If you have ever wondered, “Should I raise my prices… or would that break trust with the people I serve?” this episode will help you think that through.
In this solo coffee chat, Erin Aquin shares three non-negotiables to have in place before you increase your rates, especially if you are a service-based business. You will walk away with a clear, grounded way to make a pricing decision you can stand behind, without turning your clients into guinea pigs, and without asking your nervous system to carry the weight of a decision you are not ready to hold yet.
This is for business owners who want their pricing to reflect real value, real care, and real results, not a trend, a panic response, or because "everyone else is doing it".
In this episode, you will learn:
At Superabound, we care about building businesses that protect your life, not ones that consume it. Pricing is part of that. If this episode brings up Static for you, that is not a sign you are doing it wrong. It is often a sign that something important wants your attention before you make the next decision.
If you want to explore that further with Erin as your coach, learn more about working with her at besuperabound.com/consultation
Full transcript:
Welcome to the Superabound podcast, where vision-led entrepreneurs learn to build a generous business without sacrificing what matters most. You are listening to episode 353.
Don't raise your prices until you do this. Okay, it is just me and my coffee today and we're going to talk about something that is probably one of the questions that comes up more than anything else for me when I am giving talks to business owners, service providers, um folks who interface with their customers but may also have lean teams, small teams um about raising your prices. This is something that I think is such a hot topic at all times, but especially I think right now given what's going on in the world. um things are getting more expensive across the board for most industries and yet I think people are really worried about increasing their prices to match industry standards. So I want to offer at least my thoughts. You know, I don't know your industry necessarily unless you're one of my clients and then I I know it intimately. Um, but I think that the question of when to raise rates, when to raise your prices comes up, there are some things that I feel very strongly about that may be different to what other business coaches say. I have heard ridiculous things in my time as a coach. Um, I've heard people say things like, "Double your rate, triple your rate." Uh, you know, just every couple years just to, you know, make yourself look like you are super valuable and and, you know, really high-end. I understand where that mentality comes from. Uh, especially for those of us who are in a service-based business like coaching, uh, consulting. I get where that comes from. But there are three things I really feel very strongly that you need to have in place before you raise your rates. not only for your own integrity, but also so that you have a reason to do it that feels good not only to you, but to your future clients, your future customers. Um, and some of them might surprise you a little bit, but it kind of starts with looking at yourself as a consumer. So, when you are buying something from a business, I shared that a couple months ago, uh, one of the service providers we use, it's only a couple hundred dollars a month, but they have been increasing their prices for us for a number of years, and they keep adding features to their software that I don't want, that I don't need. um they are it's more for entrylevel businesses and I have those things basically covered. I really just wanted to use this software for the reason I bought it and not have all these extra bells and whistles. The real problem with that for me though was that the thing I bought the software for stopped working. So, this was a a a membership platform where I had several clients in a row, brand new clients who were paying our company a lot of money go to log in to get one of our classes or courses and they could not get their password reset. The system wasn't recognizing their email. Um, of course, I made sure it was not my human error. It was not. the system just wasn't working and their customer service has gotten terrible. So, at this point, it's a hassle for a couple hundred dollars a month to change to a new system. But what that system when that system fails, it reflects poorly on me, on my business, which I cannot have. I cannot stand. That is not the experience I want for my clients. Um, one of our values at Superabound is simply no drama. So, we want to remove as much friction as we can for our clients to get whatever they need. And yes, sometimes software can have a a flub. We can make mistakes as humans. That is all true. But when I can't control or fix someone else's software, that's a problem for me. So Steve and I created a program called Courses for Creatives, which you can find out about if you just need a simple membership library. That is what we created. Um, not all these bells and whistles and unnecessary features that don't really work. We created that. And now if something goes wrong, if a video doesn't load, if um there's an issue with someone's password, I have control. I can fix that in five minutes. I don't have to wait for two weeks for someone's terrible customer service to get back to me. So even for something that I wouldn't consider a luxury business, this company made a big mistake because they committed the first problem, the first no that on my on my list of three things, which is make sure your systems actually work as intended before you raise your prices. If I were to raise my rates as a coach, I would make sure that everything is running smoothly in every aspect of my business before I do that. Because the last thing I want is to feel like I raise my rates and then my customers are the the guinea pigs. They're the testers of this new system or process. I roll things out and wait a really long time before I adjust to anything to do with pricing for my clients because I don't want their experience to be, oh, the price is going up and these five things are not working. A lot of businesses, however, I think do this backward. They maybe are feeling some kind of financial strain and they know that they need to improve systems and they think okay the quickest way to raise the money to invest in these systems is to charge our clients more. You know, I think in a math sense that makes sense, but that is business centric, not customer centric. And I think we have to really think through, you know, how will the customer receive this information as they are going through the hurdles. So, for instance, when we're as we are testing and rolling out courses for creatives with our own clients, um I'm not charging premium prices for the classes that I'm putting on there at first. You know, we're doing a 30-day writing challenge. And it means that I'm putting in videos and things and I'm seeing my limitations. I'm seeing the things within the software that I need to fix, but I'm not charging $3,000 for that because I don't want the experience to feel high-end for something that might only work 97% of the time. um we're doing pretty good, but I have had some human error. And I'm really happy that there's not a discrepancy of a high-end price with something that is not yet at 100%. So that is the first thing. And I think if you are a service-based business, you need to go through every aspect of your business. You know, I have watched people change something as simple as like their booking system and that really [ __ ] up their business because the booking system that they switched to might have been less expensive, but it's unreliable or it's hard for clients to book. I there is a business that I actually really like and I have not booked in with them for several months because every time I go to their booking system, it's such a hot mess. I don't understand what's going on. And then on top of that, when I call the business to book in, the phone line is busy. I I assume it's because other people are having the same issue that I am, but then it just time goes by and I forget about it. and I'm much more likely to go book in with someone who has a system that's easy and who answers the phone. So really before you consider raising your rates, make sure that your systems are as good as they can be and that they are seamless. I would say also give your whole onboarding system to someone who has never interfaced with your business, someone who you know has never been your client. take them through it. Say, "Can you go to my website and try to book a an appointment with me?" Um, tell me how easy that was. Did you feel deterred by that? Did the welcome email that you received make sense to you? Did you still have questions? It's like do a deep audit on your systems, your customerf facing systems, your onboarding systems, and your delivery system for how your customers and your clients get your product and your service. Next, before you raise your rates, I think this is this is probably going to be unpopular, but um a mindset that I have adopted in a service-based business is if you are going to be charging luxury prices, your delivery has to be consistent And it sounds like, okay, I'm talking about systems again. I'm talking about you and your energy or the energy of the people who are going to be interfacing with your clients. And again, I'm just going to say, I know that this is probably going to rub some people the wrong way, but I do believe it's true. I used to be a tour manager. I lived on a tour bus with musicians for weeks at a time. And you know, you're living with humans. they have ups and downs in their life. Some days they're not feeling high energy. Some days maybe they had, you know, a weird conversation with somebody at home. You know, they are still living their human lives. But those professionals would get on stage night after night, despite how they were feeling personally, despite how their energy was, and they would deliver a show that moved the audience to tears, that moved the audience to clap. I'm getting shivers just just talking about it. Um these humans would step into such presence like a spiritual presence.
It did not matter what was happening outside of that room. I you know and I I've had this experience with teaching yoga. I've taught yoga through I've had classes you know the day after heartbreak the day after shock the day after someone I loved passed away and there is kind of a sanctuary that happens in that space where you know what the expectation is what you have to deliver and your level of preparation is such that it doesn't matter what's happening outside the four walls that you were in at that moment because you and your attention and your presence are so focused on doing your work. Steve, as you probably know if you've listened to the show before, he used to be in the Navy band. So, another musician and he had to play um Funerals in Maryland. I'm sorry, Arlington. I I'm not American. I don't I don't know the exact place, but he would have to play trumpet in freezing conditions. He says there were times he had to play at a funeral when he couldn't even like feel his lips. And the kind of saying around that, I'm going to paraphrase because I don't I don't know it and I don't have this ingrained in me, but the idea was that people don't rise to the occasion. They actually fall or slip to the level of their training of their foundational training. So he had to know his songs so well that he could play them even if he couldn't feel his mouth. even if his fingertips were frozen. He had to know where the keys were, play through muscle memory, um, rely on his foundational training. And I think the way a lot of people plan their business, unfortunately, is they think, okay, I'm going to raise my rates and then I'm going to rise to that level. I know that's a mindset. I'm sorry coaches. I know a lot of coaches and consultants think that. They're like, "When I charge, you know, $40,000 for coaching with me, um, then I'm going to rise to the occasion because I'm going to take it seriously." Maybe some days that's true. But chances are you're going to have a day where you didn't sleep, where you're not feeling 100% and you're not so sick that you can't go to work, but you are feeling some kind of way. or something might happen in your life emotionally and you still have the day to show up for. I believe this is a kindness to yourself is to actually I mean if you really can't deliver what someone is paying you for that then then you should cancel. I think that's a point of integrity. But, you know, if it's just like you're going through a tough emotional span of time, going through a life transition, you should be so practiced and your training, your experience should be so foundationally solid that you can still deliver a $40,000 experience for your client even when you're not at your best. And I think that again I might get some comments for saying that but it really I do think that is true. I do think if you are raising your rates to like stretch yourself and and you know get out of your comfort zone. I I'm going to say it it sounds harsh but I think that's selfish. I think that is then more about you wanting to challenge yourself and like really test your own or prove something to yourself and see your self worth in a dollar sign, but you're doing it in a way that's not actually an act of service to your client. You're doing it to like see what you can get or see what you can make yourself do. And I just think it's not the most responsible thing because at some point you might not be at your best and now you've done yourself and your client a disservice by underdelivering what you have promised. So, I would say figure out how to get your skill level to a point, to get your emotional well-being to a point, to get your life in order to a point where even on a not so great day, your client wouldn't really notice the experience between that and a day you were feeling great. you like get to take yourself out of it a little bit and rely on your product, your service, um the work that is your baseline. And finally, for my third and maybe the most controversial, at least for the coaches and consultants who are listening, I really don't believe you should raise your rates until you have deliverables that you can stand by. until you have proven results with numerous people.
Um, I was talking about this with Stephen before I recorded and I said, I don't know, this is going to be maybe a tough one for at least folks in the mindset world to swallow because a lot of times our training, our coach training, our consultant training says you are not responsible for the results that your clients get. You're not responsible for what happens in their business. Um, you're not responsible for them feeling better. And I do think that that is true. You cannot be personally responsible for making sure your clients stick to their commitments, do their own work to raise their self-worth in their own eyes. You cannot do their mindset work for them. You cannot do their professional work for them. That is true.
But if you are selling a luxury level product or service and you are not doing everything in your power to create tools and pathways and a relationship with your clients that makes it safe for them to pursue their dream. That makes that opens a door of possibility for them to walk through. there's probably just more work to to do. I don't think it means like, hey, you should never charge for your work until you have like five star results from every single client. I have uh clients who've hired me to help them grow their business and then three months into the coaching, they actually came to a point where they figured out what they really wanted was to not have a business. They figured out that like this was not a life they wanted to live. It was just not for them. Did I fail in my job as their business coach? Well, they didn't get the results that they came to get, but they discovered something that saved them 10 years and was really important for them to know. That's my job. My job is to help people figure out, you know, I I say the figure out the life the universe is dreaming for them and then decide if they want to walk towards that, if they want to do the work to realize it for themselves. Some people do, some people do not. I tend to only attract the people who really want to do it. Um, and you know, in the last episode, my client Trisha said this very nice thing. She said that if she could take a she said like a snapshot of or a time lapse of her business over the last couple of years of working together. It just looks so different. It feels so different. It is so different. I didn't create her sales. I didn't create her program. You know, she is very responsible for all of her beautiful results. But the coaching might have helped her not go down roads that were a pattern. Uh the coaching might have helped her see you can work four days a week and still be successful. Um, I'm I'm not going to put words into anyone's mouth, but the coaching results should be so that I can point to that conversation and say that's something that is possible for that was possible for this person. We made it happen. What's possible for you? Let's make that happen. And I have countless examples of that with with my client base. If you are new in your business, you might not have those results. You may not have those deliverables that you can point to and say, "This client came to me. They were working seven days a week making $40,000 a week. Now they work three days a week and they're making 3 million." You might not have that for some time, but that just means
your your work, you might want to price that a little differently. You might not want to say, "Oh, well, pay me $50,000 and I'll get you to 5 million." Because you don't have the track record. You haven't done that with someone. And I think it does matter. I'm not a testimonial kind of business. I do not chase my clients to say nice things about me. Um, I'm very lucky that some of them have shared their results, but I would not go raising my rates until I had results. And this is, you know, I I wanted to be a business coach from day one. Um, but I felt like because I had not reached a level of having either a successful business myself or helping someone grow a successful business, it just felt out of integrity for me to do that. What I did know at the time was how to create uh a successful relationship. So I started my coaching business working with folks in relationships and then some of those people happened to be entrepreneurs who happened to, you know, we worked out the relationship issues at hand and then started talking more and more about their business. And then suddenly all of my clients were entrepreneurs or business owners or leaders and we were doing the work of creating successful businesses and happy personal lives. It felt at that point like I could step into the role of business coach or I like to call it whole life success coach because it's not just about like making more money. It's about having a business that supports the lifestyle you wish to have and then actually having the room to enjoy that. So these are the three ingredients I think you will feel better if you have considered each of these things. Your ingredients might be different before you raise your rates, but these are things I would never raise my rates without knowing that each of these points was really strong. um knowing that I can deliver on my best day and on my worst day a very consistent present experience for my clients knowing that the systems work that they are in alignment with how I want people to feel in the business and that I can help people get actually get what they want at the end of the day. That's what that last part really means. It's like, can can you and your tools and your service and your product actually help the person achieve what it is they want? And that one I know makes people uncomfortable because often what it actually means is you have to go back to the drawing board and get more skills and try more things and work with people maybe in different ways before you go off and like triple your rate. That is how I think we bring more integrity into service-based business. Um, and you can disagree and you can do your own thing. I'm definitely not saying this is how you should operate, but this is what helps me sleep at night. Um, and when I'm considering a pricing change, I always look to these things. So, over the years as I've increased my rates for coaching, this is how I've done it. Um, I'll share one more kind of final example. Recently, a lot of the folks that have been coming into my world or our world, cuz it's not my world, it's the world I share with my clients. They've been coming in and these are just such busy, overscheduled people. They have too many meetings. It's often a thing we coach about is like how many meetings, how many emails, um just the just inundated with stuff. And I realized that I was still following this pattern that most coaches and consultants follow. It's not a bad thing where I was doing like a one-hour consultation with people and then if the, you know, if it sounded like a good fit, then we would move into a six or 10 month coaching package. And I realized that I have these people coming and they are so busy they don't want to talk about it. They don't want to talk about the possibility of coaching. They just want to see if I can actually help them with a specific issue. So I have done away with consults at least for the time being. And now if someone potentially wants to have Superabound on their team, they want thinking partnership, they want mindset coaching, they want strategic uh support and content review and you know leadership development, whatever sort of someone needs, rather than having a meeting to talk about it, they can now just book a start session with me and have 90 minutes for coaching. they can actually get some clarity, get a plan, get some forward movement towards whatever their big issue of the day is. And then if they love that, I can put together their package. We can extend our coaching to meet weekly or every other week. Um, I can kind of become a part of their support team. I am really excited to see how this goes for people because I think it will eliminate the overwhelm that I was feeling when I went to like book my this service appointment where I was like gh I have to find a time that works and then we're going to talk and then I have to wait probably another month before I can start with that person or like gh none of these times look good. All of that gets eliminated. they can just buy a session, book a session, get what they need, and if they want to continue, I have a path to do that that we can talk about at for 5 minutes at the end. For me, this eliminates all of the sales call nonsense hoops that I personally hate when I am a customer because I usually know when I show up to talk to somebody, I've listened to their podcast, I've read their book, I know this is my person, and I don't need this like extra step. And I don't think most of my clients do either. So, some things to think about. I would love to hear if you want to share with me on Instagram, besuperabound. Tell me what are your sort of checkpoints before you raise your rates. You'll notice that I didn't say raise your rates because of what's happening with inflation. Raise your rates because someone in your industry did it. I think it all boils down to raise your rates when you have something that is a beautiful offering that works smoothly, efficiently, and that rate change would make sense to your clients for your particular clients. That is what I leave you with. And I can't wait to hear what you think. and I'll talk to you again soon.