2022 is here and as with every New Year, I sit down and work out just how I want Web Goddess to grow over the coming 12 months.

This involves looking at which services I want to focus my energy on and the types of clients I love working with, and also on what we are going to charge.

Now, pricing is always difficult. Pretty much every small business I know struggles with how to price their services. It’s something we talk about often in the Web Goddess Academy and I am not immune to the struggle either! It is easier to give advice than take it after all, right?!

But first, why do we struggle so much to raise our prices?

Here’s the thing. How much have you seen prices increase across the High Street, or in the supermarket lately? Do you see these big businesses justifying why they the price of butter has gone up by 60% in the past 3 years or why fuel is skyrocketing again?

Nope.

Big businesses and corporations simply do it. Yes, I understand that they have products and services that we simply cannot live without, but they also find it easier to raise their prices.

The smaller guys out there – you and me – find it more difficult.

Perhaps that’s because we believe in doing good over profit, in being of service or because we have a product or service that is a luxury not a neccesity.

Whatever excuse we give ourselves, it is important for the wider economy that our small businesses continue to succeed.

Why?

Because according to the Federation of Small Businesses:

At the start of 2021 there were 5.5 million small businesses (with 0 to 49 employees), 99.2% of the total business. SMEs account for 99.9% of the business population (5.6 million businesses). SMEs account for three fifths of the employment and around half of turnover in the UK private sector.

We owe it to our staff and our clients to continue to provide excellent products and services and not only keep afloat but to grow and thrive.

So, here are the three main reasons that we are increasing our prices from 1st January 2022:

#1 Our Website service is more than just Design

When Web Goddess was founded back in 2014, simple web design was all that I did. It was literally just me sitting at my computer putting client content into a simple website and publishing it.

OK, there was a little more to it than that, but the complexity of actually designing a site and my knowledge and understanding have grown immensely over the past 8 years.

Now, our website design includes extensive research, strategy calls, user experience (UX), and SEO readiness as standard because we know that building a website is just one part of your bigger business picture.

When we hand over a website we also provide user training to empower our clients to understand and manage their own sites instead of having to rely on us for small changes.

We pride ourselves on our services that help you really take control of your own online world.

#2 We Invest in the Latest Technology

We are always looking for the best innovations to use for our websites and SEO services and that means investing in the technology that drives your websites as well as that which helps us streamline our business.

Our SEO clients are now benefiting from upgraded SEO reporting and our WordPress clients all get lifetime access to the Divi theme included in their packages.

We pride ourselves on keeping abreast of the lastest technology and knowing which of these will suit our clients’ needs best.

And as these techonologies increase their prices year on year, we do too to ensure we can continue to provide the service we are renowned for.

#3 We Invest in our Staff

Web Goddess grew in 2021 with our very first employee and it was always my intention to be the best employer I could be.

Heck, I left the corporate world in 2003 because I hated my own bosses!!

A huge part of being a boss is to empower my staff to learn and grow in the way that best suits them. So, training is always available and encouraged for them and myself whether that be online or in-person programs that increase our skill set or support our mental health.

It would also be amazing to grow the business again in 2022 by bringing on some more wonderful staff, and increasing prices will help fund that growth and give our clients an even greater breadth of skills to rely on.

So, why are we telling you all this?

Because part of the Web Goddess mission is to be transparent and honest with our pricing and our business. As part of the ethical move, we promise to make selling less icky and to change the way we market our business.

It’s not a justification of our pricing, nor is it an invitation to comment on how you can do it cheaper. We’re really happy with the value and experience we provide for our customers and realise that we will be too expensive for some people and yet far too cheap for others.

We’re telling you this because we believe it is the right thing to do in line with how we run our business.

Can we still offer you a cheaper option?

Sure thing! If you’d like to build your site yourself and just need us to hold your hand for you, then why not join the Web Goddess Academy?

We love helping small businesses get up and running and as a member, you’ll get exclusive access to my ‘Wix Website in a Week’ Course as well as help on SEO, blogging, email marketing and social media – everything you need to get your small business seen online.

However, if you’d like us to build your website for you there are no shortcuts or discounts. We offer a tailormade service that we are super proud of and look forward to welcoming you to our growing community of Web Goddess clients.

Our Promise to You

Along with our price transparency, we always promise to:

• Deliver exceptional service – we’ll deliver when we say we will and will always keep in touch
• Build and maintain excellent websites – websites that give you the best chance of building your business
• Give clear and transparent advice – even if that advice is that we can’t offer you the service you need
• Always speak in plain English – we’ll never try and baffle you with technobabble!

Here’s to working with you in 2022 to build the website your business deserves!