Raise your fees without raising the roof

Recently, a small business consultant who runs a business membership organization complained to me that she was surprised to find her renewal rate was down 50% from the previous year.
As someone who was running this organization for 5 years, she realized that she always loses a few members each year.  But 50%!  What gives?
It was easy for me to see the problem.  She increased the membership dues 25%. But that really wasn’t the reason for the multiple rejections.  It was that she didn’t communicate the rate increase to the membership.  The sticker shock turned about half her current members off.
My …read more