Have you noticed how much more money you have to shell out for your groceries lately? If you’ve truly been paying attention to your bills, you’d know it’s been going on for a couple of years.
It’s not just the price tag. Packaging has changed too. Sometimes you find less product for the same price. Heres one we noticed recently. A pack of little smoked sausages used to be 16 oz. It is now 12oz. The price is the same but you get 4 oz less. Some manufacturers have introduced entirely new packaging with different sizes so it is difficult to do a direct comparison, whether to mask the real pricing or cushion the sticker shock, I don’t know.
The effect is still the same. Higher prices. Ultimately, all this affects us. The cost of hiring is higher, the cost of office consumables, transportation (if any) and just about everything else is higher. At the end of the day, if our prices don’t change, our bottom line shrinks. The way everything else costs more now, it’ll eventually shrink till it becomes nothing. Not a good thing if you want to run your business long term.
I understand, believe me. Pricing is often a difficult subject for entrepreneurs. We don’t like raising our prices because we don’t want to upset or lose customers. Yet, we don’t haggle prices when we go to the grocery store. They aren’t afraid of losing our business. It’s this price or you don’t eat.
True, not every product is urgent or vital,to sustain life like the food industry. That may be why you’re hesitant. This is not about greed or turning into a big heartless corporation. Its not about pricing higher just because you can or pricing far out of customer’s reach so we can have a fat bottom line. It’s simply being realistic. If we want to keep growing; To continue paying people we hire fair wages and put food on our own tables, we have got to price our products or services for today.
If you’re afraid of backlash, try different packaging just like the brands in your grocery store do. As we rush into the New Year, and make all sorts of plans, take a moment to consider if your pricing will give you enough room to support the growth and staff you want it to in 2012 and beyond.
Photo by quinn.anya