Early in my consulting career, I noticed I worked very hard every day but did not make as much money as I wanted to. Not a great place to be on any level – especially as a single Dad raising children! So I took a day away from the business to think about this problem. One…
(ACTUALLY? Not a whole lot.) I work with a lot of service firm owners and there’s one thing they all hate, and that’s writing proposals. They love meeting with prospects, identifying the problems the prospects are having, and talking about how they can help. But then they get back to their office and the work…
When you finally decide it’s time to send your clients a price increase notice, there are a few best practices to follow to help ensure you and your customers are on the same page about what’s happening. The last thing you want to transpire when you’re making a request is to put them on the…
We often see business owners undervalue their services. So we often preach about raising your prices. But we get a lot of hesitancy because many owners are afraid they’ll lose clients, and/or not be able to attract new ones. So we asked Kaleigh Moore who runs We Are Lumen about her first experience raising her prices and…
“I don’t know how to forecast my sales for the rest of the year.” If you can’t forecast your sales, it’s really hard to make good business decisions. Do I need to hire more people? How much space do I need? Should I invest in this new software? We can only answer those questions if…
To start, here’s a little price increase notice sample. I then follow it up with 6 ways to how to tell clients you’re raising your prices below: Dear John (your client’s name is John, right?); How are you doing? We used to be so close. Lately there’s been some distance between us; I just want…
If you own a professional-service business, pricing is probably high on your list of challenges. How can you align the value created by your work with any tangible measure? It’s not easy, but it can be done. With products, it’s easier. Look at the market price for similar or substitute products and compare the features,…
It’s not often that I recommend listening to country music, but I want you to listen to this song before you continue on. Go ahead and give it a listen … it’s just time. Done? Ok. The message of this song is how important it is to spend time with your children. While I certainly…
Many new professional-service or creative-service businesses price their services below market as a way to bring in business. There is some logic to this practice. Since you lack client references and a demonstrated track record, there is more risk for the initial few clients. But pretty soon, as business increases, so too does your overhead. You may want to hire…