Side Quests · Small missions. Real progress.
Time: 15–20 minutes | Cost: $0 | You’ll need: a notes app or spreadsheet, and a list of what you charge for (mental or written)
If someone asks “how much do you charge?” and your honest answer is “well, it depends,” you’re probably losing sales to hesitation. Not because your price is wrong, but because the customer has to do work to figure out what they’re even buying. A simple, named price menu removes that friction. It doesn’t have to be fancy or final — it just has to exist somewhere you can point to.
Your mission: Create a basic three-tier price menu for one of your services, with clear names, what’s included, and a price or price range for each tier.
Steps
- Pick one service to menu-ize. If you offer several services, choose the one you sell most often or want to sell more of. Trying to menu everything at once will stall you out — one service, done well, is more useful than five half-finished ones.
- Sketch three tiers. Open a blank note or spreadsheet and create three rows or sections. Give them simple names based on scope, not fluff — think “Basic,” “Standard,” “Premium,” or names specific to your work like “Starter Shoot,” “Full Session,” “Full Day.” The names should hint at what’s different between them without needing an explanation.
- List what’s included in each tier. Under each name, write 3–5 bullet points describing exactly what the customer gets: how much time, how many revisions, what’s delivered, turnaround speed, or any extras. Be concrete — “2 rounds of edits” beats “editing included.” The goal is that someone could read this and know exactly what they’d receive without asking a follow-up question.
- Attach a price or range to each tier. Use whatever number feels right based on your past work or what similar providers seem to charge in your area — you know your market better than a generic formula would. If you’re not ready to commit to an exact number, use a range (for example, “$150–$200”) so you have room to adjust once you see how people respond. The point isn’t to lock in forever; it’s to have a starting anchor instead of pricing from scratch every time.
- Save it somewhere you’ll actually use it. Put the finished menu in a place you can quickly copy from — a pinned note, a saved email draft, or a doc you can screenshot. Next time someone asks about pricing, you send this instead of typing out a fresh explanation. Bonus: rereading it later will show you fast whether a tier feels underpriced, overstuffed, or confusing, and you can adjust it in minutes.
Quest complete when: you have a saved, three-tier price menu with clear names, included features, and prices or ranges for one of your services — ready to send the next time someone asks what you charge.
Your next practical step
Taking your service online? Use our free freelance-offer exercise to turn that price menu into a focused service and a credible sample. The guide also explains when our optional Upwork starter course may be useful. For a local service, keep using your menu in the customer conversations you already have; there is no need to join a freelance platform.
