4 Reasons to Raise Your Rates in Your Online Business 

As an Online Business Coach and Marketing Strategist, one of the biggest issues I see my clients struggle with when they first come to me is severely undercharging. 

And I get it, you’re constantly being told by potential clients that they’d love to work with you, but they just can’t afford you right now. 

You’ve had the money objection more times than you care to admit. 

So raising your prices feels scary as hell because, what if everyone leaves and then you’re earning nothing, right?

Well, I’m here to tell you that’s not going to happen. 

Yes, some people may leave. However, when you raise your prices, and your standards in business, you can reach that six figure year you’ve been dreaming about and get to do things that you love without having to worry about serving more clients than you can handle. 

Before we get started, I also want to mention that I’ve also been where you are now. 

I was massively undercharging for my services when I first started my Virtual Assistant business. One of my clients haggled me down to £15 per hour, so I know how you feel right now as I’ve walked in your shoes. 

So, in this week’s post, I’ll be talking you through the three top scenarios where you should be seriously considering raising your prices. 

You’re Fully Booked and Feeling Burnt Out 

I know you didn’t start your business to burn out. In fact, I know you started it for freedom. Financial freedom, location freedom, time freedom. Yet right now you feel like you’ve ditched your 9-5 for a 9-9, 7 days a week and then some…

The amount of Social Media Managers and Virtual Assistants I come across that are physically unable to put down their phone on a weekend is shocking, you deserve a break, just like everyone else. 

If I’ve just described your situation, you need to stop what you’re doing immediately and draft an email to all your clients telling them that you’ll be raising your rates as soon as you can per your contract terms. 

If you’re holding fear around this, remember that if some people drop out, you’ll be able to take back your time, or, if everyone says yes, you can look at bringing in a team to help you with the deliverables. 

It’s a win-win situation and not everyone will say no. In fact, you’ll find that most clients will agree to price increases, they often expect it. 

You’re Spending No Time Working ON Your Business 

No matter if you’re an online service provider like a Social Media Manager or Virtual Assistant, or even if you’re a coach. You’ll want to make sure that no more than 50-60% of your working hours are spent on client facing work. 

Doing this ensures you have time to work ON your business and scale it. 

As business owners we’re responsible for our own marketing, admin, taxes and business strategy. These are known as non billable hours. All of this time adds up significantly and if you’ve found yourself in a situation where you’re using all your working hours on client work, you’ll struggle to scale to where you want to be. 

Make sure you invest some time into capacity planning so you can always stay on track and have the time to prioritise your business, too. 

If you’re a service provider, you could book out time for yourself like you would a Done for You client. 

You’ve Upgraded Your Skillset or Your Scope of Work Has Changed 

Scope creep is real and although not every client does this on purpose, it’s important to recognise if your role has changed. 

If you started your business as a Virtual Assistant/Social Media Manager who was solely responsible for scheduling, responding to comments and managing DMs, yet now you’re getting more heavily involved in the strategy, writing and designing of posts, then that’s some serious change of scope and your pay will need to reflect that. 

Plus, if you started your online business some time ago and since starting you’ve invested in courses, training, business coaches or mentors and have generally up levelled your skillset to add new skills or amplify your existing ones, it’s probably time to raise your rates.

Don’t be afraid to politely tell your clients that the higher skilled work comes at a higher rate of pay. 

You’re Getting Crazy Good Results 

This one goes whether you’re a Coach or an Online Service Provider. 

Using value-based pricing is a great way to raise your rates and still price fairly. 

If you can consistently show that you’re able to bring in X amount of sales for your client, then you may be able to increase your rates to accurately reflect the value of the service you’re providing. 

For example, if you’re charging £500 a month for Instagram Management, yet are responsible for bringing an extra £10,000- £15,000 worth of new business for your clients every month because of the strategies you’ve conceptualised and implemented, then it’s time to up your prices. 

Likewise, if you’re a coach charging three figures a month, yet the majority of your clients are reaching their first 5-figure months and beyond with you, then it’s time to raise those rates to reflect the value you’re bringing to their business. 

How to Price Your Services

As frustrating as this may sound, I can’t give you a go-to answer for how much you should be charging for your services. 

Your pricing strategy will be something that will be personal to you because there are so many factors that will influence your pricing strategy like your core values and mission, your goals, the pricing of other services in your offer suite and more. 

This is something that my clients and I go into in both the Confident CEO Academy for newer entrepreneurs and in Freedom CEO Accelerator as you’re scaling your revenue and business as a whole so you can reach those six figure years with ease.

Don’t Feel Like You Can Raise Your Prices Yet?

That’s okay too. As long as it’s not a mindset block and it’s more of a skills gap right now.

If you’re still getting to grips with becoming a CEO and are mastering your skillset, or maybe even looking to land your first few clients, your pricing structure could be perfect. 

However, if you feel like you’ve hit an income ceiling and the skills you’re currently offering are not as in-demand as you thought, think about some ways that you can uplevel your skills so you can start to charge a higher rate per hour. 

One of my clients is a Virtual Assistant and earns £10k a month doing that because she’s invested her time and money in learning valuable, highly profitable skills like digital marketing that enable her to attract premium clients. 

Let me know in the comments if, after reading this, you’re ready to raise your rates, plus, if you’re looking for further support on your pricing strategy and scaling your business to the next level, let’s chat about Freedom CEO Accelerator to see if it’s the right fit for you. 

Claudia xx