If you are considering raising your prices and elevating your business, perhaps it is because your revenue numbers might not align with your financial goals within your business. In today’s episode, we are talking about raising your prices and how to navigate that transition within your small business. When it comes down to raising your prices, you have to know when it is the right time, how to clearly communicate this with your audience and clients, and check off some to-do’s within your company before doing so. Grab a notebook and pen to jot down the successful strategies that have helped us when transitioning our rates and how we communicate this with our clients.

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The Foundation of Your Business

Your brand is going to set the tone for how new visitors, via social media and your website, perceive your small business. When your brand communicates an elevated experience and service yet your prices are low, you are automatically creating an environment where the client can get confused or does not see the value in working with your company. How does your brand look and feel? Sit down and consider this, and then navigate toward whether is it time to raise your prices or should you work on whether your brand needs a little more work before increasing your rates. 

Audit your brand Internally and Externally

INTERNALLY — Does your delivery service have an elevated experience or are you just dropping off your products? When someone calls or emails, is there a certain time period the client should expect to hear from you? Are your quotes or invoices reflective of your brand or is it a standard looking quote?  

EXTERNALLY — Look at your social media, how does it feel, and how does it look? What is your email strategy and are you offering quality content? On your website, there should be a clear call to action to engage with your ideal client. This allows your client to easily navigate through your site and guides them to the next step on your site. When you launched your brand or if you have recently rebranded, you should have a brand guide and this should reflect on your website and social media presence. Your quotes, invoices, social media, emails, and websites should flow and coincide with one another. 

The ultimate goal of how your business is marketed is to feel like you are experiencing the same company no matter where they are experiencing your company. When we focus on these things and it’s time to raise your prices, it is because you can offer an elevated experience to your clients. If all of those things are not coinciding, then it is going to be harder for your client to justify your raised price or your higher-end rates. 

Now before crunching some numbers to see if it’s time to raise your prices, first you must figure out the quality and external presence of your company along with how your client will work with you internally, then raising your prices will not work. You must look at how it is to work with you with your internal processes and external presence. 

How to raise your prices 

#1 — Pick a date when you want to officially raise your prices. This won’t be tomorrow when this happens and you should expect the transition to happen in 2 – 4 weeks from now. How to decide the date is going to totally depend on what season you are in, the amount of work you already have in your workload, and what needs to be done to set this transition up for success.

#2 — Create a communication plan with your community. If you raise a couch rental from $275 to $415 without communicating that with clients you may frequently work with, you are setting yourself up for losing that trust in your clients. This could result in losing clients and renters. Although raising your prices within your company may not be something your client wants to experience, when you communicate this with them it automatically instills trust in you. If you communicate this ahead of time, this helps them trust you and you have good intentions behind this price raise. 

#3 — Make a plan for how you will communicate this information. We highly recommend using email marketing with your community with not only current booked clients, but inquiries you are working with as well. If you do not have an email list, check out Ep. 42 of The Render Podcast about why it is super important to have an email list. If you do have an email marketing plan already, figure out how to weave this new price list and pair it in personal emails as well. Being in tune and integrated with your current prices, what you wish to raise them to, and understanding the current market value is important before just raising your prices without thinking it through.

To recap today’s episode, you are going to want to determine your brand, and value, and work with you through external and internal communication and marketing. Next, you can make any changes necessary to match the value of the prices that you are increasing. Last, pick a date and make a plan for the price increase, a communication plan to your current or past clients, and clearly communicate the actual prices of your inventory. 

As a listener of The Render Podcast, will you take a few minutes to go rate & leave a review on Apple Podcast? We want to reach and educate as many small businesses as possible! Don’t forget to secure your seat at our Rental Pros FREE Masterclass Sign Up and as always, we are grateful you are here and will see you next Wednesday.

Joyfully,

Raven Scott | Podcast Manager