How to Set Your Launch Prices Without Underselling

Quick answer. To set a solid price at launch, start from your full cost price (overheads, social contributions, target pay), add a target margin, then test the result against perceived value and the market. Aim for a margin that covers your fixed costs and corporate income tax, whose reduced 15% rate applies below 42,500 euros of profit in 2026.

The first price you announce is the hardest one to correct later. Too low, it traps you with clients who negotiate and leaves no margin to absorb social charges, VAT or an unexpected cost. Too high without justification, it scares away prospects who do not yet trust your offer. In the business creation files we support, underpricing at the start is one of the silent causes of cash-flow strain after twelve months. This question deserves a numbers-based method, not a gut feeling.

A price is not just a commercial figure: it is the entry point of your whole economic model. It determines the margin available to pay your fixed costs, your contributions, your tax and, ultimately, your own pay. A rate set too low mechanically forces a higher activity volume to reach the same result, meaning more risk and more fatigue.

The classic launch trap is to reason "competitor price minus 20%" to win the first clients. This logic ignores that your costs do not drop by 20%. Price must first be tied to your cost structure, then arbitrated against the market. Before even talking about price, we recommend you calculate your break-even point: it shows the minimum turnover below which you are working at a loss.

Finally, price depends on your tax regime. Under the French VAT exemption regime (franchise en base), you invoice without VAT as long as your turnover stays below 37,500 euros for services or 85,000 euros for trade in 2026. Above that, you must charge VAT: if your prices did not anticipate this shift, your margin shrinks overnight.

The cost price is the foundation. It gathers everything you spend to produce and sell, including what many forget: your own pay and the related social contributions.

Here are the items to list:

• Direct costs: materials, subcontracting, software tied to the service, billable or non-billable travel.
• Fixed costs: rent, professional insurance, accounting, subscriptions, banking, telecoms.
• Social contributions: they vary by status. Under the micro-entrepreneur regime, the rate is 12.3% of turnover for the sale of goods and 25.6% for other services taxed as non-commercial profits (BNC) as of 1 January 2026.
• Target pay: the net income you genuinely want to draw, not the leftover once everything is paid.
• Provision for tax and contingencies: profit tax, quiet periods, unpaid invoices.

Once this annual total is established, divide it by the volume you can genuinely invoice. For a service activity, the number of billable days is rarely above 200 per year once you remove holidays, prospecting, admin and training. This denominator, often overestimated, is what distorts daily rate calculations for an independent consultant.

The cost price gives a floor, never the final price. The right price sits at the intersection of three elements: your cost, the market and the value the client gets from your offer.

Perceived value is measured by the result delivered: added revenue, an avoided risk, time saved, compliance secured. A service that earns a client 50,000 euros is not priced like a single hour of work. Learning to distinguish gross margin from net contribution helps you avoid confusing a high price with real profitability.

Market analysis is there to position yourself, not to copy. Map the range of comparable offers, identify where they sit (entry-level, premium) and consciously choose your position. Mechanically matching the lowest bidder is the surest way to undersell. Building a genuine pricing policy for an SME rests on this assumed positioning.

The target margin is not a magic percentage: it is what you must earn beyond cost price to cover risk, fund growth and pay tax. The table below illustrates the reasoning for a consulting activity run through a company subject to corporate income tax.

This figure is a starting point to adjust for perceived value and positioning. For a product activity, the same logic applies to the unit price: unit cost price plus target margin, then comparison to the market.

The final conversion depends on the sales format: daily rate, unit price, or value-based flat fee. A flat fee often protects your margin better than an hourly rate, because it values the result rather than time. To firm up these assumptions, a costed forecast remains the most reliable tool, and our break-even simulator lets you quickly test your pricing scenarios.

Micro-entrepreneur. Your contributions are a percentage of turnover, and the regime ceiling is 83,600 euros for services in 2026. You cannot reclaim VAT on your purchases: build it into your cost price. Also anticipate crossing the VAT exemption threshold at 37,500 euros, which will require you to charge VAT.

Company subject to corporate income tax. Profit is taxed at 15% up to 42,500 euros, subject to turnover and capital ownership conditions, then at 25%. Your target margin must absorb this charge so you do not end up with a director's pay cut to the bone.

Liberal profession and consultant. The daily rate must cover non-billable days and social protection. Our support for consultants always starts from the number of genuinely sellable days, not the theoretical calendar.

The underestimated risk. The most dangerous thing is not setting a price too low, it is failing to plan how to raise it. A client used to a launch rate sees any increase as a breach. State from the outset that the intro price is temporary, and schedule the steps.

Crossing the VAT threshold. Many founders set their price under the exemption regime without realising that on crossing the upper threshold (41,250 euros for services, 93,500 euros for trade in 2026), they become liable for VAT from the first day of the month of the overrun. Without an adjustment clause, that is 20% of margin gone.

Systematic discounting. Granting a discount to close a deal teaches the client that your price was negotiable. Prefer an added-value offer (an extra deliverable) over a price cut that becomes a lasting feature of the relationship.

Our reading is simple: a launch price is not an isolated commercial decision, it is a management decision. Too many founders reason in terms of "how much the client is willing to pay" without ever checking "how much I must invoice to live and hold on". The two questions must converge, and that is precisely the role of financial forecasting.

Recently, the director of a young consulting company contacted us after six months of activity: his order book was full, his cash empty. By rebuilding his cost price, we found he was invoicing 350 euros per day for a real cost of 410 euros, holidays and contributions included. Every mission was losing money. The plan was to gradually raise his rate, move some missions to a flat fee and build the corporate income tax provision into his target margin. Six months later, at near-identical activity volume, cash flow had returned to health.

In most business creation files, our arbitrage leans towards a reference price displayed at its target level, paired with a clearly time-limited intro offer, rather than a lasting low price. This preserves the ability to raise prices without a rupture. As a firm registered with the French Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ordre des experts-comptables), we always tie this pricing work to the accounting engagement and to margin monitoring, because that is where long-term viability is decided. For structuring phases, this reasoning naturally extends into a costed growth strategy.

Hayot Expertise advice. Before announcing your first price, write down your full cost price and your target margin, then test two or three volume scenarios. Build a price increase schedule into your forecast from the start. A price that does not cover your social charges and your tax is not a teaser price: it is a programmed loss.