Revamping Services & Pricing

[codegreen]

Not to sound funny... but what's a 'pizza tech'?
When we posted a pic of our awnings somebody posted PizzaTech and then said kidding. What is it, and is it bad lol?

"Pizza tech" is a term used to describe people doing computer work on the side for very low prices. In other words, they're going it for pizza money. It's bad if you are one; you can't build a sustainable business that way.

 

[carlitos31]

I did it 12 months ago

Last year in the last week of December, I spent some time going over my prices and decided it was time for an increase. Most of my services went up $10 to $30 and that boosted each final invoice an extra $20-$40 from that point on.
Why did I do it? I decided that it would filter out some bad customers, and I would make the same money in 10 jobs, than what it used to take 13 or 14 jobs, so I would be able to dedicate more time to my clients that did not have a problem with my rates.
12 months later, I can tell you that:
1. I filtered out 5 people that I was hoping to lose to competition anyways
2. 10 people that walked away due to the new rates came back ( When they left. I was polite about it, and made sure to recommend the geek squad ), so I assume the rates made me look like a good deal even after the raise.
3. Business did not slow, I still have this whole month to go, and I already did more jobs this year with the new rates, than last year with the lower rates, and if you add the extra money on each job, this year has been awesome.

Good luck on your decision.

 

[Simplify]

I got lucky when I choose my original hourly and flat rate fees in that it didn't put me at the lowest nor the highest. That was just pure luck but seemed like common sense at the time. All I did for analysis of the competition is look at Geek Squad prices, facepalm over the quality of service to price ratio that friends and family had received from them and cut them exactly in half, called it the family fee, threw up my first marketing material. At the time I was living within a 30 min drive of 4 Best Buys which helped set the standard price expectation I suppose.

I was too busy being a GM shop rat to devote 100% to it but since parting ways with them I raised them slightly and it has worked out well. The market here isn't saturated, a lot of the old long running businesses seemed to have outgrown themselves up through the mid-00's and have mostly been crushed under their own weight instead of downsizing with the poor economy.