Money Mindset: How to Get Comfortable Raising Your Prices

If you’ve been in business any longer than a year and you haven’t raised your prices, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Costs rise, markets shift, and your prices need to keep up or you’ll start falling behind.

No one wants to raise prices. You care about your customers. You worry you’re going to upset them. Or worse, that they leave and go to the lower-cost option. But here’s the thing. If you truly care about your customers, you need a healthy business. And, a healthy business is a profitable business.

If you’re struggling to get comfortable with raising prices, consider this.

1. You are in business to make a profit. This doesn’t mean you’re greedy. This doesn’t mean you’re selfish. This is simply what business is. If you’re not making a profit, you don’t have a business, you have a hobby.
2. Costs rise. You want to give raises to your team. Product costs go up. Shipping and fuel costs increase. Rents escalate. If you aren’t raising your prices to off-set these increases, you’re eroding your margin. Your profit will decrease.
3. You can’t take care of your customers if you’re no longer in business. If you don’t keep your pricing in line with your costs (and market), you put your business at risk.
4. If you lose a few customers because you raise your prices, so be it. The customers that value you and your business will stay. You’ll end up with better customers, because they are the customers that want to be there and want to see you succeed, just as much as you want to serve them.  

Everyone is dealing with increased costs. And, while nobody likes it, we’re still buying the things. We complain about it, but if we want a decent burger, we’re paying the 20 bucks. If we want to hire great talent, we’re paying more.

Raising your prices doesn’t mean you’re greedy. It doesn’t mean that you don’t care about your customers. It means you care enough about your customers and your business to keep it healthy and sustainable.