Raising prices is the fastest way to improve a service business, and the one most owners put off longest. The fear is losing everyone. What actually happens is that you lose a handful of your least profitable customers and earn more from the rest.
The three signs you are already overdue
You are booked solid weeks ahead. A full diary is not a sign you have got pricing right, it is a sign demand exceeds supply at your current price. That is the clearest signal there is.
Nobody ever questions the price. If not one customer in a year has flinched, you are leaving money behind. A small amount of resistance is where the right price sits.
Your costs have moved and your prices have not. Rent, products, insurance and wages have all risen. If your prices have been static for two years you have taken a real-terms pay cut without deciding to.
How much and how often
Small and annual beats large and rare. A modest rise every year is unremarkable. A big correction after four years is an event, and events get discussed.
Round with care. Going from £45 to £48 is barely noticed. Going from £45 to £50 crosses a psychological line and gets counted. If you need to cross it, cross it in a year when you have visibly improved something.
Raise selectively rather than across the board. Put more on the services that take the most skill or block the most time, and less on the quick ones that fill gaps. A flat percentage on everything is the lazy version.
Telling people
Give notice, apply it from a date and say it once. Four to six weeks is plenty. Existing bookings already made should honour the old price, which costs you very little and removes the main source of complaint.
Do not apologise and do not over-explain. A long justification invites a negotiation. "Our prices are changing from 1 October. A cut will be £48." That is the whole message.
Do not blame suppliers or the economy either. It reads defensively and it hands the customer an argument for when things improve.
Tell your team before you tell customers. Staff who first hear about it from a client will not defend it.
What actually happens next
Expect to lose a few people. That is the mechanism working rather than failing. The customers most likely to leave over a few pounds are usually the ones who book the cheapest service, take the most time and never rebook.
Expect one or two awkward conversations in the first fortnight and then silence. The anticipation is worse than the event, every time.
Watch your rebooking rate rather than your booking count for the first month. A small dip in new enquiries with a steady rebooking rate means the rise landed fine.
The price rise checklist
- Work out your cost per chargeable hour first
- Raise the skilled and time-heavy services most
- Pick a date at least four weeks out
- Honour bookings already in the diary
- Tell your team before your customers
- One short message, no apology, no blame
- Update your booking page, price list and window
- Review again in twelve months
Keep reading
- Money
What to put on an invoice
The details a UK invoice must carry, what changes once you are VAT registered, how invoice numbering has to work and how long to keep the records.
- Running your business
How to reduce no shows
What actually cuts no shows in a UK service business: deposits, reminder timing, cancellation windows and waitlists. With the rules on charging a no show fee legally.
- Choosing software
Switching booking software without losing clients
A step by step plan for moving to new booking software: what to export, how to run both systems in parallel, when to switch your links and how to tell your regulars.