We understand that charging more money can be awkward, so here are a couple tools for how to raise your hourly rates that we've seen work!
Each year make it a point to increase your rates that follow a similar beat to the increase of cost of living in your area.
An example that you have probably experienced in this past year could be your hairdresser charges $5-10 more for a trim and $20-30 more for color.
When you analyze this from a customer point of view, it makes sense! It is easy to understand why people charge more the more experience they have!
You want to make sure your clientele understands exactly what you will be doing for them. This makes them more comfortable with the service purchase.
For example, if you're a personal trainer that recently added nutrition coaching to your list of services, explaining that you are going to built them a nutrition guide will justify the increase in cost!
How do you do this? Add knowledge and skills to your service offering. Similar to the example above, find continuing education courses or acquire a new skill that will increase your value to the customer.
We have practitioners worldwide that are Personal Trainers by trade and have added Muscle Activation Techniques® to their service offering. They start their training sessions by checking their client's range of motion and test muscles for stability prior to putting stress on their body (i.e. lifting weights, running sprints, ext.).
After the workout is over they ensure their clients are leaving stable by following up with a final assessment. The new skill and added service justifies the higher price!
If you are nervous about upsetting your loyal clients with a new price, try upping the price for people who are new to your schedule. If you are able to retain these customers without hassle, increase prices across the board!
Back to the hairdresser example, different services cost different prices based on the difficulty of the process and experience of the service provider. In the fitness industry, it is common to charge per hour but if you have multiple skills that customers want to use then try charging more for the more specialized services.
For example, personal training students that go through the MAT® program may have 15-20 MAT® clients a week, where the session focuses on assessing and correcting their muscular imbalances, while their other service would be strictly personal training. Maybe there's even a mix for some clients. We encourage them to charge more for their differentiated skill (i.e. the individualized MAT session).
We hope this was helpful! Let us know what worked best for you.
Interested in learning how MAT® will you become more individualized in your field and enable you to raise your rates? Click here to check out our education.