Affordable Luxury Does Not Exist

Amy and Amyann run Daylight Flora, a wedding florist in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2022, they did about 60 weddings in nine months, with almost no help. Amyann was pregnant, and Amy had three small children.

At the end of that season, Amy wrote on the studio’s website, they looked at each other and “knew we could never, ever do that again.”

In her words, “our dates are our inventory.” A florist has only so many dates in a year. So they set a minimum of $5,000 for weddings where they set up and deliver the flowers. The minimum decides which weddings get those dates.

Amy explains the limit in terms of her clients: “Our clients deserve the best service, so we are thoughtful about how we spend our limited resources.”

So choose one limit on who can book you, or when, that you can keep through your slowest month. Here is why a limit is part of what a wealthy client pays for, and the three forms it can take. Then you will see what it costs to set a price or a limit you cannot keep.

Part of what the client buys is that not everyone can have it

In Influence, Robert Cialdini describes the principle of scarcity. People want more of what they can have less of. So a booking that is hard to get feels worth more than the same booking offered to anyone.

A wealthy client pays partly for what having your work says about them. Imagine an interior designer named Hana Lindqvist who takes on four houses a year. A family who gets one of Hana’s four places has a designer their friends may not be able to hire. A family who hires a designer who can start next week gets good rooms too. But nothing about that hire is worth mentioning to their friends.

The phrase “affordable luxury” promises luxury that anyone can have. The trouble is not the price. Once anyone can book a service at any time, it loses the part the client was paying for. The client was paying for something not everyone could have. What is left is premium, meaning better work that anyone with the budget can book soon.

So look for the places where your business says that anyone can book you at any time. Those are the places where a limit would go.

A photographer takes one wedding a weekend and tells couples why

A limit does not mean turning most people away. Mark of Bridge Four Photography, a wedding photographer in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, states his limit on his Zola listing: “I only do one wedding a weekend.” So each weekend goes to one couple, and a couple who books him has a date no other couple can have.

He gives the reason in the same place. As a second photographer, Mark watched busy photographers burn out and forget the couple’s names. He also saw couples wait “months on end” for their photos. He adds, “I am all yours, and I promise to remember your names as well.”

His prices start at $2,500, so his limit is on his weekends, not on who can afford him. A limit needs a reason like his. Without one, a client may take the limit for a sales pitch. With one, the client sees what the limit gives them.

So write your reason the way Mark did, as a promise about what the client gets.

A limit can be a number, a way in, or a start date

Any one of these three forms is enough:

• A number. One wedding a weekend, six households a year, or 12 clients at a time.
• A way in. New clients come by introduction from a current client only.
• Start dates you offer. The client takes a date you give, instead of picking any slot from a calendar.

A minimum price on its own does not stop anyone with the budget from booking soon. Daylight Flora’s minimum works alongside a number they already had, which is the weddings two florists can do in a year. So if you use a minimum, pair it with a number of dates or clients, and state the number.

A coach raised her price faster than she could keep up with it

Caroline Leon, a business coach, started out with a first client who paid $400 for eight sessions. Her own coach encouraged her to raise her prices “over and over again.” Just over a year later, she charged $5,000 for 18 sessions.

At that price, Leon writes, she had “a full roster of clients and money was flowing.” She should have felt great about her business. Instead, that was when she “began to fall out of love with it.”

Among other reasons, she did not feel right charging those rates. Leon loves giving clients more than they expect, and she found that “when you are priced high, it’s quite hard to over deliver without burning yourself out.”

Several years later, her programs no longer cost $5,000. She has spent the past few years “steadily reducing” her rates.

Leon set her price on her coach’s advice, and only afterward found out how hard it was to keep up. That price cost her the love she had for her business. Then she spent years bringing the price back down.

Why a limit you cannot afford to keep goes wrong

Imagine a tutor named Carla Mendes who updates her website in August, between two sessions. “Taking three new students this fall” sounds selective, so she writes it. She does not add up what the fall will cost her.

In September, Mrs. Abbott asks Carla for a place for her son. Carla says, “I’m sorry, I’m full for the fall.” Mrs. Abbott thanks her and says she will ask again in January.

By October, Carla’s fees do not cover her rent. So she takes a fourth new student, and then a fifth. In November, Mrs. Abbott hears about the new students from another mother at school. She decides the limit was only something Carla said to sound in demand, and she stops recommending Carla to her friends.

The version that works starts with Carla’s costs. Before she writes anything, she looks at last October, her slowest month. She works out that she needs five new students on top of her returning ones to cover her rent. So her website says, “Taking five new students this fall.”

When Mrs. Abbott asks in October, all five places are taken. Carla offers her son the first place in January. Her fees cover the rent, so Carla stays at five, and in January Mrs. Abbott’s son starts.

A limit you can keep does not mean turning away the work you need

Turning work away can feel like a risk you cannot take, especially in a slow month. A limit you have checked against your slowest month already covers your costs. So the clients it turns away are not clients you need to pay your bills.

Daylight Flora also kept a way in for couples who spend less. A couple under the $5,000 minimum can still order flowers and pick them up, designed and packed, from the studio in Westport. The minimum decides who gets a wedding date, not who gets flowers.

How to set your limit

1. Write down every place where your business tells a stranger that anyone can book you at any time. Check your booking calendar, your home page, and your social media bio.
2. Choose one limit from the three forms, which are a number, a way in, or start dates you offer.
3. Find last year’s slowest month. Work out whether your limit would have let in enough clients that month to cover your costs. For a yearly number, divide it by 12 first.
4. If the answer is no, loosen the limit. Raise the number, or take introductions from past clients as well as current ones.
5. Write one sentence that states the limit, and one that gives the reason in terms of what the client gets. For example, a personal trainer can write, “I train 12 clients at a time. That way each of them has the same hour with me every week.”
6. Change each place from step 1 to match. Close the open calendar, or show only the dates you offer. Put your two sentences on your home page and in your bio.

Next: You will see why the gift bag and the handwritten card stopped meaning much to wealthy clients. Then you will see when a gesture still works.