This week: how to raise prices by focusing on value rather than rising costs, why clients still need a clear route to a real person, and when incorporating as a limited company genuinely makes commercial and tax sense.

1. Your Customers Don’t Care Your Costs Have Gone Up - So How Do You Raise Prices?

Putting prices up when everyone is already feeling the squeeze is uncomfortable: Your wage bill has increased. Software costs more. Insurance costs more. Suppliers cost more.

But here’s the thing: Your customers don’t care, and nor should they:

Your increased cost base is your problem. Telling a customer that your prices are going up because everything costs you more might explain the increase, but it doesn’t give them a reason to accept it.

The conversation has to be about value, not cost. Is what you provide worth the new price?

Can you demonstrate what the customer gets for their money? Have you improved the service? Are you solving a problem that matters enough to justify the spend?

And perhaps most importantly, have you been reviewing your pricing regularly?

Because putting prices up 5% every year is usually much easier to swallow than suddenly needing 25% because you've ignored pricing for five years.

Give reasonable notice. Be clear about the new price. Don’t over-apologise and don’t send customers your life story about rising overheads.

Then make sure the value stacks up.

Your costs determine the price you need to charge.

2. Can Your Clients Actually Reach You?

Businesses love talking about customer service. But customer service isn't just about how friendly you are when a client reaches you. It's whether they can reach you in the first place.

More businesses are replacing plain phone numbers and email addresses with chatbots and contact forms. They can make life easier for the business, but often at the expense of the client.

A chatbot can answer basic questions. A contact form can filter enquiries and send them to the right place. Both have their uses. But neither replaces being able to pick up the phone or send an email when something actually matters.

If a client has an important or time-sensitive problem, they shouldn't have to fight with a chatbot or fill out a generic form without knowing when - or if - they'll get a response.

This is particularly important for service businesses. People aren't only paying for the work you produce. They're paying for access to advice, reassurance and answers. If they can't reach you, the value of your service quickly drops.

You don't need to be available 24/7, answer every call as it comes in or reply immediately. You just need to be contactable.

Give clients an accessible phone number or email address, a named contact wherever possible, clear response times and, crucially, a human option when automation isn't enough.

Good systems should make communication easier, not put another barrier between you and your clients

3. When Should You Actually Incorporate?

For years, the standard advice to many small business owners was fairly predictable:

Set up a limited company. It'll save you tax. Sometimes it did. Sometimes considerably.

But that shouldn't be the automatic answer: Operating through a limited company brings Corporation Tax, accounts, Companies House filings, payroll, potentially VAT, dividend paperwork and a clear legal separation between you and the company's money.

And the tax advantage isn't necessarily what it once was.

That doesn't mean limited companies are a bad idea. Far from it.

A company can offer limited liability, greater credibility, flexibility over how and when profits are extracted, the ability to retain profits for future investment and a structure that's much better suited to bringing in shareholders or eventually selling the business.

But those are business reasons, not simply tax reasons.

So when should you incorporate?

When the combination of profit, risk, plans and tax makes it worthwhile.

Not because somebody once told you that every self-employed person should have a limited company.

The right structure should follow the business you're trying to build. Not the other way round.