I’m planning on rolling out our first ever rate increase to our legacy clients that will be going into effect the first of July. This is going to affect a lot of long term clients I’ve worked with for years, but weren’t the right fit for the managed services focus that I currently provide to my clients. A lot of them are one or two person shops with maybe three computers, so a base rate of close to $300 per month is really out of the question with them.
I’m hoping that everyone is going to understand the need for a rate increase, with gas coming up on $4.50 in the area, and our local utility company having raised rates almost 70% over the last 18 months. Even with doing more and more remote work, the cost of even a single on-site visit has gone up extremely.
None of these people are under contract, so I have no obligation to ever continue charging them the same rates, but I am curious how those that have been in business much longer than myself have gone about notifying their customers about a rate increase. Granted, none of them will probably complain, as the rates they are currently being charged (and the new rate as well), will be considerably less than they have paid for my services in the past. In fact, my initial rates, also known as the ones we were using before we actually had any customers, were well below the average for our area, so this is just bringing us closer in line with the other companies that are out there on that regard.
Our pricing for our managed plans isn’t going anywhere till at least the end of the year, as they were finalized much later in the companies formation, so they are a bit more on par with the pricing one should expect from the level of service we provide.