A new friend of mine owns her own business and is always “swamped.”

She’s slow to return phone calls and emails. And the only two times I’ve done business with her, she missed her deadlines.

This lady is good at what she does, but she needs to raise her prices. You might need to do the same, if you’re consistently “swamped,” late or unavailable because of excess demand for your services or products as they’re now priced.

The first reaction to such a suggestion is often: “I can’t raise my prices. My clients will go elsewhere.”

And that might be true. Or, it might be more true that if you don’t raise your prices, and continue being late and “swamped,” your clients will go elsewhere at your current prices.

Raising prices should be done carefully. Factors to consider include:

• The uniqueness of your product/service. Can clients just go elsewhere if you raise your price, or do they see you as uniquely equipped?
• The extent to which your customers need you. Is your service something they can do without, or would they still see value at a higher price?
• The relationships with your customers. Do you have good “roots” in your clients, or are they about to walk?
• There’s nothing wrong with raising the price if the market can bear it — even if you know it will cost you some customers. It might be worth losing a few customers in order to bring demand back in line with supply, so that the customers you keep get their work on time and stay with you.

Let’s say you raise your prices by 20 percent, and 20 percent of your customers leave. You’d preserve 96 percent of your revenue with only 80 percent of the work. That might relieve some stress and free up time to court your best customers for referrals.

There’s definitely a risk involved in jacking up prices. But if you’re “swamped” like my friend, there may be greater risk in preserving the status quo.

Here are a couple more good reads on raising prices:

My Clients Will Leave if I Raise My Prices. Really? (Authentic Promotion)

Should We Raise Our Prices … in This Economy? (Entrepreneur Magazine)