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How to Raise Your Fees
for Your Creative Services
Do you want to make more money?
Are you tired of working hard and not having
anything to show for it? Well, it could be
as easy as simply raising your fees.
From my experience consulting
with and presenting workshops and programs for
creative professionals, there is only a small
percentage who are actually charging appropriate
fees for their creative services. Most are
charging far too little for their talent and are
struggling to make ends meet - even when they
have enough customers.
HOW TO
RAISE FEES
Just raise them. Look at what you've
charged in the past and add another 10, 20, 40,
50 percent - or even more - to your current
fees.
Another great way to start
raising fees is to offer your client more than
one option (or package) when you present a
proposal. I suggest offering three
options: a low, a middle, and a high option.
Make your lowest option what you are charging
currently, and your middle and high options even
higher, making sure to keep the value of each
option in line with the pricing. That way,
you will feel more comfortable with the fees and
your client will love that he is getting to make
a choice. It's a win-win.
WHAT IF PEOPLE THINK
THE PRICE IS TOO HIGH?
The first (and most difficult) person you have
to convince of the value of your pricing is
yourself. If you don't believe anyone will
pay more for your services, then they won't.
Just look around you at the amount of money
people spend on every day items such as cars,
houses, lawn service, meals, house cleaning,
clothing, and electronic devices. People
are willing to spend money (lots of money) on
items they believe are valuable to them.
If the client thinks your prices
are too high you are either selling to the wrong
type of person or you didn't do a good job
uncovering what is important and valuable to the
customer - or both. If you aren't able to
close a deal because the client thinks your
price is too high, then move on or brush up on
your sales and fact gathering skills.
(See the teleseminar series information below
or
click here if you are interested in
increasing your selling or fact gathering
skills.)
You shouldn't get every potential
customer that comes your way. If you are I
can guarantee you are charging too little.
It's OK if a few people don't hire you. In
fact, it's a good thing.
HOW DO I CHARGE HIGHER FEES TO CURRENT OR
REPEAT CLIENTS?
Great clients are those who are a breeze to work
with, hire you for repeat business, and/or refer
lots of great clients to you. One way to
ease these great clients into higher fees is to
let them know about the fee change and reinforce
how important they are to you. Tell them
that fees are increasing (or have increased) but
since they are such a great customer that you
will give them a discount on the new fees for a
period of time.
For example, if your current fees to the client
are $1,000 and you raise them to $2,000 then
tell the client about the new fee, but that you
will discount the fee to $1,500 for any project
they schedule for the remainder of the year.
Once the year is over, put your fees up to where
they are for everyone else. If you
position this as a bonus to the client and not
as an apology for raising fees, the great
clients will stay with you and pay the higher
prices.
In the end, you
have to remember: you are providing a fantastic
service and deserve to be paid appropriately for
it. Don't feel bad about charging or
accepting fees and stop trying to figure out
what the client is willing to pay. If you
understand what is important to the client and
can provide a service they feel is valuable,
money really won't be an issue.
So, let go of
your negative feelings about money and start
charging what you are worth. Others are
charging well for their services and you can,
too! Just get out of your own way and
raise your prices today!
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