Pricing infrastructure as a reseller

When you resell infrastructure, the wholesale price is only the start of your cost. Pricing well means knowing what a customer really costs you to serve and what they are paying you for.

Start with every cost, not only the server

• The wholesale price of the plan.
• Your fixed costs of being a partner, spread across your customers.
• Your time: onboarding, support requests, monthly billing.
• Payment collection costs and the occasional late payer.
• Anything you bundle, such as backups, monitoring or a control panel licence.

A resale price that only covers the wholesale price plus a small percentage will lose money the first time a customer needs an afternoon of your attention.

Price the service around the server

Customers compare raw server prices easily, and you will not win that comparison against large providers. What they cannot easily compare is your service: setup done for them, someone they know on call, one invoice in rupees with GST, advice on what to buy.

Describe those things in the quote. A line that says 'managed server with monthly patching and daily backups' is worth more to a business owner than a list of cores and gigabytes.

Working with a prepaid wallet

In a prepaid model you load a balance with the provider and orders are paid from it. It keeps your exposure visible, and it means cash flow needs a little planning.

• Bill customers in advance, so their payment arrives before your wallet is charged.
• Keep a buffer in the wallet that covers at least one cycle of your recurring orders.
• Review the balance on a fixed day each week instead of when something fails.
• For large one-off orders, collect a deposit from the customer first.

Review prices once a year

Costs move and so does the value of what you provide. Set a date to review your price list, and tell customers about changes well ahead of renewal. A predictable annual review is easier for everyone than a surprise.