The network was well regarded, well attended, and well liked. It had grown steadily for years on the strength of the founder's reputation and the genuine quality of the community he had built.
The pricing hadn't moved since the early days. Members were paying the same rate they had paid five years earlier. Around 10% were paying nothing at all — people the founder had let in as a favour, contacts he hadn't wanted to charge, members who had found work through the network and quietly stopped paying while quietly staying on the list.
He knew it. He could see it in the numbers and feel it every time he looked at the renewal figures against what the platform was actually delivering. But knowing and acting are different things entirely — and every time the question came up, there was a reason to wait a little longer.
CORE FEAR: Put prices up and lose the people we've worked hard to build
Frozen pricing doesn't feel like a decision. It feels like the absence of one. Nothing changes, nobody complains, and the problem stays quietly in the background where it doesn't have to be confronted.
But frozen pricing is a decision — it's a choice to absorb five years of inflation, five years of platform improvements, five years of growing reputation, and hand all of that value to members at the original rate. Meanwhile, roughly one in ten members was paying nothing at all. Some had been given free access as a goodwill gesture. Others had found work through the network and simply never been asked to start paying. The founder knew who they were. He just hadn't been able to make the call.
When the full picture was laid out — the revenue being left on the table, the implicit message that the membership wasn't worth more, the commercial ceiling it was creating — the response wasn't immediate agreement. It was resistance. "If we put prices up, people will leave."
The price increased by 20%. Annual billing was introduced — which meant members who had previously paid monthly now committed upfront, effectively adding two months of revenue to every annual relationship. The commercial impact was immediate and significant.
On free memberships, a new structure was agreed: the founder could hold up to five complimentary places at any one time. When he wanted to offer a new freebie, he had to decide which existing one to end. The decision was no longer open-ended — it was bounded, which made it manageable.
And the thing he had been most afraid of? It didn't happen. Nobody left. Not one member cited the price increase as a reason to exit. The fear that had kept pricing frozen for five years turned out to be a story he had been telling himself — understandable, human, and wrong.
What he had built was worth more than he had been charging for it. The members already knew that. He just needed the evidence to catch up with what they already believed.
20% price increase implemented; Annual billing introduced —Upfront cashflow and retention
Erica really helped shape the business strategy and led on our many different product development initiatives. She has used her deep knowledge of the theory and practice of marketing to transform the brand and the overall business to great effect. She is a terrific sounding board for my business strategy thinking. Founder and CEO