How/When do you stop?

[Mike Smith]

Time to think about taking on some more help, Aanarav!

[Bob Woodhead]

Congrats! Now raise your rates. Seriously.

[Nick Griffin]

“Now raise your rates.”

Short, sweet and dead on.

The key to growth isn’t always adding staff because at some point you can find yourself looking at your business only to realize that you’re working for your employees, your vendors, almost everyone but yourself. Add staff only as really needed and only when their workload is sustainable.

So what about raising the rates? In a healthy and growing business your focus should be on the top half of your clientele. You can gradually charge most existing clients more, but the real key is adding new ones at higher rates than the existing ones. Where does this turn into more time for you? When the clients who are at the bottom of the scale of profitability and/or size drop off.

I don’t believe that there is a number for this or that it’s a “one size fits all approach,” but a portion of your time — let’s say 10 to 20% — should be devoted to actively developing new business. Who would you like to have as a client and how are you going about getting them? Fact is the bigger the client, the longer it will take and the more complex the process. You can start knocking on doors today that may not open for years, so do it with a plan and keep doing it.

Finally, congratulations on a phenominal rate of growth! Now start managing it.

[David Roth weiss]

[Bob] “Congrats! Now raise your rates. “

That can have the opposite effect… Sometimes raising rates can make you seem more “exclusive”
to clients, making you more in demand. However, its certainly better than lowering your rates to discourage clients.

[Inkling]

[David Roth Weiss] “[Bob] “Congrats! Now raise your rates. ”

That can have the opposite effect… Sometimes raising rates can make you seem more “exclusive”
to clients, making you more in demand. However, its certainly better than lowering your rates to discourage clients.”

Huh?

Jamey C. Shafer
Inkling Productions
NYC

[Tim Kolb]

Now is the time when you may want to examine what types of work you’re doing and jettison the work that takes more time than it produces income.

Growth of that rate kills businesses faster than not having enough business. Most of us would be frustrated driving a car that only went 35mph…but we’d kill ourselves in a car that went 300mph…right now you’re on the drag strip.

It took me the longest time to understand this relatively simple concept because most of us have a tendency to undervalue ourselves.

Raise your rates, dump any customers who are a pain in the neck as far as payment delays, unpleasant demeanor, etc. Life will be better…

TimK,

Kolb Productions,
Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Tim Kolb]

[Inkling] “[David Roth Weiss] “[Bob] “Congrats! Now raise your rates. ”

That can have the opposite effect… Sometimes raising rates can make you seem more “exclusive”
to clients, making you more in demand. However, its certainly better than lowering your rates to discourage clients.”

Huh?”

True enough. Raising your rates can communicate a higher value to your services. The nice thing is that attracting clients because you’re expensive is MUCH more fun than attracting them because you’re cheap, because they’re different clients.

TimK,

Kolb Productions,
Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[David Roth weiss]

[Tim Kolb] “The nice thing is that attracting clients because you’re expensive is MUCH more fun than attracting them because you’re cheap”

I wholeheartedly agree.

[Aanarav Sareen]

All good reccomendations. Now, I just have to figure out how much the increase should be. If I can find out the magic percentage, I might be able to drop off the cheap customers.

Thanks all!