In this article, I want to share with you which products I made more expensive, which one I made free and why I changed all that.

Until now, the goal of the Swiss Innovation Academy project was never to be a big part of my income. It's a passion project. But as time passes, things change. There is now a baby in our family, and I have decided to cut down my freelancing time to spend more time with the kid. So that money has to come from somewhere now.

And to be very honest, the academy isn't good business money-wise. This picture says it all:

Basically, I made in three years the exact amount I would do with one or two workshops for a client as a freelancer. So my prices aren't sustainable at all for the future. 

Still, I'm a big believer in offering free stuff, especially the more basic courses and resources. I believe that basic knowledge should be free and that the advanced stuff is what should fund the possibility of creating free content for the community. 

So it's pretty simple: I'm going to raise the prices of a few paid elements drastically. I will raise the prices of my books in the Service Design Principles series, the Service Design History book and the Service Design Principle Video course. 

On the other hand, I'll pass a few courses and resources to a free level. In fact, I want to concentrate my efforts in the future for sales on just a few products and keep the rest of the resources as elements that are helping people to get in the door. 

I prefer to have only a few high priced elements than having a mix of high priced elements, low priced elements and free stuff. I feel it's not delivering a clear message. 
With just two prices: expensive and free, it clarifies that the expensive stuff is here to fund the free stuff.

The pricing of the products here on the academy website will continue to evolve until I get to a place where I feel this is something sustainable enough. I'm not a big business guy, so this might take some time. If you have some experiences to share on this, I'd be very happy to share your insights with me.

Written on Monday 20th of December 2021