Selling cheap is a rich man's game

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Reading soundtrack:
Creedence Clearwater Revival — "Fortunate Son"

Selling cheap is a… rich man's game.

I know, it sounds backwards…

Everyone tells you cheap is where beginners start, that it's the "safe" way to test the waters, that nobody pays real money to someone they've never heard of.

So someone leaves the company they've spent their whole career at, decides to build something online, and the script is always the same:

A $47 ebook, a $97 mini-course, a $17-a-month membership…

And that's exactly where a lot of people go broke before they ever really get started.

Here's why low prices belong at the END of the game… and what to sell at the start instead.

Why is selling cheap a rich man's game?

Look at who actually gets to live off cheap products:

The big company, sitting on a massive list of leads and customers…

The influencers with a few hundred thousand followers who sell on organic reach alone, without spending a dollar on ads.

They don't make much on each sale (the margin is thin, and they're fine with that)… but they have SCALE.

Plus, that cheap product is just the front door.

Behind that door is the back end… the next product, the upsell, the subscription… and that's where the real profit shows up.

Now compare that with someone just starting out:

• No cash for paid traffic, a team or even the basic tools…

• No list of leads or customers…

• No experience running a business (working at a company and running one are two very different jobs)…

And that person picks the one model that only works with everything they DON'T have.

It's like walking onto a battlefield with a pitchfork while the other side has drones, tanks and missiles… and knows the terrain better than anyone.

That's insane.

The napkin math most people skip

Grab a napkin.

Picture this…

You reach out to 10 people yourself (or they come through a referral), talk to them one on one… over DMs, WhatsApp or a quick video call… and close 3 deals at $10,000 each (a consulting gig, a coaching program, a done-for-you service)…

That's $30,000 in YOUR pocket.

Now try to get to the same $30,000 with a $50 ebook:

That's 600 sales.

And to make 600 sales, you need to put your offer in front of a LOT of people.

At a 1% conversion rate…

…that's 60,000 people landing on your page… and almost all of them come from ads you pay for before you even know whether anything will sell (even at $1 a click, that's $60,000 in ads to make $30,000).

10 conversations on one side, 60,000 visits on the other… for the same $30,000.

For a beginner, selling cheap is the most expensive road there is.

Sell high first

When I say "sell high," I mean selling something GOOD that pays for your whole operation with a handful of sales (charging a fortune for any old thing is a whole other conversation).

And here's the edge the small player has over the big one: being CLOSE to the customer.

The big company can't sit down and have a real conversation with every customer.

But YOU can.

With consulting, coaching or a higher-ticket service, you tailor the work, you hear their pain firsthand, you pick up on what they want but can't quite put into words…

And that's worth its weight in gold down the road.

Because once you have the cash and the experience, everything you learned becomes a smaller, low-ticket product, the one that's finally ready to scale…

And it's all built on what you heard from real people, instead of what you guessed the market wanted.

The order goes like this:

Skip straight to the last step and you're shooting in the dark.

A fat margin forgives mistakes

You're going to make mistakes. Everyone does when they build a business.

The real question is: can your business survive them?

With thin margins and fierce competition, all it takes is one ad that doesn't convert, one launch that flops, one slow month… and you're out of the game.

Now, with a 50%, 60%, 70%, even 80% margin (very doable online, especially with a minimum viable team, something like you plus one person)…

the mistake still hurts… but it won't kill you.

Margin is the cushion that breaks your fall.

Running out of cash (what really sinks good businesses)

Lots of sales won't save you if the money doesn't hit your account for 60, 90, 120 days.

That's just how B2B works: you deliver, send the invoice and wait.

Meanwhile the operation keeps running, payroll keeps going out, the bills keep coming in.

And what if the invoice comes due… and the client never pays?

You burned cash to keep the lights on, counting on money that never showed up. That can take down any business, no matter how good it is.

So here's a rule I take seriously: keep enough cash to cover at least 3 months of expenses.

If your lean setup costs $20,000 a month, you want $60,000 set aside.

That money pulls double duty:

• On defense: a customer wants a refund? An expense nobody saw coming? You cover it out of the business account, without dipping into your personal savings to plug the hole.

• On offense: your cost per lead just dropped, you found a winning ad, a funnel is suddenly converting… and you have the money to pour gas on it right away, before that window closes.

As the company grows, that number grows with it… the rule stays the same.

The 3 things I'll leave you with today

If you're starting (or starting over) online:

1 - Sell high. A few sales that COVER your overhead, instead of thousands of sales you CAN'T generate yet.

2 - Keep a fat margin. It's what stands between a mistake and going under.

3 - Keep cash on hand. Enough in the bank to cover at least 3 months of expenses.

Cheap comes later… once you have the list, the cash and the experience to scale it.

Hit reply and tell me:

What are you selling right now… and for how much?

I read every reply (and I'll tell you if your price is working for you or against you).

That's it.

Talk soon.

Peace ✌️

— Lucas

P.S.: Low prices are a luxury for people who already have scale… for everyone else, they're just the fastest way to go broke.