰厚的利润率和赚不到足够的钱之间的差距。对于你的企业来说，额外的不可计费的时间包括你在运营上花费的时间：保持你的账目有序，开票和收款，维护你的网站和维护你的品牌。

Do you know how much time you are spending on what activities? Does your pricing account for all of your time?

你知道你在什么活动上花了多少时间吗？你的定价是否占据了你所有的时间？

6. Client targets are too low.

6. 客户目标太低。

When you do come up with a price that accounts for all of your time, you might see that the breakeven price is much higher than you have been charging to date. You might fear that your clients will balk at paying this increase. This fear may be unfounded, because if clients have been happy thus far, they may not want to lose you.

当你提出一个占了你所有时间的价格时，你可能会发现盈亏平衡的价格远远高于你迄今为止的价格。你可能会担心你的客户会拒绝支付这一增长。这种担心可能是没有根据的，因为如果客户到目前为止都很开心，他们可能不想失去你。

You can increase prices gradually or offer payment plans -- there are ways to negotiate a price increase so it’s more palatable. However, you might find that some of your clients are unable or unwilling to pay the higher prices. You need to build your business around clients who can pay the prices you need to hit your earnings target.

你可以循序渐进地提高价格，或者提供付款计划——有几种方式可以协商价格上涨，这样就更容易接受了。然而，您可能会发现您的一些客户无法或不愿支付更高的价格。你需要围绕那些能够支付你实现盈利目标所需的价格的客户建立业务。

You need to account for all of these activities when you set your pricing to ensure that it has enough margin to cover not just executing the work, but all of your operations. Many small businesses' pricing does not include enough margin, either because the small-business owner only considers the hours they are actually executing the work or because they underestimate how much time is spent on these unbillable, but business-critical, activities.

当您定价时，您需要考虑所有这些活动，以确保它有足够的利润，不仅包括执行工作，还包括所有操作。许多小企业的定价没有包括足够的利润，要么是因为小企业所有者只考虑他们实际执行工作的时间，要么是因为他们低估了在这些不可计费但对业务至关重要的活动上花费了多少时间。

7. Offering is too small.

7. 报价可选择性太少了。

If your clients are right and your pricing is right, another area to review is your offering. I coached one design consultant who offered a range of services, from strategy to execution of a branding plan, and sold each step individually, as well as in a bundle.

如果你的客户是对的，而你的定价是对的，那么另一个需要评估的领域就是你的产品。我指导过一位设计顾问，他提供了一系列服务，从战略到品牌计划的执行，每一步都是单独销售的，而且是捆绑销售。

However, the selling cycle for individual pieces was just as long as for the larger projects. This meant the margins were much smaller, and that she was better off focusing on the larger offerings. She could still take on smaller projects opportunistically, or refer these out and take a fee. You don’t have to say "yes" to every sale, because not every sale is of equal value.

然而，单个项目的销售周期与大型项目一样长。这意味着利润率要小得多，她最好专注于更大的产品。她仍然可以投机取巧地承接较小的项目，或者将这些项目提交出去并收取费用。你不必对每笔交易都说“是”，因为并不是每笔交易都具有同等的价值。

If your small business is not making enough money, there are many levers to pull to improve its profitability. You need to know your numbers, from the unbillable time you are spending to the price of each individual offering. The small businesses I see struggle the most are ones that don’t have a concrete sense of their numbers.

如果你的小公司没有赚到足够的钱，有很多方法可以提高它的盈利能力。你需要知道你的数字，从你花在账单上的时间到每一件商品的价格。在我看来，最挣扎的小企业是那些对自己的数字没有具体认识的企业。

Keep a time log. Review your historical sales for pricing, scope of project, client size, client mix and sales channel. Look for the areas that you can improve in your business based on the profit you want, as well as the psychic and lifestyle benefits you wish to retain.

做一个时间轴。回顾你的销售历史，包括定价，项目范围，客户规模，客户组合和销售渠道。根据你想要的利润，以及你希望保留的心理和生活方式上的好处，在你的生意中寻找你可以改进的领域。