# Make Your Membership Price Stick

Source: https://ivankamenken.com/membership-pricing-that-holds · Last updated 29 October 2026

You check the membership dashboard on Friday, see another monthly cancellation, and realise your first-week discount is doing your annual price’s job. Ivanka Menken uses the Price-Cash-Confidence Chain inside Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring, 6 months at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST, to set the three prices as one ladder that rewards staying. In a composite example: $149 a month, $799 a year in week one, $999 a year. You leave with a one-page price ladder.

## The discount is doing the annual price’s job

- You have a monthly membership price but no clear reason to choose the annual option.
- Your first-week discount brings people in, then the price feels weak.
- You cannot tell whether the membership is covering the cash the business needs.

**THE MOMENT:** It is Friday. You open the membership dashboard and see another monthly cancellation. New members keep arriving at $149 a month, a few take the $799 first-week annual offer, and almost nobody chooses $999 a year. You realise the first-week discount is doing the work your annual price should be doing, and you cannot say what any of it adds to the cash plan.

### THE MEMBERSHIP, AS IT STANDS

- Monthly: $149, steady joins
- Annual: $999, few choose it
- First week: $799 a year, job unclear
- Cancellations: read one at a time
- Weeks of payroll it covers: not known

## Push the first-week price harder

The obvious fix was to push the $799 first-week price harder: more emails, a countdown, a louder banner. It brought in more joins, but they were price-led joins. People came for the discount, not for a year in the membership, and the $999 annual option still looked like the expensive choice nobody needed to make. More activity, the same thin annual upgrade, and less confidence in every price.

## The monthly price was doing all the persuading

Ivanka noticed that the monthly price was doing all the persuading. It was low, easy and always available, so it answered the buyer’s first question and left no reason to ask the second. The annual price had no clear job in the buyer’s first week. Nobody had written down what staying a year should make true for a member, so $999 read as a bigger bill, not a better place to be.

## Not too expensive. Not arranged as a ladder.

The diagnosis was not that the membership was too expensive. The monthly, annual and first-week prices were not arranged as a ladder that rewards staying. Each price had been set on its own, so each one competed with the others.
The reframe that changed the decision: the monthly price is not the offer. It is the entry point, and its job is to make the annual price feel like the obvious place to stay. Once that is the job, the first-week price stops being a discount and becomes a decision point: join for the year now, with a clear reason, or stay monthly and decide later.

> The monthly price is not the offer; it is the entry point that should make the annual price feel like the obvious place to stay.

**The cost of staying stuck:** Staying at $149 a month without a clear annual step keeps the membership easy to leave and leaves the cash plan exposed. Every cancellation is a surprise, because nothing in the price asked the member to stay.

## The tool: Price-Cash-Confidence Chain

The Price-Cash-Confidence Chain starts where the money starts: the price. For a membership, Ivanka works it as a ladder. Each rung gets a job, each job is tested against gross margin and weeks of payroll covered, and the buyer’s confidence decides whether the top rung feels like the place to stay.

It is a one-page membership price ladder. Three rungs, the monthly rate, the first-week rule and the annual rate, each with its job written beside it. Then the three checks of the chain: what the price invites, which option covers the next block of payroll, and what the annual price must make true.

It replaces three prices set one at a time, a first-week discount pushed harder whenever joins slow, and cancellations read one by one with no line back to the cash plan.

### What goes on the page

1. The entry: $149 a month in the example, to try the work
2. The first-week rule: $799 a year, a clear annual decision in week one
3. The place to stay: $999 a year, with the reason written beside it
4. The cash check: which option covers the next block of payroll
5. The margin check: gross margin at each rung, before it goes live
6. The condition: what would make you change a price, written down

It sits inside Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring with the monthly Money-and-Clarity Scorecard. The numbers are worked through together and taken to your own adviser. It is coaching, not accounting or financial advice, and there is no separate checkout.

## The membership ladder on one page

In the first session, Ivanka put the whole membership ladder on one page and asked three questions. What is the monthly price inviting someone to do? What does the annual price need to make true? Which option covers the next block of payroll? Together they mapped the $149 monthly, $999 annual and $799 first-week choice against gross margin and confidence. The founder wrote the one-page decision sheet: the monthly rate, the annual rate, the first-week rule and the condition for changing it.

### The questions

- What is the monthly price inviting someone to do?
- What does the annual price need to make true?
- Which option covers the next block of payroll?
- What is the first-week price for, in one sentence?
- What would make you change a price?

### THE FOUR-STEP LOOP

1. The one thing: The annual option nobody chooses.
2. The numbers: $149, $799 and $999, against margin and payroll.
3. The story: Why the discount felt like the only lever.
4. The commitment: The decision sheet, and the first-week email rewritten.

Before the next session, the founder rewrote the first-week offer so it led to the annual decision, and started a weekly count: joins, upgrades to annual and cancellations, read against the cash plan.

## A ladder that rewards staying

By month 6, the membership has a monthly rate and an annual rate that match the cash plan, and the first-week offer has a clear job instead of setting the price.

**BEFORE**

- Three prices, each set on its own.
- The first-week discount set the price.
- Few members chose the annual option.
- Nobody could say what the membership covered.

**BY MONTH 6**

- Monthly and annual rates that match the cash plan.
- A first-week offer with one clear job.
- Joins, upgrades and cancellations counted each week.
- The five-number scorecard showing weeks of payroll, gross margin and confidence.

The programme is the container: 12 fortnightly 60-minute sessions, a monthly scorecard, and reviews at month 3 and month 6.

## Your next price change is a ladder decision

Ivanka Menken built Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring for founders of $500K to $3M businesses that are growing while cash tightens. She reads the numbers with you, asks the hard question, and keeps you to the decision you write down.
If your membership has a monthly price, an annual price and a first-week offer that do not point at each other, the decision in front of you is what each one is for. Write that down before you change a single number.

> During our sessions Ivanka isn’t just talking theory. She is sharing her own lived experiences.
>
> Business owner

## Who fits, and who does not

### It fits

- You run a membership or subscription with a monthly and an annual price.
- Your first-week or launch discount does most of the selling.
- You cannot say how many weeks of payroll the membership covers.
- You will write the ladder down and count what happens.

### It does not fit

- You want accounting or financial advice.
- You want a done-for-you fix or someone to rewrite your offer.
- You want a pricing template to copy without testing it.
- Your business has no recurring price to arrange.

### Investment

**AUD $1,500 per month ex GST, 6 months.** The Price-Cash-Confidence Chain is part of Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring, a 6-month 1:1 programme at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST. It is not sold separately.

Included:

- 12 fortnightly 60-minute sessions
- The monthly Money-and-Clarity Scorecard
- Reviews at month 3 and month 6
- The Price-Cash-Confidence Chain for each price decision

Three founding places in total, shared across all 1:1 mentoring, are available at AUD $1,000/month ex GST, in return for honest monthly feedback and a testimonial, which can be anonymous.

- [Join Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring, AUD $1,500/mo, 6 months](https://buy.stripe.com/eVq4gzdKgekN6pcbIcdQQ0t?utm_source=ivankamenken&utm_medium=showcase&utm_campaign=membership-pricing-that-holds)
- [Book a 20-minute intro call](https://theartofservice.zohobookings.com.au/?utm_source=ivankamenken&utm_medium=showcase&utm_campaign=membership-pricing-that-holds#/15606000001356030)
- [See the Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring programme](https://ivankamenken.com/cash-tight-growing-founder)

## Questions about Price-Cash-Confidence Chain

### What should a monthly membership include before I add an annual plan?

Enough of the real work that a member can judge it within a month, and a clear reason to stay longer. If the monthly tier already gives everything, the annual plan is only a discount. Ivanka Menken works this through inside Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring, 6 months at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST, by writing down what staying a year should make true for a member.

### How do I test a $149 monthly price without guessing?

Write what the price is inviting someone to do, then count what they actually do: joins, upgrades to annual and cancellations, each week, against the cash plan. Change one thing at a time and give it a fixed period. Ivanka Menken sets up the count and reads it with you inside Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring, 6 months at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST.

### Should my first-week price be lower than my annual price?

In the example, yes: $799 a year in the first week against $999 later. But the gap only works if the first-week price has a job, a clear annual decision made early, rather than a discount that sets the price. Ivanka Menken tests each rung against gross margin inside Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring, 6 months at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST. It is coaching, not financial advice.

### How do I know if my membership price is covering payroll?

Convert the membership’s monthly cash into weeks of payroll covered, then check gross margin at each price. If the answer moves every time a discount runs, the ladder is not doing its job yet. Ivanka Menken reads this on the monthly Money-and-Clarity Scorecard inside Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring, 6 months at AUD $1,500 per month ex GST. Take the figures to your own adviser.


## Write the ladder before you change a price

If your first-week discount is doing your annual price’s job, start with Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring. The Price-Cash-Confidence Chain is inside it, and the 20-minute intro call is where you can see whether the programme fits.

- [Join Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring, AUD $1,500/mo, 6 months](https://buy.stripe.com/eVq4gzdKgekN6pcbIcdQQ0t?utm_source=ivankamenken&utm_medium=showcase&utm_campaign=membership-pricing-that-holds)
- [Book a 20-minute intro call](https://theartofservice.zohobookings.com.au/?utm_source=ivankamenken&utm_medium=showcase&utm_campaign=membership-pricing-that-holds#/15606000001356030)
- [See the Cash-Tight Growth Mentoring programme](https://ivankamenken.com/cash-tight-growing-founder)
- [The full Price-Cash-Confidence Chain](https://ivankamenken.com/cash-tight-growing-founder#the-chain)
- [The Money-and-Clarity Scorecard](https://ivankamenken.com/mentoring#scorecard)
- [Charge a premium next to a cheaper copy](https://ivankamenken.com/premium-price-against-cheap-rivals)
- [Turn a project into a retainer](https://ivankamenken.com/lump-sum-to-retainer)

- Every way to work with Ivanka: https://ivankamenken.com/work-with-ivanka