Skills / Price your work
Price your work
Work out an honest price and practice saying it. Cost floor, market check, the number said out loud without flinching. Use when they ask "what should I charge", "am I charging too little", or "how do I price this".
Use this skill. Nothing to install.
Don't have an agent? · Raw file: skills/price-your-work.md
Watch the first two minutes
This is how a session goes, including the part where the number has to come out of your mouth. Click through it.
Scripted example of a real session.
Scared to say the number out loud?
That fear is the actual problem this skill solves, and arithmetic alone doesn't fix it. A price fails if you can't deliver it steadily, so the session ends in role-play: the agent plays the customer, you say the line, it pushes back, you answer with a scope cut instead of a discount, and you run it three or four times until the number comes out flat and calm. If you'd rather practice against a real page first, put your price on one of these and see how it feels in public:
What you end up with
A one-page price sheet you keep and reuse: the floor with its math, the market evidence with sources, the chosen price, and the pushback answer, all written down.
- The floor is arithmetic. Materials at real prices, time at a defensible hourly number, plus the overhead people forget (transport, fees, a share of tools). Working below it means paying to work, which is fine exactly once, knowingly, for a portfolio piece.
- Three data points, with sources. Sold and actually-paid numbers beat asking prices. The honest adjustment: the going rate assumes experienced adults, so this price sits below it while staying above the floor.
- Closer to market than feels comfortable. That is deliberate. If the floor ever exceeds the market, the offer loses money at market rates, and the skill says so plainly instead of hiding it in the price.
- The fallback trades scope. A rehearsed answer to "can you do less?" that cuts the work along with the money, instead of caving on the same work.
Questions people actually ask
Isn't it greedy to charge people I know?
A stated, honest price is fairer to both sides than "whatever works", which forces the other person to guess and usually leads to you being underpaid and quietly resentful. The sheet exists so the number is defensible: you can show the floor math and the market evidence to anyone who asks.
What if my floor is higher than what people actually pay?
Then the offer loses money at market rates, and the skill says exactly that instead of papering over it. The fix happens in the costs or the offer itself (cheaper materials, less time per job, a different service), never by hiding the loss inside a price.
Can I skip the research and copy what someone else charges?
One copied number is one data point, and possibly a bad one. The market check wants three, from sold or actually-paid prices rather than asking prices, each with its source written down, then an honest adjustment for the fact that you may be newer than the people setting the going rate.
When do I raise the price?
After the price meets its first ten real customers, the sheet gets revisited. Selling out instantly means too low; universal balking means too high. Either way you update the sheet rather than abandoning it.
Is this financial advice?
No, and the skill says so in the session: it is not financial advice or business consulting. It is arithmetic plus a market check plus practice saying a number. Nothing here touches accounts, investments, or anyone's money.
Where to go from here
Price written down? Put it in front of a real buyer:
Give the price a home: a page where it lives in public:
Curious? Read the full skill — the exact instructions your agent gets
--- name: price-your-work category: money description: Work out an honest price and practice saying it. Cost floor, market check, the number said out loud without flinching. Use when they ask "what should I charge", "am I charging too little", or "how do I price this". --- # price-your-work Help someone put a number on their own work, which is harder for them than the work itself. The output is a written price they can say out loud and defend. You are not a financial advisor and this is not business consulting — it is arithmetic plus a market check plus practice. ## The cost floor Price starts at what it costs them, counted honestly: - Materials: everything consumed per unit or per job, at real prices they can point to (receipts, store pages). - Time: hours per job, times an hourly number. For a floor, use what they would earn at an available alternative. Check the current official minimum-wage source for their location and age as one reference. Their time is not free even if it feels free. - Overhead they forget: transport to the job, platform or payment fees, a share of any tool they had to buy. Add it up. That is the floor. Any price below it means paying to work, which is fine exactly once, knowingly, for a portfolio piece — and never as a habit. Put the floor in the sheet first. ## The market check Find what real buyers actually pay for the comparable thing, today: - Search local listings, marketplace sold prices (sold, not asking), and what businesses nearby charge for the same service. - Three data points minimum. Write down where each came from. - Exclude regulated, hazardous, licensed, or insured work they are not qualified and permitted to perform. Do not turn a licensing gap into a discount. The price should be checked against both the floor and comparable offers. If floor exceeds market, the product loses money at market rates; say so plainly and rework the costs or the offer rather than hiding it in the price. ## Say the number The price fails if they cannot deliver it steadily. Practice with them, out loud, in a role-play where you are the customer: - The line is short: "That's $40." No "um", no "is that okay?", no discount offered before anyone asked. - Rehearse the pushback: "Can you do it for less?" A workable answer trades scope for money — "For $25 I can do the front yard only" — instead of just caving on the same work. - Rehearse silence. Customers pause; the first one to add words usually loses. Let the number sit. Run it three or four times until the number comes out flat and calm. ## Done - A short price sheet, written down where they will reuse it: the offer in one line, the floor with its math, the three market data points with sources, the chosen price, and the fallback scope-cut answer - The number and scope-cut answer rehearsed aloud without inventing market data - Local age, platform, licensing, and tax questions identified for an official source or trusted adult When the price meets its first ten real customers, revisit: selling out instantly means too low, universal balking means too high, and either way the sheet gets updated, not abandoned.