Category: Pricing

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Charge what you’re worth, not what your competitors are worth 

Pricing is often difficult when you first start your business, and you may well have based your initial prices on what your competitors charge. But you soon learn where you sit amongst the competition. 

At Minerva Accountants we charge slightly higher than others and have testimonials from clients that we are ‘worth it’ as well as other success stories. They might just say that we’re easier to deal with or perhaps quantify it by saying that coaching has helped them save three years in growing their business. There are also the silent testimonials when clients return with a new business or refer others to us. 

So where do you sit in the hierarchy of your competition? 

And is that reflected in your prices? 

In order to increase your prices, you may first need to raise your services to a higher level or, if you’re already ahead of your competitors, you may need to differentiate yourself more to your prospects. As accountants we’re often seen as offering the same commodity service as any other accountant. People think we just fill in tax forms once a year and keep them legal. 

But we can do soooo much more.  

We can spend time learning about the business and identifying where profits are being left on the table. We can help clients to pluck the low hanging fruit. Or build a ladder to harvest the higher rewards too. This is where we get most satisfaction and provide most value. When we move beyond hassle-free accounts to more profitable clients. 

First, improve the value of your offering, then promote it widely.  

How can you differentiate your yourself? 

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The Club Tropicana business model 

Apologies, I’ve forgotten where I first heard this description, but according to Wham, at Club Tropicana drinks are free! 

And many businesses appear to be adopting the same model. We often do it ourselves. 

We give away free books, free webinars, free speaking gigs, newsletters like this, blog posts, free discovery calls, etc. Because we don’t value our time enough.  

So this week I’d like you to work out the time and cost of everything that you give away for free. And then compare it to the number of new clients that you have acquired in the last 12 months. What is your cost of acquisition per client? Or per £1 of turnover? 

Most of this fails to convert, not because it isn’t useful, but because we’re targeting the wrong people (if they’re relying on your free stuff they’re probably ‘tyre-kickers’ and not likely to pay for your prime products/services) or because we’re too British about money and sales to give a clear ‘call to action’  

So here is our big, fat CALL TO ACTION 

Accountants and bookkeepers: go to our website and choose one of our courses or book some coaching (individual is the best value but we have group coaching for those on a budget) 

Business owners: stop wishing for a better business and book yourself a Clarity Business Advice session where we can pull up your numbers, identify where you can improve profitability etc, and send you away with an action plan (and maybe book some coaching too) 

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Does 2% feel like nothing? 

It’s a pretty small increase but increasing your prices by 2% will increase you turnover, your profits, and your cash.  

Reducing your costs by 2% will increase your profits and your cash. 

Increasing your clients by 2% will increase your turnover, profits, and cash. 

This is the sort of thing that we identify when we carry our Clarity reviews for clients. We hook Clarity HQ software up to Xero etc to see where they are today and then play with scenarios to improve the business’s profitability, cash, valuation, and efficiency. But we’re not the sort of accountants who just tell you what you need to do, our business advice goes much further. 

We advise on how to do it and help clients by agreeing an action plan, any additional support they need (from us or our network of associates), and accountability to make sure that it gets done. 

Tech does so much of the day to day work which means that accountancy has moved on and isn’t just about measuring last year’s numbers. Instead of number crunching we like to CHANGE THE NUMBERS. 

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Till systems with stock control 

Gone are the days of huge cash register full of … cash. These days most banks charge to bank cash (if you can find a branch) and HMRC definitely prefer electronic payments and traceability which leaves cash based businesses mainly desirable for money laundering. 

These days businesses are moving towards a simple tablet loaded with software like Clover that tracks stock as well as sales and card receipts. No more cashing up at the end of a long day. No more counting pennies and trying to agree everything to the z-listings. Instead the bookkeeping for sales, receipts, and stock is automatically linked to your accounting software with Xero effort. 

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Making cash collection part of your customer service  

Most small business owners hate chasing customers for payment. (The only exception I know is a client who used to send witty poems to late payers) This means that it gets left until the last minute when payment is long overdue. 

To be honest, this is one of the main reasons that I like to have clients on monthly payments settled by direct debit. Yes, it improves cashflow (and spreads the cost for our clients) but it also means that I only have to have positive conversations with clients. 

But you can build your payment collection into your customer service. 

When dealing with a new client or a particularly large project you can pick up the phone and call them before sending the first invoice to check that everything is all right. If there are any outstanding issues these can be dealt with immediately thanks to this proactive approach. You can also check up on any purchase order numbers and contacts needed for the payment process. 

Once the invoice is raised it is worth checking with their payment department that they have everything they need, all authorisations have been completed at their end, and when they make their payments. There is nothing more annoying than missing their payment run by a day. (Okay, maybe it’s more frustrating trying to get papers from certain clients in order to complete their tax returns in plenty of time but it’s still not great) Whilst small organizations will pay around the director’s availability to make payments larger businesses will be tied to a monthly pay run. 

If you know their regular payment date you will know when to start chasing as your invoice may have been missed off the list so you need to ensure that it is expedited. I once had a client pay the wrong company and they wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t (politely) chased them. 

If it still isn’t paid and you have completed your part of the contract (which was confirmed during your courtesy call above) then move to 7 day notice of legal action sooner rather than later. And don’t forget to add debt collection costs and statutory interest to the bill. Even if your customer is unable to pay the full bill they should be able to pay something on account. 

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Why do we have an annual price increase?

Once a year we increase our prices across the board. This is in addition to increasing/decreasing prices as clients increase/decrease the services that they need from us. As most of our clients are on annual fixed price agreements that they pay monthly they aren’t affected immediately, others are increased from 1 April.

But why do we have an annual price increase?

We have a fabulous team and I want to make sure that they are rewarded accordingly so we pass on the same increase to them as a pay rise. Our software and other costs increase throughout the year so we need to ensure that we cover these in order to retain our margins and stay in business.

As business advisers we also advise our clients to review their own prices annually.

If costs are tight it can be tempting to cut corners on the necessary work or to take on too many clients in order to cover our fixed costs. The resulting reduction in service would not be in the best interests of our existing clients.

When was the last time you reviewed your prices?

If you’d like more information about how to go about reviewing your prices then have a look at our pricing course.

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How to improve your profit margins

If your profits are lower than you’d like and you’re not taking home enough money to cover your bills, let alone to make up for all the hassle of running your own business, then you probably need to look at your margins. (If you’re happy with your profitability then save 2 mins reading) 

  1. Look at your prices and increase those where possible. I’ve blogged on this several times before and it is a key component in many of our courses or you can purchase our mini-course on the topic
  1. Reduce your costs by simplifying and documenting processes so that you can use more junior staff 
  1. Reduce your costs by using more automation (dare I mention AI or are you sick of hearing about that too?) 
  1. Reduce your costs by negotiating better terms with suppliers 
  1. Improve your efficiency to lower your costs 
  1. Focus on selling more of your high-margin products 

Even doing just one of these things will help to improve your business 

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How to create a budget for your business

How to create a budget for your business

Businesses and individuals with plans are more likely to achieve those results. But how do you go about it?

  1. Personal objectives – the objectives of owner managed businesses are often a subset of the owner’s personal objectives.
  2. Business objectives – what do you need from the business to meet your personal goals?
  3. What products/services do you have to sell?
  4. Who is your ideal customer?
  5. What do you know about your competition and how you can differentiate yourself from them?
  6. Sales plan – what and how much do you need to sell? Is this realistic?
  7. Investment plan – What investment do you need to make in staff, training, marketing, equipment, and technology
  8. Will this achieve the desired results?
  9. What actions do you need to take (and when) in order to stay on track to meet your goals?

You can do this on your own but, if you’d like more help, then we have a budget workbook and accompanying videos.

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Do you feel embarrassed chasing unpaid bills? 

If somebody left a shop without paying for the goods you would probably chase them down the street and rugby tackle them to the ground (or at least consider it) so why is it so hard to chase payment for our services? 

There may be an embarrassment in having to discuss money with clients. Or you may not want to risk upsetting them when we have been told, so many times, that the customer is always right. 

But … Are they clients if they don’t pay?   

We set invoice reminders on Xero which act as a polite reminder from the moment that the invoice is overdue.  

I then try one phone call, one 7 day letter, and then legal action. 

No embarrassment. They haven’t forgotten. They are intentionally withholding payment.  

If you want to improve your own cashflow and financial position you have to toughen up and chase. Feel free to blame me as your accountant/business coach. I’ve raised two teens, I’m used to being the bad guy ? 

Reply to this message when you’ve done it. 

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How does your price compare?

Compare to what?

How would you compare the price of a dress from Primark to one from Prada? How would you compare the cost of a smart phone to an old flip phone?

Business owners might try to compare accountants’ fees because they don’t understand that there are very different types of accountants with different expertise offering a variety of services in their ‘standard’ package.

So how can you differentiate yourself from your competitors?


• Testimonials from satisfied clients allow you to demonstrate your quality. Encourage your clients to leave Linked In testimonials or ask them if you can use the lovely thing they just said/wrote about you in your marketing.


• Case studies allow prospective clients to picture themselves working with you. We don’t just fill in those pesky forms known as tax returns. Think about how you help your clients and then ask them to help with a case study. We use Angela at PR the Write Way – Getting you the recognition you deserve to write these for us.


• Awards. This one is tricky for me as I can’t enter the awards that, as an established accountant, I’m often invited to judge.


• Net promoter score. What percentage of your existing clients would recommend you to others? When did you last ask them? (Whoops, we need to get this up to date)


• Niche. If you have a niche you should share content specific for this audience to demonstrate your expertise eg I coach all sorts of business owners but about half of them are accountants so I my content (and 2 of my 3 books) at them.

What other ways can you differentiate yourself from your competitors?