Most companies raised prices this year. Many found it harder.

Responding to: Pricing Strategies of Regional Firms: Results From Our September 2026 Survey, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, October 1, 2026.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond asked businesses in its region how they are setting prices. The answers read like notes from the leadership rooms I sit in every week.

Only 13% of firms reported making no price adjustment in 2026. Before the pandemic, that number was 27%. Twenty percent now adjust prices monthly, up from 14% before the pandemic. The reason is no mystery: 58% pointed to rising input costs, half pointed to labor, and, in the survey's words, "Almost half of firms reported the need to restore profit margins."

Here is the line that stopped me: "Thirty-seven percent of responding firms found it harder than last year to adjust prices."

More companies are raising prices, more often, and a big share of them say it's getting harder. From the outside, I don't think the hard part is the number. I think it's the timing.

What waiting costs

When costs go up and we hold our price, we don't avoid the increase. We pay it ourselves, out of margin. Month by month the gap grows. Then one day the numbers force our hand, and we raise prices late, all at once, from a weak position. Customers feel the jump. The sales team has to explain it without a plan. Everyone remembers it as painful, so next year we wait again.

"Restore profit margins" is a polite way of saying the margin was already gone.

I say this a lot: your price decides how hard your year is. Take your revenue goal and divide it by your price. That's the volume you have to sell. Underprice by 10% and you've quietly signed up for a lot more work to hit the same number, often more than your team can do.

What I see working

The owner-led companies that handle this well, usually 20 to 200 people, do three things.

They raise prices at least with inflation, every year. Not when it hurts. Every year, on a date everyone knows. Customers adjust to a predictable rhythm far better than to a surprise.
They run the increase as a campaign. One owner. A date. The steps: which customers hear first, who calls the biggest accounts, what the talking points are, how we'll track who stays. A price increase without an owner is a wish.
They accept that some customers will leave. Usually it's the ones who never valued the work. The customers who say "Hell Yes" to what you do tend to stay, and profit often rises even with fewer accounts. That's worth modeling before you decide, not after.

The survey also found 83% of firms trying alternative approaches, like customer-specific or inflation-linked pricing. Those can help. But a smarter pricing method won't fix a late decision. The discipline is deciding while everyone is calm.

Two questions for your next leadership meeting

When did we last raise prices, and did the increase at least match our cost increases?
Who owns our next price increase, and what date is it on the calendar?

If either answer is "we're not sure," you're in good company. It's the most common answer I hear. It's also the easiest one to fix.

I'm teaching exactly this at COSE BIG on October 15: how to set prices, map cash flow, and find where profit leaks. See the Profit Playbook session resources.