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How much do you charge (2)

31st Jan 2010
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I never forget phoning up an accountant once in early Feb to be greeted by the comment "that's it - next year I am going increase the fee by 20% for anyone who brings there books and records in late."   I sympathise!

When it comes to the subject of pricing I will never forget the discussion I had with a client several years back.  This is a client I really hated!  Every thing about her made me unhappy.  The fee was small (I don't deal well with small clients), her business did not make money, she dealt in "cash" (this was long before money laundering rules), she was ....... well everything I did not like she was (believe me the list was ten points long.  I went to her and plucked up my courage and said I am terribly sorry but I can no longer deal with clients of your size and the fee is going to double.  (My thoughts were that will get rid of her, at last etc) and to my great surprise the response was that is ok, I like dealing with you.  Phew at least I had some compensation for the pain.  (Mind you I still wanted to loose her but I sold my accountancy practice a couple of years later she was part of the multiple). 

This leads me on to my thought for the day - do you know your elasticity of demand.  It is one of the questions I often ask accountancy firms and the answer varies from no to what's that  but I have yet to have a "yes".   So how do you find out - the answer is try out a test, increase the prices of those clients you really hate and see what percentage of them leave.  The answer for a ten percent increase is (from my experience likely to be considerably less than 10%).  Of those who have tried it the usual response is I increased my prices a few years ago.  How many left - none!  The reason is people by from people they know like and trust. 

For this to work you need to have clients coming in the top end - if you want some tips on how to get new clients I can be contacted via the web site www.smithkennedy.co.uk or email me on [email protected] - happy new year!

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By David Winch
04th Feb 2010 12:33

Sound Advice

Hits the nail on the head Alan.

No-one can say with any certainty what will work in someone else's business, so you have to test and measure to find out.

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By alan.kennedy.smithkennedy
04th Feb 2010 18:56

Sound Advice

Thanks David - I often thought we spoke the same sort of language (I used to lecture in money laundering for SWAT Uk and your answers to queries are very similar to mine).    Do you fancy meeting up sometime?

 

Alan Kennedy

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By scohen
08th Feb 2010 14:26

How much to charge?

I first saw an example of this many years ago as a newly qualified accountant in a client meeting with my manager. The client consisted of a 2-person partnership and they were making less between them than they paid their staff - they were pleased because they were soooo busy with lots of clients. He advised them to put their prices up - significantly. They lost very few clients, made far more money and could then choose which work to say no to and which to get contractors for and still make a decent living for themselves.

Somehow, it seems easier for many people to do this exercise for their clients than for themselves.

Sue

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