Let’s talk about pricing.
Ten years ago, I started as a freelancer in web development. Today, I have six employees and I’m at multi-six figures and have been for several years.
But how did I get here?
First and foremost, I had to get comfortable with raising my prices to grow my business. You will have to do the same.
If you have to ask yourself:
“Am I charging enough for my services?” or “Should I raise my prices?”
Then, the answer is you need to raise your prices.
You may also worry that you will lose clients if the prices for your services increase. The truth is that many of the clients you serve now won’t be able to afford your new pricing.
And that’s okay.
When you raise your prices, you get a different set of customers and clients who can afford your pricing. However, you may get fewer clients depending on how much you raise your prices so you will have to become comfortable hearing “No” or “I can’t afford you.”
Many people call my office and ask to work with us but they can’t afford us and that’s okay.
In time, you will find clients who can afford a premium price.
They’re often accustomed to paying a premium price for services.
Becoming the highest price option in your industry will lead you to clients who are accustomed to paying a premium price.
My goal is for you to become the most expensive option in your industry too.
When I first started offering WordPress training services, I charged $100 for my services. I led a five-week in person training course to a group of people. A class of 18 people showed up for the first session, which was free. The next week, nine people showed up. And then, there were only about six people that consistently attended the rest of the program.
A bunch of people said “No.” Maybe they didn’t want to pay $100 for the services– they did not see the value.
I started to think about how I could change and improve my services based upon this experience.
The next time around, I tweaked my service offering and I started charging $450 for a comprehensive training. This new service consisted of only eight hours over the course of two days instead of five-weeks.
Surprisingly, many people said “Yes” and began showing up. Some people refused my new, higher priced service but they were few and far between.
I was making more money. I hired an employee, so I had someone else to help lead training sessions.
And I decided to raise my price to about $1,200.
It was scary. I thought that people might just completely dry up and leave if I charged over a thousand dollars.
But then we actually had more people sign up for training.
I didn’t see any decrease in interest after more than doubling my price.
I thought to myself “Why haven’t I been charging this price all along?”
I remained at that price point for about a year. We eventually had enough clients booked out in advance that I felt comfortable raising my prices again.
This time, I decided to raise my prices to $1,500.
I also made another change. And this is important. I stopped talking about my service in terms of hours. And instead I started talking about my service in terms of a package, a service package.
My clients were now getting more one-on-one attention. My new service package included 90 days of follow-up support after our initial eight hour training session, a recording of our training sessions, and an optional certificate of completion with my signature.
So what happened when I raised my prices to $1,500?
A lot more people started saying “No”. And that’s okay.
My team and I know that the service we provide is worth that much and not everyone can afford it.
I want to encourage you to go through this process too. It does feel scary.
It can feel like a risk, but in my ten years of experience, I have never regretted raising my prices.
