How to Increase Your Prices - Susie Jackson

Maddie owns Nella Marketin g, a digital marketing company specialising in content, design and strategy for small and medium-sized businesses. Maddie’s services include social media management, graphic design and copywriting, which she offers to clients across a range of industries from mortgage lending and real estate to education and accountancy.

Maddie had been freelancing full-time for seven months when she began the Charge with Confidence programme. But before she took the plunge, she’d been developing her business on a part-time basis for well over a year.

The challenge: bringing strategy to the table when deciding how much to charge

When Maddie approached me about working through Charge with Confidence, she knew she needed to change some aspects of her business finances. She didn’t feel confident in the way she was managing them: “I pull out arbitrary numbers without really thinking about the way it impacts the big picture.” Maddie was looking for clarity and a strategy when it came to thinking about how to price services and hit goals.

Maddie initially contacted me at a stage when it was time for her to set up new contracts with retainer clients. She wanted to ensure her pricing had a solid financial base before going any further because she knew it would be difficult to raise her rates once those new agreements were in place.

What’s more, Maddie was struggling to overcome a mindset block. She’d had a bad experience with a previous employer in the past when she’d asked for a pay rise. The pay rise was approved, but she was fired from her job just two months later. This made her particularly nervous about increasing her prices, especially with her very first freelance client.

The solution: understanding how much to charge and how to price packages

At the start of Charge with Confidence, Maddie felt as though she was earning well but wasn’t managing to set aside much money. She also noticed that she was working all the time for her customers and was finding it difficult to switch off from work in the evenings and at weekends. “I felt I was ready for the next level, capped out at how much hourly work I could do while also still wanting to grow.”

The first stage of the process was to establish exactly how much Maddie needed to be charging so that she could afford to outsource some work and take time off while still earning enough to support her lifestyle. This involved supporting Maddie through the process of identifying her expenses and setting a clear annual budget for her business. In this way, she was able to gain the clarity she was looking for in terms of how to price packages for her retainer clients. She knew exactly how much she needed to be making to achieve her goals and was able to adjust her quotes accordingly.

“It empowered me with the WHY behind what I should be charging and gave me the foundational tools I need to make it happen.”

The other key step involved helping Maddie work on her mindset. To do so, we looked at all the different elements, including the figures, as objectively as possible. By having a clear mathematical foundation on which to build her quotes, Maddie was able to remove the emotion from the quoting process and therefore charge more confidently.

In addition, to combat her fear of increasing her prices with her first freelance client in particular, we analysed the situation practically. We talked through what would happen if the client said no to the price increase and realised that it wouldn’t actually make that much difference to her monthly income but would free up some time for her to either dedicate to herself or look for higher-paying clients. We also discussed the emotional toll that losing this client would take, given that it was her first ever freelance customer. As a result, we tweaked the rate increase email Maddie was sending to make it a bit more personal.

The results: Maddie has increased her prices with a number of customers, giving her enough income to hire a content assistant and have more free time for herself

Just one month after completing Charge with Confidence, Maddie had already successfully increased her prices with four of her customers, including her first freelance client who she had been so worried about losing. All these clients are now paying her new minimum retainer price, which means that she is making hundreds of dollars in additional income each month for the same amount of work.

Since then, Maddie has also been able to hire a content assistant. This has helped her free up more time for herself, and she has even managed to take a holiday, something she hadn’t yet done since going freelance full-time.

“I am someone who finds the financial side of my business incredibly overwhelming and complicated, but the magic in this course is how Susie simplifies the process and provides you with tools you need to both visualize and implement the lessons.”

Charge with Confidence has shown Maddie what the financial side of things can do for you personally and not just for your business. The figures are the starting point that enable you to achieve your life goals.

“Aspirational numbers help you to realize what it will REALLY take to get to your goal. Seeing it on a piece of paper/screen really helped me to understand why.”

If you’d like to find out more about how Charge with Confidence could help you and your business, read about the programme by clicking on the button below.