ORIGINAL REDDIT POST

When you're fully booked for weeks, do you raise prices or just stop taking jobs?

Every time the calendar fills up I hate turning money away. Raising prices feels like the grown-up move, but I still catch myself saying yes to the next call and then the team just absorbs it. If you've actually done this more than once, what worked better in…

Original postr/smallbusiness

Every time the calendar fills up I hate turning money away. Raising prices feels like the grown-up move, but I still catch myself saying yes to the next call and then the team just absorbs it. If you've actually done this more than once, what worked better in practice?

Collected discussion

11 comments

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u/No-Detective7811

Yes, maybe some sort of incentive that gives you more control of your time? So less about charging more across the board, but putting a nice premium on top of a “now” order and a discount for a longer turn around etc.

u/roostercuber

Yep. When times are good, we aim to be contracted on about 1 in 3 quotes. If we get two in a row, we start to wonder if prices ought to come up a bit.

u/Stabbycrabs83

Hike your prices 20% and then offer a 15% discount if they have flexible dates.

u/CBEng234

A wise man once said…If people ant saying no, you ant charging enough.

u/Equivalent-Coyote857

Raise prices honestly, turning people away for free helps nobody while raising prices at least captures more value from the demand that's already there. Did this myself and barely lost any bookings.

u/Productpusher

“ the team just absorbs it “ means the schedule isn’t fully booked . You squeeze it to capacity until you start noticing issues possibly with quality , complaints , or your staff complaining . At that point you scale back or raise prices. Or pay workers more / hire help

u/Vandercoon

My strategy from when this happened (I was a tradie), if I was more than 3-4 weeks booked, and I was turning away work I would instantly and permanently increase my price by 10%. Over the course of a year, my price doubled. Interestingly, the higher my prices got, the less demanding my clients were, they treated me more professionally, job sizes were larger. You can also filter out tyre kickers easier over the phone by saying, my range is $x -$y, lots of people will drop off. You have a slow patch? So what, you’ve likely upped you price a few times, your work less and get paid more.

u/Curi0usMe630

Get part time help to do admin stuff Give priority to packaged offerings Have a premium price offering

u/HourlyJobz

To me the more obvious question is - can you hire more people? What is your end goal with raising prices? To make more money? To turn away business bc of higher prices? If you don't want as much business, say no instead of raising your price. You seem like you're in a good spot bc of your existing business model, including pricing. If your goal is to make more money - can you hire more team members? That way your model stays intact and you make more money.

u/Majestic_Republic_45

Don’t know your business, but why can u not continue to schedule further out. Some cos I do business with, I expect it. if I am calling plumber - no way.