Twenty years.
Same rates in 2024 that he charged in 2004.
Materials up. Labor up. Cost of everything up.
His prices: unchanged.
He came to me because he wanted to grow his revenue so he could bring his son into the business. He was busy. He was in demand. He just wasn’t charging enough to make the numbers work.
When I showed him what a twenty percent price increase would mean over the course of a year, he looked at the spreadsheet like it described something dangerous.
“I’ll lose clients,” he said.
What He Was Really Afraid Of
The math wasn’t the problem. He understood the math.
What he was afraid of was the conversation. The moment a client pushes back. The awkward pause after you say the number. The fear that someone you’ve built a relationship with will look at you differently, or go find someone cheaper.
That fear isn’t about money. It’s about worth.
And it’s the single biggest reason service business owners undercharge for their work.
We dropped to ten percent. Still uncomfortable.
The fear wasn’t tied to the percentage. It was tied to the act of asking for more at all.
The Accidental Experiment
Around the same time, he was pricing a room addition for a client he’d already worked with.
Not a bad client. But high maintenance. A lot of hand-holding. A lot of check-ins. He would have been just as happy to lose the job as win it.
So he decided to prove me wrong.
He took the proposal he’d already written, added thirty percent, and sent it over.
Not because he thought it would work. Because he was sure it wouldn’t. He wanted the evidence that raising prices cost you clients.
The client didn’t hesitate.
He didn’t have to think about it or talk to his wife.
He said yes immediately.
That one moment contained twenty years of undercharging, compressed into a single meeting.
The work hadn’t changed. The scope hadn’t changed. The price finally reflected what the job was worth, and the client knew it before my contractor did.
Why Most Service Businesses Price Too Low
This pattern shows up everywhere in service businesses.
Contractors. Realtors. Landscapers. Coaches.
Most of them are not pricing based on the market. They’re pricing based on fear.
Fear that the client will say no. Fear that someone cheaper will get the job. Fear that asking for more makes them less deserving of the relationship. And that fear is almost never based on evidence.
When I ask clients who are afraid to raise their prices when a client last left them over cost, most of them can’t come up with a clear example. They haven’t lost clients over pricing. They’ve lost revenue over the assumption that they would.
Why Underpricing Attracts the Wrong Clients
There’s something else worth naming. When you price yourself too low, you attract clients who are shopping on price.
Price-shopping clients are often the most demanding, the least loyal, and the first to leave the moment someone undercuts you.
The clients who say yes without hesitating to a fair price are not buying the number. They’re buying your reputation, your track record, your way of working.
A price that reflects your real value is a filter that finds the right clients.
An underpriced job is a filter too. Just for the wrong ones.
Three Steps to Start Charging What Your Work Is Worth
Do the math you’ve been avoiding.
Take your average annual revenue.
Apply a ten percent increase and look at the number.
Then apply twenty percent and look at that number.
Most people who do this are surprised. Not because the number is unreachable, but because they’ve never written it down. They’ve been making a twenty percent decision without ever seeing what twenty percent means.
Find your accidental experiment.
Is there a job on your list right now where you’d be okay losing the work? A high-maintenance client. A project outside your favorite scope. A situation where you have nothing to lose. Price it at what you think it’s worth. Not what you’re afraid to charge.
Then see what happens.
Trust that the right clients won’t blink.
The clients who are right for your business aren’t buying on price. They’re buying on trust and fit. A fair price doesn’t threaten that. But an underpriced job might. Because it draws in the clients who are only there for the number.
What Happened Next
He raised his prices twenty percent.
He didn’t lose his good clients.
His revenue went up.
His stress went down.
And a few months later, his son started working alongside him. Which was the goal from the beginning, but he couldn’t get there at the old price structure.
Pricing yourself fairly isn’t greed. It’s honesty. It’s saying: this is what this work is worth. And I’m willing to let the right clients find me at that price.
If you’d like help figuring out where your pricing is leaving money on the table, schedule a free strategy session.