Practicing Professionals Blog by Mark Bullock » billable rate http://markbullock.com Practice Development, Practice Managment, & Practice Marketing Technologies Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:41:22 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Raise your rates, increase the value of your brand AND make more money! http://markbullock.com/raise-you-rates-increase-the-value-of-your-brand-and-make-more-money/ http://markbullock.com/raise-you-rates-increase-the-value-of-your-brand-and-make-more-money/#comments Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:01:06 +0000 Mark V Bullock http://mbullock.com/?p=35 Raise your rates make more dollarsSeveral years back I had a tech consulting practice. It was reasonably successful ie. I was making a living. There was only one problem. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, working 60 to 80 hours a week, and frankly I was burning out fast. I was very much a generalist and charged an hourly rate that was a “bargain” in comparison to many of the other practicing generalists in my area. In short I was working my tail off for a modest income, and really didn’t enjoy working with many of my clients, most of which I struggled to get paid from, and I was doing an awful lot of unpaid work because I didn’t understand my own value….

Then I hired my business coach Tom, and what he led me to understand was at that time shocking to me. He indicated that if I raised my rates substantially, and repositioned myself as a specialist, I would indeed lose some of the bottom dweller clients, but that would free up time to be much more effective and add greater value to the clients that could afford my new higher rates.

Fast forward 6 months, I trusted Tom and went out on a limb. I re-focused, re-branded myself, and did not 1 but 2 price increases, effectively doubling my billable rate. The net effect? I nearly tripled my income, cut my hours in half, and started to make a huge difference with my remaining clients by having the time to go much deeper and be much more strategic with them.

I had a whole new level of relationship with my “best” clients. They suddenly appreciated the value I brought to them, they became much more respectful of my time. Additionally they listened to me more, taking more of my advise & counsel. They were more “bought it” and committed to their projects, having more skin in the game. All of this and having the bottom dwellers fade away, made my practice, and my life much more enjoyable.

All of the sudden high value referrals started showing up, and frankly I had a new problem. How to select which clients I wanted to work with. The desperate client chase was over, now prospective clients were literally waiting in line for an initial consultation.

Mark V Bullock

Partner/PMA

Practice Marketing Advisors

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