It happens when you think about how much a new customer is worth to you. Even if you lose money when a new customer buys something, you can still make money when people come back to you again. As long as you know that people will love what you are offering, you can even give them a product for free and still make money. One of the strangest priced items that we sell is the start up kit for people starting a new business with us. We sell this for less than we spend to send it to someone. But the starter kit really works in helping someone to grow a new business. We figured out that the people who buy the starter kit from us order almost 12 times as much in the first year as people who don't buy the starter kit. When they succeed, then we succeed too. They sell a lot more; they make more money for their work; and they buy more product from us. Many businesses figure out the lifetime value of their customers. If the average new customer brings them $100. of profit in the future, they feel that they can give away $10. of product to get them started, and still make $90. eventually. You can do the same thing. Just choose a product that you know works really well for people; give it away or sell it really cheep; and then wait for them to come back for more. If the give away product really does work for your new customers, then six months from now, you have more money than you would if you had never given the free or discounted product away. For a lot of people, giving away a free bar of soap makes them more money than the cost of the soap. When people use one of your soaps, most of them will decide that they like it enough to order more. When they do, you make back the cost of the original soap you gave away, and end up with a repeat customer who will come back to you again and again. You can also then give the same customer samples of other products; and get them to start ordering a bigger variety of things from you over time.