A few years ago, Vlasic Pickles teamed up with Walmart to sell a gallon of pickles for the unheard of price of $2.97. They sold over 240,000 gallons of pickles a week. Vlasic loved the sales numbers, only to discover that profits were shrinking by 25% or more, since they only made a penny or two of profit on each jar. Vlasic filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

This story (fully described in Fast Company December ?3 issue), highlights a vital point. In general, we want to price with a goal of maximizing profits, not sales volume. Too often, business owners look at gross revenues (sales), when the net profit is what really matters. We could have sales of $250,000 a year, or $1 million, and be losing money. More sales do not necessarily mean more profit. Having sound accounting and analyzing financial reports regularly are essential. Its important to remember that profit is not a dirty word. A business must earn a profit to stay in business. Whether a particular business?profit is fair or is excessive is another matter ?that could be the subject of another article!

Why Women Underprice in Their Businesses

Underpricing is a common problem for women entrepreneurs, which happens for several reasons, one of which may be that we dont know how to properly set a price that will yield a fair profit. Another reason is we often undervalue ourselves and our product and/or service. Furthermore, many of us have concerns about fair economic

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