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Is it ever ok to work for free?

By Julia Bickerstaff - Monday, June 17, 2013

Today I’m thinking about free and in particular the times when you and I are asked to do stuff for free.


I’m quite happy to do things for free, and in fact - one way or another- I do quite a lot of it. But I try to be super-selective about it. I have to because back in the old days, when I didn’t give “freebies” enough thought, I wasted a lot of time doing great stuff for people that didn’t appreciate it, and projects that weren’t worth it.


I’m almost still cranky about it.


Nowadays I have five questions I go through to help me decide whether or not to give a freebie.  


1. There are five reasons to work for free, which one is it?


There are five common reasons to give a freebie. Now not all these reasons are deserving of a freebie, but we’ll get to that later. To start with I just decide which of the five is the reason I’m even contemplating doing ‘free’.


1.It’s good “exposure”

This is the most common reason for being asked to do a freebie. The idea is that you give your product for free and lots of people will hear about you. Donating cakes to a function or writing a column for a magazine are examples.


2.It will give good credibility

This is when you do something for free for a well know person or large organisation because it gives you credibilty. So making a birthday cake for Nigella Lawson would give heaps of credibility.


3.It’s a way to trial a new product

Sometime you give a freebie because you need to have a go with a real life customer. This could be your first wedding cake


4.It’s for family and friends

Not totally unreasonably, family and friends expect the occasional thing for free. The trouble comes when pretty well all your customers are family or friends.....


5.It’s for someone who ‘needs’ it but can’t afford it

We’re often asked to give freebies for “charitable” reasons.Mostly these are genuine requests but there are some shonky people out there. More below!


2. How much will it cost?


There are two types of cost - money and time - and I try to estimate them both.


Money costs

Mostly I think if someone is asking for a freebie they should reimburse you for any money costs you incur. So if someone asks you to make a cake for them, they buy the ingredients.


You can’t always do this and sometimes the benefits of the opportunity (Nigella’s birthday cake, say) outweigh the cost of the ingredients. It’s your call, but I think you should definitely ask for family and friends to pay ‘out of pocket costs’, mostly ask ‘charities’ and as often as possible get reimbursed for ‘exposure’ opportunities.


Time costs

Really the biggest cost of doing a freebie is time. And we don’t have much of that do we?! I think it’s usually quite easy to estimate how long a freebie will take to do. We just resist doing the calculation because that’s when we realise how ‘expensive’ it is! Once I’ve worked out how long it will take I I convert that into a cost (some tips here on hourly rates). And, can I say, that really focuses my mind!


3. How much is left in my ‘free’ budget?


At the start of the year I set myself a ‘free’ time budget for each of the ‘reasons’ in Step 1 above. I find this super-useful because it forces me to ask whether the freebie being requested is the best use of the budget.


Here’s an example. I’m often asked to write free articles for various publications. Although this is good exposure (more on that later!) I still set a limit for how much I will do as I also need to do spend my time on stuff that pays the bills. I have a set amount of hours I spend on free stuff for my ‘exposure’ pot and if a better ‘exposure’ opportunity comes in I have to jettison something else!


If you do no other budget, please do a ‘charity’ budget. I think we’re all asked to make lots of donations to “charitable” causes and with the best will in the world we can’t do them all. Setting a budget for what you do will help you feel more in control of the requests.


Keep track of how you’re using your ‘freebie’ budget. Start with the total “freebie” hours you plan to do in the year and deduct hours spent every time you do something for free. You can do this on a spreadsheet or in something like Evernote. Recording your ‘freebie’ time keeps you honest.



4. Is it worth it?


When I’m thinking about giving a freebie for business purposes (exposure type stuff) rather than altruistic reasons I try to work out whether the benefit is worth the cost.


Calculating the benefit isn’t so easy to do, but it’s worth having a go. I’ve got much better at asking questions rather than just being dazzled by the number of people who will “see my name”.


A friend of mine is in the cupcake business and she donated a little cupcake for each person attending an event. There were more than 800 attendees. Gulp! She tracked her sales for 3 months after the event and specifically asked customers if they had discovered her from attending the event. Only five said they had. Five!


Since then she’s been much more rigorous about checking out who the ‘consumers’ will be when she does a ‘freebie’, how much her name is mentioned, demanding good links back to her website, etc. She treats each ‘freebie’ like an expensive advertising opportunity and I think that’s a great tip.


5. Is it a ‘charity’?


Charity type stuff is a little tricky. It’s hard to say ‘no’ to people who are very deserving. The only way I can do this is to set my ‘free’ budget at the start of the year and stick to it. If I don’t feel a “charity” request is right for me I tell them that I set my “charity” budget at the start of the year and that it’s now fully allocated.


The other thing I do is to really check out the “charity”. There are some terribly unscrupulous people around. Enough said.


6. Is it for ‘family and friends’?


It’s super-hard to say ‘no’ to family and friends. What works best for me is giving them a ‘mates rate’. The way I do it is to first tell them what the proper price is and then I offer to do it at my cheaper ‘mates rate”. This usually keeps everyone happy.



And that's it for my tips. If you’re plagued with requests for free here are a few other things to read.


1. This one is terribly good. It’s about writing for free but it’s so funny you’ve just got to read it.


2. This one is a link to a question on freebies we posted on Facebook. There are some fabulously practical suggestions in here. As an aside, I’m giddy with delight that I’ve finally worked out how to link to a specific post on Facebook.


3. And this one is perfect if people ask you if they can “pick your brain” or have a coffee with you. A few coffees are fine. Full-time coffees will leave you hyper and penniless.


How do you deal with freebies? Comments are still off on the blog off *sigh* because of the spammers but you can contact me via Facebook or email: julia ‘@’ thebusinessbakery.com.au


And, and and......if  you don't want to miss our blog  we can send it straight to your inbox (together with our weekly round up of stuff to help you make a healthy income from your business.) Just sign up here (blue box)



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Write yourself a YEAH! list

By Julia Bickerstaff - Friday, June 07, 2013

(image http://behappy.me/OneToughMotherRunner)


I find it a bit freaky that we’re in June already. I’m sure that yesterday it was March. I don’t feel ready to be half way through 2013. Do you feel like this too?


Anyway half-way through we are, so it’s time for me to do my six monthly “Yeah” list.


I began doing this about 4 years ago. My business was a year old and I was feeling like I hadn’t accomplished much. A wise friend suggested I’d just lost a bit of perspective. She told me to make a list of everything I’d done in the past 12 months and then see how I felt.


Of course she was right. I’d been so knee deep in the daily-do of my business that I couldn’t see how much I’d really done. Turns out it was a lot.


Because I still find it tricky to get perspective - and because I love a list - every six months I do it again. I’ve morphed it a bit and now call it the Yeah! list. That way it’s more about stuff I’m really pleased I’ve done, rather than just, you know, stuff.


Anyway it’s dead simple, it makes me feel good. And you might want to do one too.


Here’s how it works.


Get yourself: an hour of peace and quiet; a cup of tea; and a notebook.


Start writing down things you’re proud you’ve done. Now this list is a private list - for your eyes only - so feel free to be as nerdy and noddy as you want be.


Don’t stop writing until you’ve got at least 20 things on your list. If you find 20 easy go to 30 or 40. You want to force your mind into having a proper think. So don’t rest until you’ve given it a real workout.


You might get stuck so here’s a list of random questions to help your thinking.


  1. Have I changed my product?

  2. Have I improved my product?

  3. Have I got a new product?

  4. What have customers said about my product?

  5. Have I got new customers?

  6. Have I been marketing consistently (like doing a little something every day)?

  7. Have I experimented with new ways of marketing?

  8. Have I crossed anything off my BIG todo list (business-changing stuff)?

  9. Have I done the stuff I said I’d do (maybe like ‘kept a blog’)

  10. Have I spent enough time on my business?

  11. Have I spent enough time away from my business?

  12. Did I put my prices up?

  13. Did I pay my bills on time?


Once you’re finished, have a read through your list. You should feel all warm and fuzzy and like you’ve done good. Now you just have to make sure there’s plenty to write about in the next six months!







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Very fabulous old-fashioned to do list

By Julia Bickerstaff - Monday, June 03, 2013



(image found on scoopit)


I do love a to-do list. I’ve got a few to-do list apps on my phone. Oh, just counted them. More than a few: eleven.  Who needs eleven to-do apps?!


More on the apps at the bottom of the post because there is *one* fabulous one. But first, I thought I’d share with you my fave todo list EVER for getting important business stuff done.


It’s a 3x5 index card!


Honestly, who needs fancy apps and stuff when this works better than anything.


Every night before I go to bed I write down on the card the three things most important (business) things I must do the next day.


And that’s it!


It’s really fabulous and makes me super-efficient because:


  • When I make the list the night before I’m not swayed by what I feel like doing. When I make a list in the morning I find it much harder to be disciplined about doing the tough-but-important stuff.

  • Picking just three things forces me to prioritise my big list. I do tend to be someone who thinks she can do more in a day than she actually can (I mentioned this last week) so picking just three things makes me focus on the really important ones.

  • Doing the list the night before means I don’t waste good ‘morning time’ doing it. I’m such a morning person - it’s when I’m at my best - so I need to do the super-important stuff first thing. I quite like making lists so I do it later when I’m a bit worn out.

  • Starting the day with a list stops me getting distracted. As I’ve mentioned before, I can easily waste a few hours faffing about. So now I don’t let myself check email, facebook, tidy up etc.... until I’ve got the first task done.


Here’s my index card for today. I’m a bit behind with my blogs because I’ve been working on the new Business Bakery website so you can see they are my top 3 for today. 'Scuse crappy photo. You get the gist.





What do you think? Could a daily index card help you?


Finally, those to-do apps! These are the ones currently on my phone: Teux Deux, Reminders (Apple), Tomorrow, Awesome note, Wunderlist, Workflowy, todo, reQuall, Clear, Tasks (Gmail) Evernote. They’ve all been good in their own little ways but I’ve discovered I’m best with really simple apps. So while I enjoyed categorising my tasks, setting deadlines, linking tasks to locations (if you please!) the very best one for me is Teux Deux. It’s a simple list. You can pop things into specific days or into ‘someday’. and that’s it. I put everything in there (stuff for kids, home, work) that I need to do. I guess this works for me because I don't have a clear delineation between home and work - it's all just stuff that needs doing!


Do you use a todo app? Fancy telling us?  We’d love to know. Tips always welcome!


Comments are still off on the blog off *sigh* because of the spammers but you can contact me via Facebook or email: julia ‘@’ thebusinessbakery.com.au


And, and and......if  you don't want to miss our blog  we can send it straight to your inbox (together with our weekly round up of stuff to help you make a healthy income from your business.) Just sign up here (blue box)

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A much better way to work

By Julia Bickerstaff - Monday, May 27, 2013


At the beginning of the year I was working pretty hard. Trying to get as much done in a day as possible. Squeezing more and more in. And, well, feeling exhausted and inefficient. Ugh.


One night in February, as I was dropping off to sleep, I suddenly remembered an awesome technique for getting stuff done that I’d, ahem, let lapse. (Cripes does that ‘great-idea-as-you’re-dozing-off’ thing happen to you too? Drives me nuts. I have to get up and write the stuff down because I never remember it in the morning.)


Where was I? Oh yes; the technique.  Two years ago I was doing this fab thing called the 15 Mile March. Can’t believe I stopped doing it. I even wrote a blog post about how awesome it was. Still, I did stop doing it. Anyway, the day after I interrupted my sleep to write it down, I started doing the 15 Mile March again. That was 4 months ago and I can honestly say it’s working a treat.


I’m thinking that if I forgot the 15 Mile March then you probably have too. So here it is again. Only better. I’ve made it more doable. And easier to stick to.


Why a 15 Mile March?


The phrase ‘15 Mile March’ dates back to 1911, and the race to be the first man to the South Pole. Scott from England and Amundsen from Norway were up against each other to get there first. It’s a fab story of courage and heroics but this is the important bit:


Scott and his team walked as far as they could every day. Because of weather, the terrain and varying degrees of tiredness, some days they would walk 25 miles, other days just 5 miles.


Amundsen and his team walked 15 miles every day. Whatever the weather, whatever the terrain, however tired they were, they walked exactly 15 miles. Some days that felt like way too much, some days it felt like way too little. But they were super-disciplined and never varied it.


Do you know who won the race?


Amundsen did. By quite a long way actually. He also made it home in one piece. Scott and his team ran out of food and energy and rather gruesomely froze to death.


What’s this got to do with you?!


Busy people - like you and I -  behave like Scott.  We do as much as we can every day. It’s common sense: we keep plodding on. And I don’t know about you but I always like to do a bit more so that I feel I’m ahead. I’m a natural ‘Scott-y’.


And what can be so wrong with that?  Um, this:


At the start it’s fine. We do long stretches of super-human effort and feel pretty good. Then we start to get a bit grumpy. We’re tired but we don’t really know it. Then we get exhausted and we do know it.  Boy do we know it. Sometimes we can’t even get out of bed. Then we have to take time out to get ourselves sorted. Then we’re refreshed so we start again. And then we panic that we’ve got so much to do, so we start fitting as much as possible into each day again and, then well what do you know? We get grumpy and tired and....We’re in the circle of doom.


To be super-effective we should be working like Amundsen, pacing ourselves. Not like Scott, going all out. We should ‘walk 15 miles’ each and every day, rather than 28 miles ones day and 2 the next. We should do the 15 Mile March.


How do you do a ‘business’ 15 Mile March?


The business version of the 15 Mile March is to set yourself a certain amount of stuff to do every day. So each day you do the same amount of work and if you finish early you relax and enjoy your free time and if it takes you all day and all night, you keep going.


The March is not about how many hours you work, it’s about getting a certain amount of important stuff done every day.


So that’s the idea. Here’s how to make it actually work:


5 tips for making you 15 Mile March work.


1. Pick your “March”


It’s best to have a March on something specific that you need to do a fair amount of each and every week.


My March is writing articles. I write Business Recipes (for the Kitchen, coming soon!) Blogs (like this one) our Snacks (you do get it don’t you?!) and articles for other digital media like Smartcompany and Flying Solo. I also have clients and other work-y things so I don’t spend all day writing. I have to fit it in. My current March is 10 specific ‘articles’ a week.


My friend makes jewellery, her March is pieces made. Another friend runs an online shop but hates marketing. Her March is a particular marketing task.


You can pick whatever March you like. Just make it something that you need to do quite a lot of.


2. Work out how long it takes you to do one “March” task


I’ve found that I woefully underestimate how long it takes to do stuff, so here’s a suggestion: keep a record (for a couple of weeks) of how long each of your “March” tasks take to do.  As you’ll see in point 3, it pays to be honest about how much you can reasonably do in your March.


3. Don’t make your “March” too big


This is where I went wrong. I set my March way too big and got myself in a right pickle trying to get it done. I’ve since made it smaller, but I’ll be honest, I found that really hard to do, like I wasn’t being ambitious enough.


The good news is I stuck to my smaller March. Have done it week in and week out and I know that I’m further ahead than if I’d reverted to “Scott” mode.


Big tip: make your March really doable.


4. Do a weekly March not a daily March


A couple of years ago I tried to do the 15 Mile March every day and it just didn’t work for me. I’ve got 4 children and I’ve got clients. Both are unpredictable. I just couldn’t do the daily thing. Weekly worked though. So that’s what I do now.


5. Give it time!


Doing the 15 Mile March feels a bit scary. When you know you’ve got tons to do it feels weird and kinda wrong to not just keep going. I reckon it takes about 4-6 weeks to feel comfortable with it.


If you’re used to working at full steam and then crashing, the 15 Mile March will feel really odd. But it works. It really works.


What do you reckon? Will a 15 Mile March work for you?



PS the Scott/ Armundsen South Pole race has other great learnings for business and life. I loved this article all about it. You might too.



Comments are still off on the blog off *sigh* because of the spammers but you can comment on Facebook or just email me: julia ‘@’ thebusinessbakery.com.au. (Our fab new website will be here 1 June and hopefully all this will be fixed!)


And, and and......if  you don't want to miss our blog  we can send it straight to your inbox (together with our weekly round up of stuff to help you make a healthy income from your business.) Just sign up here (blue box)

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Useful stuff to know when selling wholesale and setting your wholesale price

By Julia Bickerstaff - Sunday, May 19, 2013

Recently we've had lots of questions about wholesale pricing. Here's a question from Emma that pretty well sums up what everyone has been asking.


"I make jewellery and sell it myself mostly via my website and occasionally at fairs. Recently a couple of small retailers have offered to stock my pieces. The trouble is I can't work out my wholesale price.


I usually sell my jewellery for twice what it costs me to make. The profit bit is to pay for my time. The retailers asked my what my usual wholesale price is but as I don't have one they asked my what my  retail price was and said they'd work out the wholesale price for me.


That seemed like a good idea until I told them I sell my pieces for $150 and they said they'd buy from me for $75. How does that work? Each piece costs me $75 so I won't make any money.


I'd like to sell to the retailers but how do I make it work for me?"


Oh pricing! Gosh it's tricky to get right. Best digested in small bits I think, so here are ten little thoughts about selling wholesale.


1. As a rough guide, retailers usually double the wholesale price to get to their retail price. In other words whatever Emma charges the retailer, the retailer will double to get to the price it will charge the customer. Sometime retailers mark-up by more than 100%, selling stuff at three or four times the cost!


2. Retailers aren't doing this to be extortionate. Retailers are selling-machines. Their biggest challenge is finding customers, and finding customers is expensive. It's a bit annoying that they work on a formula ("double it") but that's the way it is.


3. Most retailers don't end up getting the doubled - up price. On average retailers are lucky to sell 60% of their stock at full price! This is because some stuff doesn't sell (customers don't like it) and some stuff can't be sold (get's broken or goes off).


4. When you sell to a retailer you are effectively paying them to sell your stuff for you. The mark-up that they charge - the difference between the retail price that the customer pays and the wholesale price that the retailer pays you - is much easier for to swallow if you think of it like that. And it turns out that it's not such a big price to pay because……


5. …..When we sell directly to the customer, our sales and marketing costs are higher than we think! Most of us are pretty hopeless at working out how much it costs us to sell our stuff. A lot of the sales and marketing work we do is about spending time rather than money and we tend not to track that. Even when we do spend money few of us really compare the cost of the advert (or whatever marketing we did) with the number of products we sold and work out a dollar price for each sale. If we did do the work on our sales and marketing costs we'd find that they are pretty high. It's not unusual (though it is infuriating) to find that it cost as much to find a customer as it did to make the product. Sigh!


6.When we work out our pricing based on costs  - like Emma did - we need to include all the costs. That includes sales and marketing costs too! It's likely that Emma isn't really making much money at all because her pricing covers just her cost of product and time making it - not the time and cost of finding customers.


7. When it comes to pricing it's important to know what your costs are because you want to make sure you cover them. But once you've done that you can ignore your costs and focus just on what customers are willing to pay. If you've got a good product you can often sell it for much more than it "cost" you to make. Yes, there's a bit of work (and a bit of trial and error!) in calculating how much customers will pay, but don't limit yourself to thinking along the lines of 'twice cost'.


8. You want to find a retail price (the price the customer pays) which is high enough to cover your "making" costs and your "selling" costs. It doesn't matter whether it's you doing the selling or a retailer doing the selling, the retail price must cover all the costs.


9. Emma's retail price is probably a bit low. Her costs including her time (but not including selling) are $150 per item. So she shouldn't sell to the retailer for less than $150. The retailer would then look to on sell it at $300. Yes $300! Yikes! That's double the price! Will customers buy it for that? Well, you'd be surprised. Retailers are very persuasive.


10. So if the retailers are selling Emma's stuff for $300, how should she price the pieces that she sells herself on line?  Well retailers hate it (and may refuse to stock your stuff) if you sell at a price that's cheaper than theirs. That's understandable. So Emma should match (or almost match the retailers). Can she justify that? Well if a customer is happy to pay a retailer $300 they should be happy to pay her too. And it's not pure profit. She still has to find those customers…..



Has this helped? Pricing is such a tricky subject and there's lots to it. Too much in fact to cover in our blogs. In July our Kitchen will open (yeah!) and pricing is one of the things we will cover there in a fabulously simple way. Want to know more? Email me julia ‘@’ thebusinessbakery.com.au


Comments are still off on the blog off *sigh* because of the spammers but you can comment on Facebook or just email me: julia ‘@’ thebusinessbakery.com.au. (Our fab new website will be here 1 June and hopefully all this will be fixed!)


And, and and......if  you don't want to miss our blog  we can send it straight to your inbox (together with our weekly round up of stuff to help you make a healthy income from your business.) Just sign up here (blue box)







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Two more super easy productivity tips

By Julia Bickerstaff - Monday, May 13, 2013

Back on the theme of getting more done in less time here are two super-easy productivity tips. As I’ve mentioned before I’m on an ongoing quest to be more efficient. My two big hiccups are distractions (Facebook, email, tidying my office) and boring stuff (paperwork and home stuff like putting the washing away!). Anyway, I think I’ve found a solution! And I

thought you might like them too.


1. Three songs


This tip came from my friend Emma Bell. Emma runs Fairy Footsteps Ballet for pre-schoolers and does a ton of other stuff too. She uses the three songs trick to fit in exercise (details at the bottom if you’re interested in how to make this work for exercise) but I’ve morphed it into a trick to fit in boring tasks.


It’s this simple. Keep a list of boring tasks. Twice a day (or more often if needed) pick 3 songs, start them playing and do your boring tasks for as long as the music lasts. Then, like musical chairs, dash back to your desk/kitchen/workspace when it stops.


It’s that easy. But it’s so fun it works!


2. On the hour


This is a good one if you need to wean yourself off a distracting habit.


Lots of us find it hard to concentrate for long stretches. Because of that we often stop whatever we’re doing and flip onto something else. I guess we’re doing that ‘change is as good as a rest’ thing. Anyway, the trouble is that that ‘something else’ quickly becomes addictive and before we know it we’re flipping onto our distractions every 10 minutes or so. No wonder *sigh* it takes us forever to get anything useful done!


My Dad’s distraction was making tea. He’d be writing reports and making a cuppa every 20 minutes! When I worked in an office mine was chatting. After about 30 minutes I’d be desperate to find someone to chat to. Oh hello email, facebook and phone, maybe I’ve not changed that much.


If you also get distracted then have a go at this:


First of all work out what your distraction is (yes, I know that sounds obvious by my Dad didn’t realise he had a tea-habit until someone told him*). You can do this really easily by just keeping a piece of paper handy and noting down each time that you have a break in concentration and what you do in it! You probably only need to keep this record for about four hours, by that time you’ll have all the information you’ll need!


Once you know what your distraction is allow yourself to do it on the hour, every hour for five minutes max.


At first you’ll find yourself doing your distracting habit without realising. That’s ok. Stop as soon as you notice and make yourself to wait until the big hand is on the 12.


After a couple of days you’ll notice that you stop wanting to do your distraction so often and that on-the-hour is comfortable enough. You’ll also notice that you don’t need a very long distraction. Five minutes will feel like eternity. You might only need 30 seconds.


After a week or so even the hourly distraction will feel too often. When this happens, stretch it out a bit. Don’t give it up altogether though as I found that if I didn’t have a scheduled distraction I quickly crept back to my old habits. And another tip: don’t go longer than 90 minutes without some sort of distraction. The human brain is programmed to focus for time periods of about 90 minutes. Much more than that and it's too tough.


And that's it. Two tips that worked overnight for me. Fancy giving them a go?!


Do you get distracted? What’s your top distraction? Got any tips you’d like to share?


Comments are still off on the blog off *sigh* because of the spammers but you can comment on Facebook or just email me: julia ‘@’ thebusinessbakery.com.au. (Our fab new website will be here 1 June and hopefully all this will be fixed!)


And, and and......if  you don't want to miss our blog  we can send it straight to your inbox (together with our weekly round up of stuff to help you make a healthy income from your business.) Just sign up here (blue box)

* Turns out he just made the tea, he didn’t drink it. Otherwise he might have noticed a few extra trips to the bathroom!



Emma’s exercise tip


Pick 3 songs in the morning and 3 songs in the evening. So simple. Just do targeted exercises/weights/stretches runs on spot or whatever to 3 songs. You'll be able to fit it in and you actually won't even notice the time spent and you'll kick your 20-30mins needed per day if you don't have time to gym/swim. Simple and better than nothing at all!



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Lots of stuff on pricing

By Julia Bickerstaff - Friday, May 03, 2013


Not the usual type of blog post today. I’ve had lots of questions about pricing. In particular where to find pricing articles on our website. Yes, our website is a schmozzle. Sorry about that. The good news is our NEW website will - fingers crossed and a quick prayer to the Gods of technology and web designers -  go live on 1 June. But some of you need the stuff NOW. So to save you digging around in a mire of blog posts, I thought I’d do a quick summary of what we’ve written on pricing with where to find it.

I’ve grouped the blog posts under headings to make it easy to follow. It’s obviously not a complete ‘how to price’, just useful stand-alone tips. If you’re interested we do have a whole “How to Price” series coming very soon (June!). It will be in our Kitchen (details at the bottom of the post) and forms part of our Healthy Income Program.

Until then, here’s the pricing stuff:

1.Getting started

Why does pricing matter so much? Here’s a short article I wrote over at Flying Solo as part of my “Pricing for Wimps’ series. It explains a bit about why pricing is so important for a healthy income. And it also explains why we suck at it!

So to get you started here are 8 quick pricing tips.

And if you’re still dithering, here’s what happens when you price too cheaply


2. Practical tips on setting prices

Most of us are terrified of pricing our products too high so we price too low. While it feels safe to price low it actually means we have to work super-hard to cover our costs. So here are four tips to help you price for profit!

For those of us who make stuff, our time is one of the biggest costs. But we rarely charge enough for it. Here are four steps for costing your time. And if you want more here’s another way of looking at it (from my Flying Solo “Pricing for Wimps” series).

Delivery fees! Such a conundrum - do you charge them or do you say it’s free? Here are seven steps to making the right choice.

If you’re having trouble with your pricing maybe you’ve got the wrong customer. Here’s an article about pricing handmade. In a nutshell it’s about selling to people who love handmade rather than people who are looking for a bargain!

And on that, some customers just don’t understand the work that goes into your product. That’s not their fault. It’s ours. We don’t tell them! Here’s a way that you can help them understand what you do. And here’s another.  And guess what? When customers see the effort you go to they’ll most likely be much happier to pay the proper price!

Cripes if you’ve ever bought flowers on Valentine’s Day you’ll have know all about premium pricing but should you do it too? Here are six steps for making the most of a premium ‘opportunity’ but doing it without the YUK factor!

And finally, what about the problem of your competitors’ pricing.  Should you charge the same as them? Can you charge more? Here are some thoughts.

3. Practical tips on expressing prices

The funny, weird and sometimes annoying thing about pricing is that the way a customer feels about your price often has more to do with how you express it than the number itself. Take this for example: one price 13 ways.

Or this one: a funny little pricing you can do today!

Or this one: about keeping pricing simple.

Or maybe this one which is about how you can make project work customers (like design, bookkeeping etc) feel more comfortable about the price.

4. Discounting

Do you discount your prices? Here’s an article about discounting and why it doesn’t usually work. There’s a bit of maths in the notes. Don’t be put off, it’s just to show your number-wise why discounting is a disaster.

Of course ‘don’t discount’ wouldn’t be a rule unless it had exceptions. And one of them is quantity discounts. This article talks about people selling their time (consultants, coaches, health practitioners and the like) but it’s just as applicable if you’re selling homemade.


5.Raising prices

Here’s some general stuff on raising prices. Why you should do it etc

And now that you are convinced here are 11 tips to help you do it.

Plus a way to do it nicely

And here’s a reason not to do it at all.

6. Finally

Here are eight really fabulous pricing ideas from the restaurant industry which everyone can use.

Has this helped? What are your top pricing problems? Got any pricing tips you’d like to share?

Comments are still off on the blog off *sigh* because of the spammers but you can comment on Facebook or just email me: julia ‘@’ thebusinessbakery.com.au. (Our fab new website will be here 1 June and hopefully all this will be fixed!)

And, and and......if  you don't want to miss our blog  we can send it straight to your inbox (together with our weekly round up of stuff to help you make a healthy income from your business.) Just sign up here (blue box)

******************************************************************************

The Kitchen

I promised a quick note about the Kitchen. I guess it’s our club. It’s where we get together to cook up profitable little businesses.

Inside the Kitchen we’ve got lots of stuff including the super-practical Healthy Income Program, Healthy Income cookbook, Business Recipes and Kitchen-Table get togethers. All designed to take you step-by step through through the very best stuff you can do to make your business really profitable.

It’s nutrition for your business. And it’s fun.

If you want to know more just email me -  julia AT thebusinessbakery.com.au


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Nine steps to get you out of your day job and into your business

By Julia Bickerstaff - Monday, April 29, 2013


We popped a question on our Facebook page last week from Gemma. It went along the lines of

“I have been making cakes for 3 years at home, my plan was obviously to go global (no point in dreaming small) then I had a baby and I'm now working 25 hours a week behind a desk to have some sort of income and am struggling to make the leap back into the cake world. I have plenty of ideas and passion to do it just seem to be stuck making the odd few cakes at home trying to work it round bedtimes. "

It’s such a tricky situation and lots of you have emailed in with stories similar so I thought I’d pop my thoughts down on the blog.

I had a similar-ish start to my business. The quick version is that I was a partner at Deloitte (global consulting and accounting firm) with three small children and I desperately wanted out. I couldn’t just give up my sizeable salary and pay for childcare while I built the business so I did it bit by bit. My starting point of all things was writing a book. Blimey that was hardwork! I wrote it in the evenings and we were all so incredibly sick of it by the time it was finished! Anyway there’s lots more to the story but the guts of it is that four years on I’m full time-ish (working around what is now four children) at The Business Bakery.

After talking to lots of other business owners, and reflecting on what worked (and didn’t work!) for me, I’ve sorted my thoughts into a nine step method to help you get out of your day job and into your business!

1. Decide you really want to do it


I’ve been trying to think of a gentle way of saying this but I can’t. So I will be brutal. Some of us like the idea of having a business more than the reality of actually doing it. That’s ok. It’s like people who want to write a book but have yet to type a single word. (Or exercise! See this article on decoy habits for more of what I mean.)

There’s nothing wrong with dreaming about having a business unless the fact that you’ve not started yet is stressing you out.

So I think you need to consciously decide to start your business today or consciously leave it on the do-one-day list.  Just making that decision will free you from a lot of angst.

And starting doesn’t mean doing anything too onerous. We’re not talking about big investments of time and money. You can do as little or as much as you want, provided you do the next 8 steps.

2. Have a goal

It really helps to have a goal. Not a super-detailed one but something that puts into words what you want to achieve. One of the easiest ways to do this is to imagine what you would like the business to be in 3 years time. You goal could be as simple as “In three years time my business enables me to work school hours and earns me enough to pay for half our family running costs”. Or whatever. Goals are personal. Pick one that you really want to happen.

It also helps to have a mini goal too. Best way to do this is to do the same as above, but change the time period to one year.

3. Work out how much time you can give to your business right now.

Let’s be really honest. How much time can you give to your business each week? If you have a day job and kids, the answer is probably ‘not much’.

Have a think about how many hours you can reasonably spend on your business every week. So this isn’t about working 20 hours (in the middle of the night) one week and do nothing for the next month. It’s about what you can do every week.

It’s better to be practical and set aside a small amount of time than it is to be over optimistic and then find it’s all too much.

4. Work out how much money you will need to be making before you can ‘buy’ more time

Ok the big problem right now is that you need to work on your day job to be able to pay the bills (and childcare). So the next step is to work out how much you would need to earn from the time you have in Step 3 to enable you to give up one day of the day job (or add one more day of childcare.)

In other words you need to make enough in your Step 3 time to cover either a day’s pay or a day’s childcare. I know this might sound like a stretch but you can do it. More on that in Step 4.

Now you might have an all-or-nothing job. In other words you have to work 5 days or no days. There’s no scope for cutting back your hours. This is tricky but you can try asking. I worked as a partner in a big global firm that I thought didn’t do part-time. But it did. When I asked!

5. Plan out the best use of your time in Step 3 to make the money in Step 4

This is the super-crucial bit. You need to plan what you are going to do in the time you have in Step 3 to make the money you need in Step 4. So let’s say you have 10 hours in Step 3 and need $200 in Step 4. The question is “What can I do in my business in 10 hours to make $200?”

So this means finding the customers AND doing the work.

Think about how many customers you would need a week to make your Step 3 money. This will  force you into thinking about the best way to get them. Nothing focuses the mind like this number!

Now there’s nothing wrong with working on a longer term plan of designing a nice website, writing a blog, joining networking groups etc etc, but if you really want to get out of the day job and into your biz you need to focus on getting money into your hands every week! Oh gosh, that sounds so bossy, but I think you know what I mean.

Finally on this point. You might just not be able to do it in your Step 3 time, in which case see if you can push the time up a little. Remember when you know you can make the Step 4 money you can free up another day to work on your business, so it’s worth it!

6. Get started

Right you’ve got your plan in Step 5. Now get started. Today. No time is the right time so you may as well kick off now!

7. Stick with it - be consistent, show up.


This is the bit that makes it work. And it’s really simple. Be consistent. Work on your business every week, do the hours from Step 3, the plan from Step 5 and keep an eye on how close your are getting to your money goal in Step 4.

At first it will feel quite fun to do this. Then there will be the dip where you feel like nothing is working. Stick with it through the dip  - tough as it is - as you sort of need to go through the pain bit to make this work.

8. Change the plan not the commitment


It’s quite possible that the plan you hatched in Step 5 doesn’t work very well. That’s ok and happens almost all the time! A plan is just a starting point. Once you’ve got a few customers you’ll know more about what works and doesn’t work. So change the plan if you need to. But don’t give up. There’s often another way to get to where you want to go.

9. Unless you decide that it’s actually not so fun.

OK, you can give up. But only if you’re not enjoying it. Having your own business is meant to make you feel happy. If it feels like a drudge then this business idea isn’t the one for you. Maybe time to hatch another idea!

10. Repeat!

And once you’ve freed up one free day you can keep doing the same thing until you can free up another. You’ll have more Step 3 time - one day plus your original Step 3 hours - and you’ll work towards paying for two Step 4 days.

I promise, it does become more doable!


Has this helped? If you’re trying to start a business while working let us know. You can email us: julia ‘@’ thebusinessbakery.com.au or pop something on our facebook page. Comments are still off on the blog, sigh.

Or how about sharing a tip?!  Do you have a tip for getting your business started? Email them to julia ‘@’ thebusinessbakery.com.au and we’ll share them with our community and give you a big shout out!

And, and and......if  you don't want to miss our blog  we can send it straight to your inbox (together with our weekly round up of stuff to help you make a healthy income from your business.) Just sign up here (blue box)


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Timeboxing. What it is and why it makes you super-efficient

By Julia Bickerstaff - Thursday, April 18, 2013

Continuing my quest to fit a little more into my day (more on the quest here and here), I’ve been experimenting with timeboxing. And I love it.


Timeboxing itself is dead simple. You just:


  1. Pick a task you want to get done

  2. Decide how long you want to spend doing it

  3. Set your timer for that amount of time

  4. Start doing the task and stop when the timer rings


That’s it!


Hardly rocket science but BUT but, it’s really fab for making you super-efficient.


How? Well it’s down to this:


We have a choice. We can either work as hard as we can until a job is done or we can fix the amount of time we have available and do the ‘best’ we can.


By nature I sit in the  ‘work as hard as we can’ camp. I think most small biz owners do. We want to do the best job possible and in the absence of a boss or other person setting our schedule, we keep on working, tinkering and perfecting until the job is well and truly done.


But I’m starting to behave differently and  - through timeboxing - I’ve been living in the “fix the amount of time’ camp.


My goodness. It’s fabulous.


It wasn’t easy to switch sides and it’s taken me a while to fully embrace it. But it’s really helped me get stuff done.

Here’s how:


  1. Procrastination


It’s nipped procrastination in the bud. Once I’ve decided what to timebox I set the timer straight away and get on with it. I think the fact that I can see a finish line to the task helps me get started!


  1. Perfectionism


You might not believe this given the state of The Business Bakery website (!), but I’ve always struggled with perfectionism. I have trouble finishing stuff because I know it could be better. I can happily tinker with things forever.


With timeboxing I have to finish when the bell goes and although I still want the job done perfectly I’ve finally accepted that when it’s 95% fine it’s good enough.


(Just on the website: new one with lots more stuff coming 1 June. Would have been here two years ago if I hadn’t been so afflicted by perfectionism)



  1. Predicting


I’ve worked out little timeboxes for recurring tasks. At the moment mine are mainly writing based  - so I have a timebox for a blog post, an article, a business recipe (more on that when new website appears!). My  friend who makes dresses for little girls has timeboxed the time for one dress - she does the whole thing start to finish in one timebox.  My cakey pals are timeboxing different parts of the cakey process, another friend is timeboxing her daily marketing tasks. You get the picture.


When you’ve worked out your timebox for recurring tasks it’s easier to predict how much you will get done in a week. Rather than setting off on Monday morning hopeful of squeezing a lot in, I know what’s doable!


  1. Prioritising


I like to start the day with a timebox task. There’s nothing like getting something meaty done to give me the enthusiasm to pack lots more into the day! Because I only timebox important stuff it ensures I start the day with something a little more productive than a play on Facebook.


What about you? Are you a timeboxer? Do you think you could give timeboxing a go, or are you a committed 'work- hard-until-the-job's-done' type?


Comments are still off on the blog off *sigh* because of the spammers but you can comment on Facebook or just email me: julia ‘@’ thebusinessbakery.com.au. (Our fab new website will be here 1 June and hopefully all this will be fixed!)


And, and and......if  you don't want to miss our blog  we can send it straight to your inbox (together with our weekly round up of stuff to help you make a healthy income from your business.) Just sign up here (blue box)






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Seven things to do when you're tired, overwhelmed and fed up with you business

By Julia Bickerstaff - Monday, April 15, 2013


Here’s a snippet from an email that dropped into my inbox this week. I get so many questions on the same theme that I thought I’d pop my musings on here.

“I’m fed up, tired and overwhelmed. My business seems to have taken over my life. I’m feeling permanently anxious because there’s so much to do. I’ve got no time for the kids and haven’t  relaxed for ages. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to give up my business but I can’t go on like this”  ~ Bella

I’ve sorted my thoughts into seven activities - stuff you can go and do right now. And I think that’s super-important because action puts YOU back in control of the business rather than the business, erm,  in control of you.

You don’t have to do all seven, in fact just doing any one of them will help. And you don’t have to be overwhelmed to give them a go. They are also fabulously good things to do to help you manage ‘busy’.

  1. First of all, and before you do anything rash, take a day off.

I know, I know. You can’t. If you could you wouldn’t be in this pickle.

Believe me here  -  just sort of  have to.  It’s impossible to think clearly when you’re tired, grumpy and overwhelmed.

A day off now and a bit of clear headed thinking will save you loads of time and angst in the long run. As they say: just do it. Pop a voicemail on your phone, an autoresponder on your email and tell the world you’re sick. Turn off all your electronic devices and go for a walk, have a sleep or watch some crappy tv.


  1. Once you’re feeling just a little refreshed, grab a pen and paper and answer these questions

(Weird but true: writing the answers down works way better than just thinking about them):

  1. Do I still love the core of what I do? (so for example if your business is making dresses, you’d ask yourself “do I still enjoy making dresses?’ or if it’s helping kids to read it’s “do I still enjoy getting struggling kids reading?”)

  2. Do I still want to have my own business? You might be a bit 50/50 on this, that’s fine

  3. Why do I still want to have my own business? List all the reasons you can think of.

  4. Is my business making you enough money (even though it’s working you to the bone?)



  1. Now on a new piece of paper write down what your ideal business would look like.

Use some of these questions to help you but add your own thoughts in too:

  1. How many hours would you work a week?

  2. When would you work those hours?

  3. What would you mainly be doing? (Eg icing cakes rather than bookkeeping, say, if you’re a cakey type)

  4. How much income (profit and salary) would the business make you each week?

  5. What tasks would you not do (for example: filing!)



  1. Stick the list you made in step 3 on the wall in your workspace.

Just having it there to glance at will motivate you to change stuff (see step 5) and remind you that you’re not going to be in this overwhelming gloomy state forever. Every day take a look at your step 3 list and ask yourself “What can I do today to get me closer to my ideal business?” Please just give this a try. I know it doesn’t sound very practical but actually it really works. The combination of having a picture of how you want your business to be plus actually asking the question over and over again somehow (and I’ll leave that to the brain scientists to explain) unleashes creativity and ideas you never thought you had!


  1. Do the one week challenge

Try this, it’s awesome:

  1. Bust a gut to get through a ton of work on the next three days, so you can clear the decks a bit.

  2. For the week following the manic three days allow yourself to only work the number of hours you want to work (in step 3)

  3. See how this changes the type of tasks you do

  4. At the end of the week, look at:

    1. what you stopped doing - can you stop doing that forever?

    2. what work you prioritised -  did you get more of the important stuff done than you expected?

    3. what didn’t you get done that you wished you had got done? How do you feel about it?

  5. You’ll finish the week knowing some practical stuff YOU can do to change YOUR business



  1. And here are a few very practical things to do:

    1. Relax your turnaround time a little - make sure you make this super-clear to customers but if you need a little longer to fulfil orders, take it.

    2. Don’t check email (and Facebook messages) all the time. Set yourself three times a day to check-in and put an auto-responder on your email to tell people when you expect to be able to reply to them. Most people don’t need an urgent response but they do like to know when they will hear from you.

    3. Turn your electronic devices off at certain times during the day and after, say, 6 pm. You will feel better not checking in - even ignoring facebook etc!

    4. Make a list of stuff that someone else could do (filing, bookkeeping, sewing, whatever!) and see if you can buy just a couple of hours of someone else’s time each week. It’s amazing how just moving a few things off your to-do list and on to someone else’s can help lift that awful fog.



  1. Finally I’ve written about the smile file and the good things jar here.

They won’t make your weeks any less busy but they they will lift your spirits!



Has this helped you? I’d love to know. Let us know, on Facebook, if you don’t mind. Comments are still off on the blog off *sigh* because of the spammers. You can also email me if you've got a question: julia ‘@’ thebusinessbakery.com.au

And, and and......if you don't want to miss our blog we can send it straight to your inbox (together with our weekly round up of stuff to help you make a healthy income from your business.) Just sign up here (blue box)


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