Use this lesson to set the price. Then use Lesson 25 to manage the business finances, and Lesson 4 to compare revenue models.
The pricing rule
Price the entire appointment, not the needle time.
The draw itself may take four minutes. The appointment takes an hour of your working day once preparation, driving, collection, lab drop-off, payment and documentation are counted.
What the price must cover
Ten things come out of every fee you collect. A price that covers eight of them looks profitable and is not.
- Clinical supplies
- Travel and vehicle cost
- Parking and tolls
- Payment processing
- Collection time
- Preparation and admin time
- Lab drop-off
- Fixed overhead
- Service-recovery and recollection risk
- Owner compensation and profit
The measure that matters is contribution per appointment: price collected minus variable appointment costs. That is what is left to pay fixed overhead and to pay you.
Contribution calculator
Enter one typical appointment. Use the per-visit total from Lesson 6 if you already built it.
- PricePrice you chargeWhat the customer pays for one appointment $
- Variable costClinical suppliesTubes, needles, PPE, labels, transport materials $
- Variable costTravel and vehicleFuel, wear, mileage for a typical round trip $
- Variable costParking and tollsWhere they apply in your service area $
- Variable costPayment processingCard and platform fees on the collected price $
- Variable costCollection and admin timePrep, travel, draw, drop-off and paperwork at a rate you would accept $
- Variable costRecollection allowanceYour average cost of service recovery, spread per appointment $
Price collected minus variable costs. If this is negative, every appointment you accept loses money.
- MonthlyFixed costs per monthInsurance, software, phone, marketing and anything else that continues when no appointment happens $
Fixed costs divided by contribution. Every appointment above this number is profit; everything below it is subsidised by you.
Nothing here is saved — write the figures down before you leave the page.
Service area and density
A large service radius can create impressive coverage and poor economics. Two appointments forty minutes apart consume more of the day than four appointments in one neighbourhood, and they pay less for it.
Do not maximize geography. Maximize profitable density.
Use core, extended and premium zones, or another method the customer can understand at a glance.
Core zone
The area you can reach quickly and repeatedly. Most appointments should land here, priced at your standard rate.
Extended zone
Reachable but costly in travel time. Priced higher, or accepted only when it clusters with other work.
Premium zone
Long-distance, same-day, after-hours or complex specialty workflows. Priced for the real added burden and disclosed clearly.
Where XpediPro fits
Structured services, prices, payments and appointment records make it easier to see which work actually supports the business — rather than leaving revenue data scattered across text threads, invoices and payment links you have to reconstruct at month end.
See how XpediPro worksAction checklist
Six things to settle before moving on to Lesson 8.
0 of 6 complete
FAQs
Should I copy another operator's price?
No. Their costs, travel distances, customer mix and service model may differ from yours in ways you cannot see from the outside. A price that works in a dense metro with a lab ten minutes away will not survive a rural route.
Should I charge mileage?
Mileage is one option. Zones or another transparent method may be simpler for the customer to understand and for you to quote. Use whatever reflects your economics and can be explained in one sentence.
