How to Feel Safe While Raising Prices
Pricing is a powerful lever you can use to increase profitability and is good for your customers.
It’s powerful because:
It helps customers who don’t value your services at the new price level to exit
This provides more capacity for new clients to enter at a higher price point.
The customers who stay provide more profit, and you may end up doing less work for more money.
As you make these changes, you might experience a dip in revenue, but you will be more profitable from the work you retain.
It’s good for our customers because when we charge prices that stretch us, we want to deliver more, which elevates how we serve.
It sounds so straightforward, and it is, except for those pesky emotions. I have some feelings as I move ahead on this journey!
I have calculated what the rates need to be for my company to provide an excellent standard of service. I have mapped it out and feel good about my decisions, and as I sit with the impending price increase, I am aware that part of my being wants to go into the fear that too many customers or customers I love will leave. My nervous system is going, no, don’t change anything. Keeping things the same is the way to stay safe.
But is keeping things the same keeping us safe?
I have plans in my business that depend on having space and time to execute. Increasing prices help create that space. Fewer, more profitable clients equal more time to grow and create.
I love my clients, and I want to keep working with them. So it's a risk. And I know the risk is necessary. Going into the unknown and not knowing what's going to happen can be scary. I'm not controlling the outcome. I'm stating what the price needs to be to deliver the value they have been receiving and deserve. Pricing low or never raising prices when warranted comes from a fearful place. Keeping rates low and overgiving may feel safer for us.
So, I talk with my little girl, who is afraid because she grew up poor and is still overcoming programming that wants her to control and be certain. I have to reassure her that we are safe and show her evidence of why we are safe.
I remind my little girl of these things:
We have a waiting list for one-on-one clients.
We are marketing more than we ever have.
We are creating new offers that bring in revenue differently.
And I ask her:
Have you ever been hungry?
Have you ever been homeless on my watch? No, you haven't. Except for that month in Jackson Hole, which was more of an adventure than actual homelessness. But that's a story for another time.
I tell her we've got this and remember our tools; coaching, self-care, faith, and more. As I'm sharing this, I'm thinking, wow, I'm showing you my tender underbelly, and I’m doing it because I think you might relate. Maybe you are afraid to raise your prices too.
So, I move forward courageously with as much compassion and generosity as is good for everyone concerned without sacrificing myself or the business's potential.
I move forward into an expansive space, and the expansion brings up angst. Discomfort happens in business and life when we dare to change things; we grow stronger and create beautiful things with courage. I dare to make hard decisions because, for years now, I have been called to teach more people how to do Forecasting and help make accounting information accessible. It feels like something I must do. The idea won’t leave me alone.