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The instinct is to discount because you have no track record. But a low price signals low value to exactly the buyers who would otherwise take a chance on you, and it is the hardest decision to reverse later.
Short answer: No, you should not charge less because you are new. Price from the value of the outcome to the customer and offset risk with a guarantee, staged commitment or smaller first project instead. This avoids the buyers who negotiate hardest and leave first while keeping your rates intact for new customers once you have references.
Work out what the outcome is worth to the customer and price against that. If you need to offset the risk of an unknown supplier, do it with a guarantee, a staged commitment or a smaller first engagement — not with a permanently lower number.
Those alternatives address the actual objection, which is uncertainty rather than price, and they expire naturally as you build a record.
Price-led buyers negotiate hardest, demand the most and leave first. As a new business with limited capacity, a handful of them can consume everything you have.
A slightly higher price that filters for buyers who value the work is not just more profitable; it is materially easier to deliver.
This question routes to Startup Genius — one of 29 engagements the platform runs. It does not produce advice in general; it produces this analysis for your business:
✓ Sizes who could realistically buy this — not the size of the industry
✓ Estimates what a customer costs to acquire and what they are worth to you
✓ Tests whether the gap between those two survives contact with reality
✓ Models the cash you need and when break-even actually arrives
✓ Names the assumptions the whole idea rests on, ranked by damage if wrong
✓ Gives the cheapest test that would prove the riskiest one false
You watch the analysis get built before you pay anything. Read a complete report here if you would rather see the depth first.
Offer more instead — a stronger guarantee, more access, a smaller first project. Both reduce the buyer's risk, but only one leaves your pricing intact for when you have references.
Apply new pricing to new customers first and move existing ones at a natural renewal point with notice. It works, and it is much slower and more awkward than starting at a defensible number.
Some loss is correct and healthy. What matters is whether you are losing the customers you want. Losing price-driven buyers while winning value-driven ones is the pricing working, not failing.
Describe the situation in your own words and we will tell you which analysis answers it — before you sign up for anything.
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