A pattern I see over and over again for neurodivergent folks is this:
- Random person on the internet says that you should raise your prices. (This might even be a person you pay. It is likely a person who doesn't know the inside of your business very well. This is just blanket advice.)
- You increase your rates and charge more for what you do, because it sounds GREAT to make more money for the same amount of time/effort.
- Your justice sensitivity / self worth / rejection sensitivity kick in, and you start adding things to justify the price.
So many assumptions go into this, too.
"Premium buyers will want more time with me, lets add some 1:1."
"If I'm charging this much, there should be a report. I'll make sure to add a report."
"These prices are too much for X hours of my time, I'll give them more time."
Before you know it, you're actually making less money in more time, scrambling to figure out how a price increase resulted in longer hours and less revenue (and a lot more stress.)
And that's if you ever actually add enough to your new packages to justify your prices in your head, and therefore actually push your offer/package/service at all.
A lot of the time, we add a bunch of sh*t to our packages and don't actually market or promote them much at all as a result because we still don't feel like it is enough.
Let me be real with you for a sec:
Nobody wants all that extra sh*t.
I mean, not nobody. Somebody probably wants it. But at the end of the day, people are buying your services because they want the transformation and value you can provide them in the quickest, most efficient, and most accessible way.
It doesn't matter if you're selling chocolate chip cookies, board games, software, consulting, graphic design, online courses, or energy healing.
Buyers want a transformation that is accessible, efficient, and speedy.
They don't want to pay for a bunch of extra things to be added that they may not even use, let alone enjoy or add to their experience or value.
Want proof of this?
Look at the pushback companies like Google, Notion, etc are seeing about their price changes. People are straight up leaving these companies and their services, not because of the price increases . . .
. . . but because those increases are paying for things they didn't want in the first place. Mostly AI integrations that people aren't using.
Increasing your price and then adding a bunch of extras to justify it - that people may not even want or need - just makes your solution look less efficient, less effective, and more expensive.
So, what do?
If everyone is saying to increase our rates, but when we do that it feels bad and we feel the need to add a bunch of other value to justify it which ends up making us seem ineffective and expensive, what do we even do about all this?
Well, first, stop listening to random advice to increase your rates.
Equitable pricing is the sweet spot between sustainable for you and your business, and accessible to your ideal clients.
Adding more services and offers (especially expensive, time-intensive ones) to your products and services move you further away from equitable pricing in both ways.
Your prices become less accessible to your ideal clients.
Your services become less sustainable because you have to spend more time working with each customer or client.
Second, do a real check-in with yourself.
Do you actually need to raise your rates?
If you're nearing capacity and cannot take on more than 1-2 additional clients or customers at your current pricing, but you're not meeting your business' financial needs, then yeah. You should probably raise your rates.
If you are not at capacity with your current client load, you likely do not need to increase your rates.
If your business is projected to meet its financial needs once you reach your current capacity, you likely do not need to increase your rates.
Rate increases are for businesses that want to throttle back demand for their services because they cannot meet all of the demand they have.
If you have excess capacity, you likely do not need to use this tool to control the demand for your services. You currently have excess supply. You may even need to reassess who you are targeting to ensure your prices are accessible to your current target clients or customers.
(Members in Solo School can actually sit down with Courtney Martin, our bookkeeping coach, and go over these numbers to figure it out!)
If you do need to raise your rates . . .
Determine new rates that are sustainable for you, AND, use the 10x rule to ensure it is still accessible.
Will your current target market be able to achieve 10x ROI (through cost savings, increased income, or quality of life value) on these new prices?
If so, go ahead and raise them - without adding anything at all, because you already know it is worth it.
If not, don't add sh*t to your packages to justify your prices.
Figure out how to shift your target to people who can get a better ROI on your work. This isn't about "abandoning" those who need you.
Quite the contrary.
Ensuring that your business is financially viable and sustainable means that you'll be around to offer free resources, discounted services, low-cost offerings, and more - because your basic needs are taken care of through the main sources of revenue.
You can do more for your people by ensuring you're well fed and taken care of than you can by starving for them and then shutting down.
How do I know all this?
Well, for starters, I see it all the time. I watch it happen in proposals when I review them, I see it in packages, I see it in Kickstarter packages and subscription boxes. Everyone wants to justify their prices.
I'm seeing more of it now, because there has been a reduction in consumer confidence. People are more cautious with their spending and taking longer to make decisions, so people try to fix that by adding more value to justify their prices - thereby increasing their fulfillment costs.
They serve fewer people for overall fewer dollars and more work, instead of streamlining, simplifying, focusing on the most efficient delivery of value possible, and helping people access it effectively.
And also, I did it myself.
I had planned a rate increase for Solo School this year, to reflect the value of where we're going. We're streamlining. We're making the value extraction easier and more efficient. We're eliminating extras while adding resources people actually use. We're opening up to the community more. It's a beautiful thing.
And when the time came to follow through on that price increase . . .
. . . the world was a different place from when we planned it.
The market was unsure. Confidence was down. Uncertainty was everywhere. Justice sensitivity at an all-time high.
Rather than revisiting my plan to make sure it was in alignment, I went ahead with the rate increase and added a bunch of things to justify it. Certifications, VIP days, 1:1s, extras abound, all bundled together, to justify the increase. To make sure we - this program - deserved it, when things were as they are in the world.
In reality, the price increase was already justified. I've literally watched people get a 30X ROI on this work in a single year at that new rate. I didn't need to add all those things in order to justify it, but if I'm being honest:
I felt bad about the increase.
It didn't feel aligned anymore. It didn't feel in integrity. It didn't feel like I was supporting and helping who I wanted to help (you! It is YOU I want to help!)
So, as you can predict based on what I've written above...
I didn't push it much. I didn't sell hard. I hid the offer, promoted other things, focused on content and audience and blamed the market for the low uptake while I kept it close to my chest.
And I added a bunch of sh*t to justify the increase, because of that.
When all I really needed to do is look at what would be sustainable for Solo School, ensure that the average person we want to help could get at least a 10x ROI on their investment at that price point, and leave it there.
So in the interest of transparency, here I am! Doing exactly that.
Solo School is getting more accessible.
The truth of the matter is, I've worked very hard creating this new learning platform to increase our capacity. We actually have LOTS of room for new students to come in and get support.
Things like:
- Our PROSPER curriculum (step-by-step business growth, but totally personalized for you) being delivered LIVE starting in September
- Hours of weekly coaching from myself + the other neurodivergent experts on things like strategy, executive functioning, relationships and communication, movement, bookkeeping, graphic design, AI, and more
- Our full library of workshop replays and learning experiences, which we're currently turning into interactive learning experiences using our evidence-based ND-adult education frameworks (this is super cool and I'll be posting about it more!) Not just teaching accessible ways of doing business, but actually accessible teaching of accessible ways of doing business.
We have room for 20+ new students right now, if we wanted, without overloading these systems. We have capacity.
As long as I'm not also offering VIP days, 1:1s, certification spots, and a bunch of time and resource intensive stuff that you don't actually need to get a 10x ROI - or more - on this work.
Come be a part of our community.
You can now join Solo School and get more support than even the $20k/year masterminds I've been in - for under $500 CAD per month (that's about $365 USD.)
This is entirely month-to-month. Come and go as you please (or as circumstances change.) You're not locked in. This isn't a payment plan. It's $12 USD per day for unlimited coaching, coworking, and ND-specific business education.
Would you rather just join us once and know you're in forever? Our lifetime option is also more accessible - now down to just $4997 CAD (about $3650 USD.)
^^^ this is actually the easiest option to get an ROI on, because I've watched multiple people get 20-50X return on this investment within their first year, meaning every year after that is only multiplying it further - while you still benefit from access.
Check out the details and join us here.
OR
Email the team at team AT soloschool.ca with your questions and we'll talk you through it all.
Being unable to raise your prices at-will doesn't make you a bad business owner.
It makes you human, it means you care, and it means you worry about whether people will feel held and understood by what you've created. It means you care more about creating something equitable than one-sided gain.
It's harder for you because you care.
Me too.
Let's work on being equitable together.
