How do you tell your audience when you need to increase your prices?

Raising prices is something we all have to do in our businesses from time to time, so why does it make some business owners feel so guilty?!

My cleaner and window cleaner have both recently written to me to tell me they're increasing their prices from 1st April, and their correspondence had one thing in common, which really jumped out at me.

They were both really apologetic and spent a lot of time explaining why they felt the need to raise their prices.

This got me thinking about my own recent price rise in the Teaching Beyond the Classroom membership, and how I would recommend to tutors and resources sellers to communicate their own prices rises...

So here are my thoughts on what you need to do when you want to put your prices up:

1. Decide how much you're going to increase your prices by and when. I'd recommend giving people at least a couple of weeks notice so they have a chance to prepare themselves.

2. Think about whether you are going to increase prices for everyone, or whether you will give people a chance to lock in at the current price if they purchase before the date of the price rise. The second option can be great for a boost in sales before the deadline, but may not work for tutors, if you really need to up your prices for everyone.

3. Plan how you will communicate the price rise to your current and potential clients. Honestly, I don't think it's necessary to send a big long apology and justification of why you are going to charge more. Everyone knows that life is getting more and more expensive, and in the case of my window cleaner, my reaction was "about time!" He's charged us the same price since we moved here 7 years ago and I've always wondered why on earth he hasn't been putting his prices up regularly!

4. Send out a few emails, mention it on your social media, and talk to your clients when you see them, to ensure that no one can say they hadn't been warned! Plan out 3-4 emails (if that's how you usually communicate) to your list to give them 2 weeks' notice, then a week beforehand, then maybe 48 hours before and then 12-24 hours before the price goes up.

5. Stick to your deadline and new prices so people know you're serious! This one is something I will admit I struggle with, as I want to be nice to people, but there's not much point in increasing your prices if you don't actually do it and stick to it haha!