Freezing Fees for Too Long

By a small laboratory owner in California who chooses to remain anonymous

Our local clients have always been very price conscious so raising fees has always been nerve-wracking. But around 2006, we had four clients—who represented 30% of our total volume—purchase chairside CAD/CAM systems, telling us they were trying to cut lab expenses. This made us even more skittish about increasing prices. 

So for years, we didn’t. Our overhead and material costs grew, but we held prices at the same level. Instead, we chose to live on less—some months it was as much as 20 to 35% less—rather than risk losing business. When the economy began slowing down in 2008, we knew our clients were struggling too so we really didn’t want to rock the boat. We just cut back even further, using some of our savings and delaying our retirement....