September is when most calendar-year businesses start building next year's budget — which means it's also the last practical window to review your pricing before contracts start renewing in Q4 and January. If you wait until a client asks for a renewal number, you're reacting instead of planning. Here's how to use this month productively.
Start With What Actually Changed This Year
Pull three numbers for the year so far: your average labor cost per hour (burdened, not base wage), your supply cost trend, and your actual overhead spend. Compare each to what you assumed when you priced your current contracts. If your burden rate crept up — a workers' comp renewal, a health insurance increase, higher turnover — that increase needs to show up in next year's pricing, not get absorbed silently.
Build a Renewal Number, Not Just a New-Bid Number
- Recalculate burdened labor cost using this year's actual FICA, workers' comp, and turnover costs, not last year's estimate.
- Re-check production rates against actual hours logged on the account, if you're tracking it. A contract that's been running longer than estimated every month is a contract that's already underpriced.
- Decide your increase before the conversation, not during it. A prepared 4–8% increase tied to specific cost drivers lands very differently than an on-the-spot number you're making up while the client is on the phone.
Segment Your Book of Business
Not every account needs the same treatment. Sort your contracts into three groups: accounts that are clearly underpriced and need a real correction, accounts that are roughly on target and just need a cost-of-living style adjustment, and accounts you'd genuinely be fine losing if the client pushes back hard. Knowing which group each client falls into before you have the conversation makes the negotiation far less stressful.
Put It on the Calendar
Once you know your numbers, schedule renewal conversations deliberately — ideally 60–90 days before each contract's anniversary date, giving clients time to budget for the increase rather than being surprised by it. Waiting until the last minute puts you in a weaker negotiating position and increases the odds a client shops your price instead of just accepting it.
The Bottom Line
Budget season isn't just something your clients go through — it should be something you go through first. A September pricing review, done deliberately, turns Q4 renewals from a scramble into a plan.