- Price from your costs and a profit target, not from what feels comfortable.
- Tiered tickets (early bird, standard, plus) capture more revenue without raising the headline price.
- Announce a price rise with a reason and a grace period for regulars, and expect fewer, better attendees.
Most community leaders set prices by feel. A round number, a bit less than what everyone else charges, and a quiet hope that people will still show up. It works, until you realise you're covering the venue and the snacks out of your own pocket every single month.
There's a better way, and it takes about ten minutes with a calculator.
Start with your real costs
List everything an event actually costs you: venue hire, food and drink, equipment, marketing, and your own time. That last one is the one most organisers skip, and it's usually the biggest number. If you spend four hours planning and running an event, and your time is worth $30 an hour, that's $120 you're not charging for.
The pricing formula
Once you have your total costs, add a profit target, then divide by how many tickets you realistically expect to sell.
| Line | Example |
|---|---|
| Venue, food, supplies, marketing | $400 |
| Your time (4 hours at $30) | $120 |
| Total costs | $520 |
| Profit target | $200 |
| Expected tickets (80% of 40 capacity) | 32 |
| Ticket price | $23 → round to $25 |
That's it. Not a guess, a number you can defend to yourself and to your members.
Use tiers instead of one flat price
A single price leaves money on the table. Three tiers capture more of it:
- Early bird: a limited number of discounted tickets that create urgency and reward planners.
- Standard: your calculated price.
- Plus: a small premium tier with something cheap for you but valuable to them — a reserved seat, a drink, a five-minute chat with you.
Always show remaining capacity. Scarcity is one of the few pricing levers that costs nothing.
Raising prices without losing people
If you're moving from free or underpriced events, don't just change the number overnight. Three things make the transition smooth:
- Explain the why. "This lets us book better venues and keep doing this long-term" lands better than silence.
- Protect your regulars. Give anyone who's been coming a founding price or one free event as thanks.
- Expect a dip, then a rise. Fewer people show up in month one. The ones who do come back more often, and you finally have budget to make the experience better.
What to do with no-shows
Free tickets get abandoned. Paid ones get honoured. If you're not ready to charge everyone yet, a small refundable deposit does almost as much work. Pair it with a clear policy — transfers allowed, refunds up to 48 hours before — and a waitlist that automatically fills any cancellation.
Community Leaders Club walks through pricing, tiering and killing no-shows in Module 1, plus a ready-to-use pricing calculator template.
See membership optionsFrequently asked questions
Add up your total costs including your own time, add a profit target, then divide by the number of tickets you realistically expect to sell. That gives you a defensible starting price you can round to a clean number.
Usually attendance dips slightly in the first event or two, then recovers as regulars realise the experience is better funded. Paid events also tend to have far lower no-show rates than free ones.
10–20% off standard price is common, released for a limited window or a limited number of tickets, whichever creates more urgency for your audience.