Pricing mechanisms come in two principal forms: fixed and dynamic. Fixed pricing has predefined prices based on a static set of variables while dynamic pricing changes prices based on market conditions. Price mechanisms can affect both your revenue stream as well as your costs.
Why You Need To Understand Pricing Mechanism Types Read More »
The successful entrepreneur is one that keeps his eyes and ears open and takes stock of events happening around him. This is important not only to determine the margin price but to consider the impact potential events could have on the margin price in the future and develop contingency plans to deal with them.
To Maximize Profit You Need To Understanding Margin Pricing Read More »
When I grew up in Massachusetts, I remember reading a story about Joe Kennedy. He would go up to owners of older drafty apartments in downtown Boston and make them a unique proposition. Many of the units were poorly insulated and cost a small fortune to heat in the winter. Joe would agree to insulate
Capturing Value in Nontraditional Ways Read More »
Fifty percent of Americans over 18 years of age drink coffee every day. That translates into 150 million daily coffee drinkers that consume 400 million cups per day. Not long ago, brewing a cup of coffee at home or at the office involved purchasing a coffee pot from one company and ground coffee from another
Keurig’s New Business and Economic Model Read More »
I think we would all agree that making a profit is the incentive to take risk through investments. Moreover, it takes investments to stimulate innovation. But innovation creates productivity gains, which in turn eat into profit. For example, a tractor that costs as much as the labor cost for 150 workers, but which can do
Who Really Benefits Most From Business Investments? Read More »
Labor is a major component cost of any product or service. The lower the labor costs, either the wider the margin or the cheaper the price of the product or service. Cheap labor can be had by either opening our borders to immigrants who are willing to work for less, or by outsourcing. I contend
Immigration vs. Offshoring? Read More »
Let’s explore an extreme scenario. If you could get all the labor you need to run your business for free how much of it should you buy? I would say “use all the free labor you could get” since with no labor costs your company and more importantly its owners can earn a higher return
Is Offshoring Work to India and China Really a Bad Thing? Read More »
Margin pricing not only affects rising prices, as we discussed yesterday but also affects falling prices. Consider how a new Wal-Mart store drives smaller business with higher cost structures out of business. With the exception of a monopolized industry or organized union, unregulated market forces will bring prices down to the lowest level (the margin).
Understanding Pricing At the Margins (Part B) Read More »
Most service and/or product-based businesses define their prices using a cost-plus approach. This means that they calculate the direct and indirect costs to deliver a service and/or to produce a product, aka the break-even price. Then they add a reasonable profit margin to cover the risk capital for their initial and subsequent investments in the
Understanding Pricing At the Margins (Part A) Read More »
Margins are just one part of your Economic Model. Margins can be defined simply as the difference between your Direct Cost to deliver a service or a product (often called COGS or Cost of Goods Sold) and the price you charge the customer for that product or service. The basic coffee you buy at Starbucks
Understanding Margins Read More »
