I appreciate, as Jill suggests, you have to start somewhere when you develop a pricing strategy.
But, may I suggest that a more "business-like" model would be to understand your market, understand your costs, understand your needs and then charge as much as the market will bear?
I will virtually guarantee that every other business does it this way, yet we continue to look for the easy way out. Find a chart and "Oh, well Close enough" doesn't make much sense.
The same amount of legwork required (we call it due diligence)to pick a location or to pick a vendor or establish policy should go into devloping a pricing strategy.
It pains me to see people offer such simplistic methods (I know the are well-meaning) because too many people buy into the method as "acceptable".
The most important things you can do is develop a reasoned site selection process and a market-representative pricing model that will generate the necessary profits needed to continue operations while being balanced with a high level of consumer acceptance (In plain English "Are you making any money and are you not pricing yourself out of the market").
Ignore those two key elements, or do a half-way job on those, and you can predict the results.
We put more effort into what kind of mat cutter we choose than the first two elements.
With all due respect, you simply can not create a meaningful startegy off a published chart. Does anyone really think that anyone should charge the same prices in Manhattan as someone else in Clovis, N.M.?
In this increasingly competitive retail environment, we have to raise the bar on how we do things so essential to survival. Taking the easy way out will not create the advantage you need to survive.
As an aside, however you develop a pricing strategy, not using some type of software is just not smart. The prices are simply too affordable to not use something. While I have not personally reviewed every single system, I have never seen any that aren't vastly superior to any manual sysytem. Hands down.
In fact, I'm pretty sure there are some free systems out there. Whatever the limited expense, it is as essential as a glass cutter or a mounting press or a cash register. I just don't know how you can be in business without the right tools.
