How is it already Wednesday!? I'm just trying to not freeze this week. The bar is really low.

I raise my prices twice a year. I don't announce it. I do tell clients as they onboard that I raise my prices annually. And because I follow through on that, they expect it. I sell services, not products, but the cost of those services increase every year to account for my own increased costs. This last year was big - a 6% increase. Unfortunately, I don't think it was enough. I have several costs that increase annually *and I don't know what the increases will be until sometime in the middle of Q1*. Given that my business is seasonal and prices need to be set before the start of Q1, there's not much predictability in there. The options to fix this aren't great: either sell more services or tighten all already overly-tightened belt. That's one of the reasons I'm here though - I need to build an additional revenue stream, and being around others who are motivated and doing the same is helpful. I digress. When I first started out, I realized very quickly my base-line fee for tax return preparation was too low. I increased the baseline fee by a full 30%. I didn't make any announcements. I reviewed data, considered the reality that I was significantly undercharging, and increased my prices. No one complained. No one died. And I was paid more fairly. I also learned I have to do a mid-year price adjustment. While the world is spinning around me and inflation is happening and prices are increasing, if I keep my prices static all year, I'm not helping myself very much. So, every May I increase my prices for new and onboarding clients (clients with signed engagement letters and outstanding quotes at the time of the price increase stay the same). I do have some potential clients who go away because of my prices. I expect about 20% of people who come my way to walk away because of pricing. And the same with current clients saying something about cost. For potential new clients, I'm a little higher than that benchmark (I'm around 27% right now), but I also know I'm not reaching the right audience (again, one of the reasons I'm here). For current clients, I'm at about 2%.

Stacey is so great. Small, actionable steps to take to make life just a little bit better.

If I had my shit together with products and/or services valuable to your audience, yes, this would be valuable. Not there right now though. Only not voting because this auction isn't a fit for me right now, and history tells me it's not likely to be a fit for me soon.

I'm a day late, but that's because I spent yesterday finishing catching up on the must-do from last week. This week I'm honing in on getting and staying caught up. I'll not scare you with numbers, but, I need to consistently release a few things a day to clients at least. I *really* want to be fully caught up on all incoming communications from clients. I have two inboxes: my email and my portal. Keeping up on both is difficult at best. But, I think this is the week I can do it! I'm also really wanting to do at least one thing every day that focuses on bringing in new clients/work. I'm saving snippets of things clients need that aren't tax returns to push that out into the world *after* tax season, when I have a breath to approach it from a wider perspective than I can right now. Last week, I *finally* turned Google Analytics on on my website and let's just say it's causing a mild existential crisis that *so many* people search for my name in a single 24 hour period. I don't like it.

@Denisse Vega I also notice less joint pain with fountain pens. It takes less pressure to write - even compared to gel pens. And, if you have problems, the difference is incredibly apparent. I have several Kakunos and like them well enough. I prefer the Pilot Prera pen over the Kakuno - it's shorter and makes more sense in my hand, even though it doesn't have the triangle grip. The Tuzus are super adjustable, so my personal preferred/most comfortable manner of holding a writing instrument is fully accommodated. I'm not sure what Peter Pauper is using, but, from Europe, I prefer Rhodia over Clairefontain. I *really* like the B7/Cosmo Air Light paper. I'm okay with the Iroful. I'm not a fan of Tomoe River - it's too inconsistent in recent years. I haven't gotten to try the Koji paper many are talking about right now.