how much to charge for college essay editing

how much to charge for college essay editing

Determining the Ideal Price for College Essay Editing

1. Factors to Consider in Pricing

This manuscript deals with determining the ideal price for college essay editing services and represents researchers’ first attempt to link college essay editing processes with economics. The general problem this study addresses is the relationship between the amount of money a student pays for college essay editing services and the quality of the resulting essay, and the relationship between this price and the income levels of different clients of these services. Given that college essay editing for students from low and moderate-income families has been shown to improve essay quality and college acceptance rates, the primary goal of this study is to determine the price at which the college essay editing firm can break even offering discounted services to these clients and to investigate how essay quality and firm profits are affected by price changes. Seven factors determining the ideal price for editing a college essay are discussed, and the results of this study suggest that firms which take self-interest into account and price their services above the identified competitive price may be damaging their own businesses and the essay quality of their clients. Determining the ideal price to charge for editing a product that is unfamiliar to many people can be a challenging task, and college essay proofreading is no exception to this. When buying a product, consumers compare the benefits that they believe the product will give them against the price of the product in order to determine if the purchase is worthwhile. This process is easiest when the quality of the product is easily observed, there are similar products to compare it to, and the product can be bought in small quantities. College essay editing differs from other products on the market because the benefit of a high-quality essay in the college application process is very high, yet difficult to quantify and to compare against the cost of the editing service. Consequently, price sensitivity for the essay editing service is unclear, and the quality of the editing service and the product are likely to be closely monitored. Because of this, essay editing service providers must consider the effects of a price change on demand for the service and on competition between other essay editing services. A change in price makes for a movement along the demand curve for the service, and depending on the price elasticity value (percentage change in quantity demanded/percentage change in price) and the firm’s perception of whether they are in a monopolistic competition or an oligopoly within the essay editing industry, the firm may see an increase, decrease, or no change in demand for their service. How much the price of the service is compared relative to the price of competing services and the perceived quality of these services is also a factor to consider and relates to whether the firm is in oligopoly or monopolistic competition. If one can assume that the essay is a product which has considerable emphasis on being successful getting into college (relatively high income elasticity), the firm is likely engaging in monopolistic competition and price comparisons will be very important. If the firm’s product is similar in quality to the product of the other firm, a price increase will cause an elastic shift in the short-run demand curve as consumers seek to exploit substitutes in service, and for a price decrease, the firm will likely grab the business of the competing firm as the shift becomes inelastic. Here the firms are likely to engage in a price war to maintain or gain market share, and the firm must think about the long-run effects on industry profits and the price which will cause the exit of the competing firm. If the essay is not a huge emphasis product, the firm is likely in an oligopolistic market with low price and income elasticity, and the firm will have to consider non-price competition as a more effective competitive strategy. Firms in either form of competition must take into account the price expectations of prospective clients and how this may affect their perceived quality of the service.

2. Researching Market Rates

The research included some comparative pricing of similar services. That information can be difficult to find but here are a few that might be useful. ServiceScape, a reputable editing company, charges $8.00 per 250 words, which is about $32.00 per double spaced 250-word page. Their service is mostly a more involved proofreading and light editing service which is very similar to what my service will be offering. 1hourperessay is another service with an essay service package similar to what I will be offering. The package includes proofreading for grammar, structure, and content which is priced at $16.00 per page. Any custom editing services are charged at $48.00 per hour. We do not have the number of words or pages that the term “page” refers to, but it is probably in the ballpark of a double spaced 250-word academic paper page. With this information, we can see that the pricing can be anywhere from basically charging by the page at the proofreading rate to charging at an hourly arbitrary rate. This essay and the company may be able to use these services and their pricing structures as a comparison to figure out a pricing structure that is most fair to the consumer and to the editor. This information leads us to realize that there are different ways to charge for different types of editing services. For example, editing of grammar and vague sentence structure can be charged at a lower rate because it is a less involved process than say rearranging paragraphs for better flow and coherence.

3. Setting a Competitive Price Point

This is a risky strategy; however, it may not be necessary to undercut the price in order to gain some customers as the established firms have inelastic demand. Since the price elasticity of all the market’s consumers is likely less than infinity, it would benefit you to actually depart from the marginal cost pricing rule and set a price higher than the marginal cost where the MR=MC.

Consider also problems of entering firms in competition with established firms that already have a perceived quality and a competitive price. The status quo state of the established firms is a higher price and thus the higher quality demand-driven labor. So at an equal marginal cost, a new firm would want to initially undercut the price to capture some of the established firm’s customers, then raise the price to match the profit-maximizing state.

There are many independent agents or small companies in higher-end markets such as North America and East Asia who would be willing to pay more for a higher quality service. So you should consider practicing price discrimination in which customers with less price sensitivity are charged a higher price to fully encompass the consumer surplus of the more price-sensitive customers.

It is important to note that in the complex and fragmented world industry of independent educational consultants, the price and perceived quality of the service can stand as a quick indicator as to the professional status of the company or individual offering it. A significantly lower price may make your service less marketable to a professional consumer and may also undermine the quality of the service by creating an excess in demand-driven labor.

It can be tempting to price your service according to your conception of what a college student can afford. But while psychological pricing may be effective for a consumer product, professional consumers of a service of high personal investment such as academic editing will be wary of services they perceive as unprofessional or of suspicious quality.

4. Communicating Value to Potential Clients

High value consumers who have a lot of money are much easier to understand. If money is no issue, chances are that a consumer feels that the service is worth the amount of money that it costs. This specific target market is always desirable but unfortunately in this industry, not the most common. High value consumers are often successful professionals who want to go back and finish a degree. They understand the value of education and the importance of well-written communication. Due to the high value of what they want to edit relative to what it is worth, they are more likely to eventually select to purchase the services but time constraints for various life obligations often…

Editing services may not be affordable to those with low disposable income considering that one of the types of people who need our service the most are students who are regular procrastinators. These students find themselves in a position where their essay is due the next day and although it may be of higher quality than the work of a student who wrote the essay the night before it was assigned, it is still of the same value. Editing a low value essay takes a lot of time and is often not worth the money for the consumer which is another issue. The value of what something is worth is often not equal to what the consumer paid for it and money is one of the most valuable assets to college students. The greater the difference, the less likely the purchase will happen. In the case of essay editing, if a poor quality essay is going to cost too much to make it worth editing, a student is more likely going to do the assignment at lesser quality. Essentially the poorer the value of a service relative to its cost, the less likely the client will purchase it.

Because many students have very little money, they often have a lot of time because they are not working. Although extra money is very desirable, there is a big difference between having say $20 in a week of disposable income as opposed to $20 over the course of two months. This is often the case for college students as at a given time, we usually have very little money, but this changes quickly. Many students do not currently hold a job but receive a large sum of money from financial aid or their parents at the beginning of each semester. Because the spending money is a lump sum usually given twice per year, the funds must be rationed over a long period of time and this kind of student would be considered as having a low amount of weekly disposable income.

There are many factors that affect the price point of a product or service, and what someone is actually willing to pay is often vastly different from the point at which a service becomes “unprofitable.” That doesn’t change the fact that at a certain point on the pricing scale, consumers will lose interest and seek alternative products or services. Due to the structure of the essay editing service which this essay is built upon, understanding what potential clients are willing to pay starts and ends with understanding their two most valuable assets: time and money.

5. Adjusting Prices for Long-Term Success

Any increase that results in a great enough volume drop is not advisable. Continuous price rises tend to result in customer resistance. They may take the form of decreased brand loyalty, more readily comparison shopping, ignoring all but rock bottom sale prices, or complaints about your prices. Although you may have greater flexibility in the short run since we are editing essays during off hours to earn extra cash, this can become a constraint in the long run if our customers expect our services to be rendered at these times. This is known as the price umbrella effect and is the likely outcome of having raised prices for peak period editing. When there is any doubt as to which your response may be to restore original price levels, it is a good use of price experimentation. This involves using two or more prices for a product in a specific target market. You could also slightly lower prices in off-peak periods to encourage hour shifting of customers whose elasticity of demand for our services is negative. This can help to fill in the troughs in your sales volume. Any price changes that result in a loss of revenue or profit mean you should return to the previous price. And lastly, an increase in the marginal cost of editing an essay is a sufficient reason to raise prices since it justifies the added expense.

Setting an ideal price is just half the battle. You must revisit and possibly adjust the price level over time. You will need to raise or lower prices as the market or your costs change. But how do you know when it is time to raise or lower the price? Every price increase must be evaluated in terms of its impact on volume, revenue, and profit. If the increase is small, the volume drop is small, and the total revenue and profit increase, the small increase is justified. Your prices should be increased if you remain sold out or at capacity for a considerable period of time. So to begin with, you could raise prices on an hourly basis in periods where you are near capacity.