Be Strategic – Put Your Prices Up and Keep The Client

Prices tend to stay put in January while costs don’t. The Budget has confirmed the National Living Wage goes to £13.21 from April. That adds about £1,150 a year to the cost of each full-time employee once National Insurance and pension are counted. The Bank of England’s panel of firms expects to raise its own prices by about 3.7% over the next year, yet IPSE found around three quarters of the self-employed couldn’t put their day rate up last year.

The format is our usual two hours of round tables, kept practical.

The first hour is the arithmetic: why we undercharge, what a small rise does to profit (far more than most people expect), what standing still since 2023 has already cost, and why answering AI with lower prices is a race to the bottom which nobody wins.

The second hour is a price-rise surgery. Guests can bring a real price list or quote, build simple good, better and best options, and draft the message to their client. Then they rehearse it in pairs, with someone playing the client who asks “can you do half?”.

We’ll finish on the price-review clause to put in next year’s terms, because under English law you can’t raise a contracted price without one.

This event is aimed at owners of small and micro businesses: agencies, consultants, studios, and professional and tech services, especially those selling to other small businesses. Everyone leaves with three things: their new price and the date it starts, a conversation they’ve already practised, and a clause for their next contract.