The concept of Value Pricing in the Accounting Industry is nothing new, however many accounting SME firms struggle with implementing it. I have heard from many accountants that “it would be against my moral beliefs to charge more than my hourly posted rate.” “Charging for assurance as part of my services is out of the question.”
Lets be straight up here. When you are charging and hourly rate for all your work be it compliance or audit work you are a commodity. Any business owner worth their salt would ask what is it that you accomplish in that hour. Do all accountants work at the same speed and efficiency?
๐๐ก๐๐ง ๐ฆ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐จ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค ๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐๐, ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ง๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐ฌ ๐ ๐ง๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐ง๐ฐ๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐ฑ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ฌ๐. It’s transaction based. If the business owner doesn’t see your value they will go shopping for a cheaper service.
Consider the last time you took your vehicle in for service. The oil change was a set fee with the exception of the quality of the oil you chose. The Brake Job was a set fee. That’s the fee you paid no matter if the mechanic did it in 20 minutes or 25 minutes. Voila. An oil change and a brake job are now a product. So why can’t you do the same for bookkeeping and tax services and add a dash of assurance. It’s clean and you get to bill the client at the beginning of the month instead of the end of the month. What would that do for your cash flow? ย ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ญ๐๐๐๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฎ๐๐?
The big advance of value (product) pricing is you can add features like payroll, state tax and federal tax filing or a monthly review with the client. You create a pick list and price according. Just like the quality of oil you happily chose at the service garage. A one million dollar low margin client does a lot more work than a million dollar high margin client. Doesn’t the same apply for your accounting business?
๐๐ญ๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ค๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ข๐ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฏ๐๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ข๐ง๐ . If you are feeling guilty then you don’t value the service you provide. That is a whole other conversation.
If you keep saying you are worth more than you charge then do something about it. Work less and make more is not a myth.