In my last message, I talked about the problem of retainers, they seem like a great way to smooth out revenue and make delivery more predictable. Still, in reality, they may turn into a bog of over-servicing and under profitability. I asked you to tell me about your experiences, and you were very generous with…
Getting retainer clients who pay you a fixed fee every month is one of the best ways to make your revenue more predictable. It’s incredible to know that you’ve got $45,000 from 5 clients coming in on the first of every month! But there’s a problem with fixed monthly fees — what are you delivering…
This week we talked about how the “market rate” for your services is irrelevant — your specific qualities and capabilities will attract different prospects than others in your market. Those qualities impact the price you can charge more than the market does. We also talked about we can identify ONE critical feature or benefit that…
In my recent survey of over 100 business owners, I asked them to agree or disagree with the following statement. We are priced significantly higher than our competitors. The results showed an almost perfect “bell curve,” with a slight tilt toward agreeing. Which brings up the question, “How do we know what our competitors are charging?…
I was sitting in a cafe last week when I noticed Every Breath You Take come on the background music. I’m not a big Sting fan, but it got me thinking. Sting wrote this song in 1982, and he’s still making money on it today! From Wikipedia: The song is considered to be both the…
We’ve been talking about raising prices for a few weeks as one of the easiest ways to make more money right now. Today let’s study a real-life customer story of someone who finally started raising her prices.; “I know you’ve been telling me that my prices are way too low, but I still have a…
We’ve talked this week about how to position your firm as the “costs more, but worth it” provider in your niche, and about the huge advantage a unique expertise to solve those big, scary problems that your prospects face can be. It’s a lot of work to develop that positioning — both in your mind…
We’ve talked about raising your prices as a prime way that you can make more money in your business, but the #1 fear that I hear is that prospects will say no to the higher price. So when I saw this tweet from Chris Do I had to share it with you. So when my…
One of the easiest ways to 1) grow your business financially, 2) help you to focus on your ideal clients and 3) free you up to spend more time growing your business is to raise your prices. But I get a lot of resistance from business owners when I start to talk about raising prices. It’s…
Adjusting to a Profit Margin Mindset There’s a strange phenomenon that many entrepreneurs and small businesses suffer from. Fear of raising prices. You’re scared that your customers will pull their business from you if you do. Yet your business is growing. You’ve got loads of work coming in. So much so that you’ve taken on…