In reality, most business can increase their prices, however there is often a perceived fear of taking this action.
Most business principles will have a feeling that they probably should increase their prices but at the same time will sight losing clients, competitive position, and current economic climate as reasons not to take this action.
The fact remains that with a solid and calculated pricing strategy it is possible to increase prices. Gone are the days, or so they should be that an arbitrary mark up or margin calculation will suffice in today's modern and competitive landscape. The truth is that a small price increase will likely have little effect on a business, in fact base competitive analysis will often shine a light on this once dark area of pricing strategy.
A price increase strategy can be calculated to show what effect it will have on your volume and what effect will happen to profitability and your cash flow over time.
Often the price increase needs to be part of a bigger strategy and business review.
One key in this decision process is to have accurate data and fortunately in the days of online accounting the data needed to decide on the correct strategy is close to hand and can be manipulated in a variety of ways. The old adage remains true of - "quality data in and quality data out".