Robin Waite reveals the three pricing mistakes keeping coaches, consultants and freelancers broke, and the simple framework to fix them for good.
Most service providers set their prices by copying competitors, without ever knowing if those competitors are actually profitable.
In this episode of the Secret Experts Podcast, host Ronald Ryan Correo sits down with business coach Robin Waite to unpack the three pricing mistakes that quietly drain the profitability out of service-based businesses. From copying competitors blindly, to undercharging out of habit, to billing by the hour, Robin breaks down why these patterns persist, and exactly what to do instead. Drawing on over a decade of coaching coaches, consultants, and freelancers, he shows how productising services and pricing around outcomes transforms both income and confidence. Listen on Spotify.
This article breaks down their conversation into practical steps for coaches, consultants, and freelancers who want to charge what they're worth and build a business that actually pays.
Robin Waite ran a marketing agency for 12 years before selling it in 2016. In those final years, the business was generating revenue but very little real profit, a pattern he would later recognise in almost every client he coached.
After the sale, Robin began informal mentoring conversations with business owners curious about how he had built and sold his agency. The same themes kept surfacing: no clear plan, prices set by guesswork, and owners working long hours for disappointing returns.
The name Fearless Business came from a moment in 2017 when Robin was delivering a talk to around 80 people. He described successful business owners as those who "fear the things in business ever so slightly less," whether that meant raising prices, pitching a new offer, or standing up to speak publicly. A friend in the audience pointed at him and called out, "Robin Waite, the fearless business coach." The name stuck, and it has defined his business coaching brand ever since.
When a new service provider sits down to set their prices, the instinct is to look at what competitors are charging and position somewhere in that range. Robin acknowledges this has value as market research, but it becomes a serious problem when it actually drives the pricing decision.
The issue is straightforward: there is no way of knowing whether any of those competitors are making money. If five web designers are all looking at each other's rates and trying to undercut, they could all be operating at a loss. Copying that model does not make it any less flawed.
Instead, Robin recommends building the price from the business model itself using a simple formula:
This approach grounds pricing strategy in the actual economics of the business rather than in guesswork. It often reveals a significant gap between what someone is currently charging and what they need to charge to hit their goals, and that gap is worth confronting early.
Many established business owners set themselves an unofficial rule: raise prices once a year, in January, by 5-10%. It feels measured and responsible. Robin argues it is neither.
At current inflation rates, a 5% annual increase is effectively a price cut in real terms. The business is doing more for less. Yet the habit persists because raising prices feels risky; there is an assumption that clients will push back or leave.
Robin's approach is more direct. He encourages business owners to test increases of 20 to 40%, and to do so multiple times a year rather than waiting for January. The testing process itself has an added benefit: when prospective clients say the price is too high, they often explain what would make it worthwhile, providing useful market research alongside the pitch.
The key principle is that a price rise should not simply add a percentage to the current figure. It should come alongside a genuine increase in value: better packaging, clearer outcomes, stronger guarantees, so that the higher price is fully justified.
The third and most fundamental mistake is billing by the hour or day. Robin describes this model as unethical, not because it is dishonest, but because it creates perverse incentives that work against both the client and the provider.
The problem becomes clear when comparing two web designers charging the same hourly rate. The junior designer takes longer and produces lower quality work. The senior designer works faster, produces better work, and is penalised for it in earnings. Experience is punished rather than rewarded. In theory, even if rarely in practice, a provider could increase income simply by slowing down. That alone is a clear sign the model is broken.
The alternative Robin teaches is the productised service model, built on three elements:
Define the dream outcome. Not what you deliver, but what the client gains. A web designer is not selling a website; they are selling an online presence that generates 10 to 15 qualified leads per month.
Set a fixed timeframe. Commit to when the result will be achieved. In the web design example, the website is live in 30 days and lead generation is measurable within 90 days.
Charge a fixed fee. Instead of an open-ended hourly rate, the offer is a 90-day lead generation programme for a single price, say £5,000.
This is the same model Robin used during his agency days when he created a one-day branding workshop priced at £1,500, three times what the business had previously charged for a logo. The client paid in full the same afternoon, without hesitation.
Days 1-30 - Redesign the offer: Map out your natural capacity, calculate the revenue-per-client figure your business needs, and draft a productised package built around a clear outcome and fixed timeframe. Define the dream result your clients are truly buying, not just the deliverable you provide.
Days 31-60 - Test the new price: Pitch the new offer to at least 10 to 20 prospective clients. Gather feedback not just on whether they buy, but on what would make them more likely to. Use this to refine both the package and the language you use to describe it.
Days 61-90 - Raise, review, and repeat: Assess the response rate and any objections you encountered. If the offer is landing well, consider a further price increase. If not, revisit the value built into the package before reducing the price. Start knowing your numbers closely so that every pricing decision is grounded in data rather than instinct.
"My clients won't pay that much." This is usually a confidence issue rather than a market reality. If you can articulate the outcome clearly and you are genuinely sold on the value you deliver, the conversation shifts from cost to investment. Clients who push back hardest on price are often not the right fit for a premium, outcome-based offer.
"I can't guarantee results." Many service providers resist fixed-fee pricing because they fear being held accountable. Robin sees this differently: a willingness to stand behind the result is precisely what justifies charging more. If you cannot guarantee an outcome, that is a signal to improve the service rather than lower the price.
"I'll raise my prices once I have more experience." Waiting until everything is perfect is a form of procrastination. Robin's advice: pitch your product into existence first, bring cashflow in, and continue building as you go. Experience comes from doing, not from waiting.
The three pricing mistakes Robin identifies (copying competitors, being too cautious with increases, and billing by the hour) are not unusual. They are the default. Most service businesses operate this way, which is precisely why so many find themselves busy but not profitable.
The shift Robin advocates is a change in how the offer is framed, priced, and sold. Moving from time-for-money to outcome-based, productised services is not just a pricing adjustment; it is a repositioning of the entire value proposition. Clients pay for results, not for access to your time.
For coaches, consultants, and freelancers ready to make that shift, the starting point is not a rebrand or a new website. It is a single, clearly defined offer, priced around what the business needs to earn and what the client genuinely needs to achieve.
Catch the full conversation between Ronald Ryan Correo and Robin Waite on the Secret Experts Podcast, available now on Spotify.
The Secret Experts Podcast is hosted by Ronald Ryan Correo, showcasing hidden-gem experts so listeners can learn from their experience and insights. New episodes are available on Spotify.
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This Scorecard has been designed to show Coaches, Consultants and Freelancers their blind spots and provide instant, actionable steps on how to increase their prices.
