How to Price Your Business So You Actually Take Home Enough | Quinnie Chen from Profit Plainly

Quinnie Chen is the founder of Profit Plainly, a web app built for solo founders and freelancers who have no finance team, no CFO, and no clear picture of whether their business is actually working for them. Quinnie built it to solve her own problem, after years of running a website and software design business post Canva, she kept reaching the end of the month and realising she had underpriced her work, taken on the wrong clients, and had no way of knowing what she actually needed to earn to replace a salary.In this episode, recorded live at the Cremorne Digital Hub in Melbourne, Quinnie joins Alan to talk through the early stages of bringing Profit Plainly to market. Alan challenges her to think more carefully about who her first customer really is, why accountants and bookkeepers might be her smartest go-to-market channel, and why per-usage pricing could unlock growth that a traditional SaaS model would block. It's a candid, practical conversation about the decisions every solo founder faces before they have any customers, any pricing, and any real clarity on where to focus.If you're building something early and trying to figure out where to start, this episode is for you.Time Stamps00:00 Trailer and Intro03:01 How Quinnie Chen Built Profit Plainly to Solve Her Own Freelancing Finance Problem05:47 Why Emotional Labor and Opportunity Cost Are Missing From Most Business Finance Tools08:52 How the Business Ikigai Framework Helps Solo Founders Identify Their Best Clients12:05 Why Accountants and Bookkeepers Are the Smartest First Customer for Profit Plainly14:54 How to Find a Go-To-Market Channel That Generates Both Revenue and Referrals18:02 Why Traditional SaaS Pricing May Not Work for Price-Sensitive Solo Founders21:04 How Per-Usage Pricing Could Help Profit Plainly Convert More Early Stage Users23:46 How to Start Experimenting With Paid Marketing Before Your Product Is Ready27:14 How to Build a Community and Reward Engaged Users on a Zero Budget30:03 How to Join the Profit Plainly Early Access Beta and What Comes NextSponsors:Pick My Brain is supported by our wonderful sponsors:Deel: Global hiring and payroll can be a headache. Deel brings HR, IT and payroll together in one platform, helping companies including Shopify, Revolut and ElevenLabs scale internationally.Ready to expand your business?Build your global team with Deel at deel.com/dayone.___Galah Cyber offers Application Security Assessment Get a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at https://www.galahcyber.com.au/assessThe Day One NetworkPick My Brain is part of Day One, the podcast network dedicated to founders, operators & investors.To learn more, join our newsletter to be notified of new and upcoming shows. The only content we create is content that will help Australian founders.Mentioned in this episode:Deel x PX_Script 1Deel x PX_Script 25 I’s of Application Security AssessmentGet a clear, ten-minute snapshot of your AppSec maturity across the five core principles. Fast, practical insights you can act on straight away at galahcyber.com.au/assess.