How do you handle price increase with your clients?

Do you send notice out to all your clients with a price increase or will you just leave it to when they call in?  I feel that if I send notice, then I have the stage to justify or share reason for increase and that I appreciate their understanding.  Do you feel that is best course of action?  

I would not change agreed prices on signed contracts or even verbal agreements, but any new work following my decision to raise prices, would certainly get quoted the new increased price. Changing an "agreed on" price will anger your customers and you may loose their business.

Charley

  Any sort of agreements, verbal or written don't do anything.  New business is fair game.   

Gotcha, so for new business, would you send out an email to everyone?

No, but all new orders would get quoted based on the new prices. I have never advertised my prices. Only in quotes based on the specific project. I have never worked "by the hour", but my quotes were always based on the shoot time, plus related costs. My expected hourly rate and projected project complexity was always part of this quote.

Providing a specific hourly rate gives the penny pinchers something to argue about. Estimate the job hours, add profit and expenses (with mark-up) and quote a price for the whole project. Any time that I needed to raise my prices, they were quoted for new orders beginning on that date. All orders "in process" remained at the "agreed on" quote. Doing it this way keeps the customers from pinching the pennies. They get a fair price quote for the project. If they don't like it, they can cut out something and reduce the size of the project, and I'll re-quote the project. One price for the agreed-on work. If they don't like it, they get to go somewhere else. I have lost a few customers this way, but many have come back after going some place else. If I've raised my rates in the mean time, they get a new quote. When they complain I explain that labor and materials now cost more, so I've had to raise my price. but I never tell them what each piece of the project costs, because it brings out points to haggle about. It's always one price for the whole project. I have lost money anyway when I make mistakes in the estimate that leads to the quote, but I always did what I agreed to do for the price, no matter what.

Charley
  

Same here, existing clients get old pricing, new business new price

Set a date for the increase and apply the change to any new business there after.  

    

it really depends on what your business model is.  if you're selling fine art in a gallery, just up the prices. 

if you're a studio, event or session shooter who has one contract per session, prices stay the same for all current contracts and send out an email to your previous contracts stating that prices are going up on whatever date and send them a new price sheet and/or session fee.  give them a few weeks to make new bookings under the old price plan, see if you can drum up some extra business for yourself, even if it is a lower rate.

if you shoot on a long standing contract with a company or client, you may be able to renegotiate your existing contract depending on how long since you've signed the contract.

Send out notice with the date prices will increase and increase all new business from that point on.  

Price increases are normal, just set a time and inform your clients. 

+1 Yep, set a date when the new price goes into effect.  Any new business after that, applies. 

Be transparent about the price increase. Don't just throw up a notice on your site and hope that your customers figure it out. Be clear about the price increase and why you're raising your prices. It's always a good idea to give your customers plenty of time to come to terms with price increases.

Post on your website and Facebook to make the information public as well

What sort of increase did you all go with?