There are many things to consider when looking at and setting your pricing:

- what value am I providing my clients/customers?

- how much are my costs increasing?

- what is my breakeven sales target?

- what is the market charging? 

- did I lose sales last year because of my pricing? 

Just to name a few. 

From a business point of view your costs generally increase each year. Your wages (for those with people on awards) will increase 2.4% from the 1st July. At a minimum you need to be looking at your cost increases and what impact that will have on your profit, break even sales target, cashflow and business survival. 

But looking at your prices in isolation is sure to get you into trouble. It's a much better strategy to be looking at your services in total including your pricing. 

Services + Pricing

The best way to look at your services + pricing is to do a complete review of your last 12 months: 

- what feedback have you had from your customers? 

- what were your most popular services / products?

- what products / services were the most profitable for you to provide?

- were there any patterns in your customer buying habits? ie did they return, bundle the same products / services?

- what questions did you have from customers / potential customers in relation to your products / services?

The more data you have on your products and services the better equiped you will be for setting the next years. The above are just a few of the questions you should be asking yourself. This certainly shouldn't be limited to a once a year thing either. It's important you are constantly reviewing your products and services. Little tweaks, small constant improvements can make a huge difference to your business. 

Services

Once you have completed a review, the next step is to determine what you want to be selling. 

- are there any products / services you don't want to provide anymore?

- can you bundle products / services to make the buying process easier for your customers?

- have your customers constantly requested things you don't stock / provide? 

- can you explain your services / product in a better way so more people understand what it is you sell?

- are the current services you provide what your current customer base wants / needs? 

This list is endless. The more questions you ask yourself the more clarity you will have around what products / services need to be on your list.

Prices

Finally it's time to set your prices. There is certainly no one size fits all when it comes to increasing your prices. We see people do a flat 5% increase, others who change services and therefore prices entirely, some who increase everything $10 and just about everything in between. 

Each business is different. So there is no one correct answer. The most important step is that you complete a review. It's amazing how powerful information is when making important decisions :)