Working notes on practical business skill
A price is a claim, not a receipt
Pricing / Note 01
Most people build a price upward from what the work costs them. That method feels honest and it quietly concedes the only argument that matters, which is what the work is worth to the person paying.
Subject: Pricing651 wordsRevised 2026-07-28
From the notebook
More
Earlier
Further reading
Subject bands
- Pricing and terms 2 notesSetting a number, then defending the terms around it.
- Getting work 1 noteWhere the next piece of work comes from.
- Choosing work 1 noteWhat to take, and what to turn down.
- Money and time 2 notesCash timing, and the cost of your own hours.
- Failure 2 notesWhat a setback is evidence of.
Every note, by band
Pricing and terms
2 notesSetting a number, then defending the terms around it.
- Pricing
- Negotiation
Getting work
1 noteWhere the next piece of work comes from.
- Demand
Choosing work
1 noteWhat to take, and what to turn down.
- Focus
Money and time
2 notesCash timing, and the cost of your own hours.
- Cash
- Leverage
Failure
2 notesWhat a setback is evidence of.
- Setbacks
- Setbacks
From the notes
“Cost-plus pricing answers a question the buyer never asked.”
From A price is a claim, not a receipt, revised 2026-07-28
“You do not fail because the work was unprofitable. You fail on a Tuesday, because of a date.”
From Profit is not money in the account, revised 2026-07-06
“Nobody narrates the version where the same decisions did not work.”
From The self-made stories, revised 2026-05-26
How these notes are chosen and kept
Each note argues a single claim that could be wrong, states it in the opening paragraph, and works one example through in full. Examples are constructed to show a mechanism; they describe no real business, person or transaction, and no figures are reported from anyone's accounts.
Notes are revised in place rather than reposted, so every row above carries the date its argument last changed. Nothing here is rated, scored or ranked. The full methodology note sets out what this site does not publish and why.
Set of notes last worked on 2026-08-11.