Beyond the Price Tag: The Ethical Decisions Behind Every PACT Pound
By Jason Light
Introduction: The Ethics Behind Every Pound
We talk about ethics all the time, and I don't think people realise just how much every single decision we make at PACT HQ includes broad ethical considerations. So, I thought I'd publicly share some insights into how and why we manage our prices, not just with our wonderful members, but also with others in the sector, in the hope that it may help people further see the importance of embedding ethics in every facet of their business.
As I'm talking about ethics around business practices, I do want to highlight one thing: ethical considerations are complex and messy. They impact individuals, communities, different species, and even future generations. Due to their far-reaching impact, ethics can very rarely be considered "personal." While in this blog I share some of my "personal" takes on ethical business, my intention is not to use this as an excuse to disregard the ethical considerations of others – which, unfortunately, can sometimes happen when the phrase "based on my personal ethics" is used to dismiss broader impacts. It's true that we all have our own understanding around ethics; for example, based on mine, I choose not to purchase products that are derived from other animals. This personal choice is a genuine attempt to reduce my harm to other living beings. Unfortunately, I'm aware that even sharing these sentiments can have a negative impact on others, with some people feeling judged or worse (which is not my intention). I'm also very aware I have blind spots, based on my background, gender, culture, privilege, life experience, etc. So, just as the ethical principles I share now will evolve, hopefully so will my understanding of others. I share this with you purely to highlight that all actions (or inaction) we take can have negative and positive impacts on others; the key for me is to invest time in understanding them and doing my best to minimise those impacts.
Of course, we don't want to put up prices; we want as many people to enjoy our courses, join the PACT community, and get onto the ABTC register. I could write a whole separate blog about why I'd love to live in an economy without a necessity for continual growth, but inflation is the reality of our everyday lives. Like the four quadrants of dog training, "positive" and "negative" inflation doesn't always equate to good and bad outcomes. We've had significant "positive" inflation for years in the UK, which means that everything we directly purchase to run PACT costs more. Plus, for us to continue to be fair to the growing number of people we employ, they should be paid more to help them continue to thrive. We also want to continue to develop our services, spend time helping the sector flourish, providing scholarships and continue donating thousands to charities. This leaves us (and anyone reading this who runs a business) with the dilemma: do we raise our prices due to inflation, or are there reasons why some prices should remain unchanged?
Before I delve further into the details, I want to make it very clear: this blog isn't aimed at anyone or any institution in particular; that isn't the way we run PACT.
So, this blog will hopefully provide a bit of an insight into some of our considerations around prices. This includes:
Being Transparent about our prices and changes
Giving plenty of prior notice to price increases
Avoiding cheaper options at a future date
All-inclusive pricing
Transparent Price Changes
Isn't it annoying when someone publishes a price change (higher or lower), but you need a PhD in Economics plus a time machine to know if it was a good deal? In its worst form, it can be an underhand marketing ploy, designed to trick people into perhaps thinking the price hasn't really changed or is possibly cheaper.
The PACT way: When we change prices, we also publish what the old price was. It's not hard to do, but it is very clear and transparent. It's also helpful having it written out like that for you as a business owner, for when you next review your prices (though, as you'd expect from the resident PACT number geek, I have a spreadsheet with price changes over the last 4 years!).
Giving Plenty of Prior Notice to Price Increases
If you are like me, it takes a while to decide whether to purchase something; I love doing my research and due diligence. Recently, Nat purchased a printer (as we urgently needed one) – even after an hour in the store looking for the most eco option, I still felt too rushed, and when we got home, I did more research before feeling comfortable opening the box and committing. Also like me, you've probably been caught out by this – mulling over a purchase only to find out the price has gone up, or worse, felt pressured on a website by a countdown or huge wording stating the price will increase within 24 hours. Sudden price changes can be unfair, particularly when signing up for a course is a significant commitment (both in terms of money and your precious time). Short notice is just as unfair; at its worst, it is a form of pressure sales tactics that isn't ethical and quite often untruthful (when you discover the price didn't actually go up).
The PACT way: We publish our price changes well in advance and stick to them. The prices announced today (July 8th 2025) will come into effect on September 1st, 2025, and only then for services pre-purchased for delivery from 1st January 2026. We could easily give 24 hours' notice and try and do some "flash sale" or just put prices up without notice, but that could catch people out or pressure them into purchasing a course which for us is a huge investment for someone in their career.
No Cheaper Options at a Future Date
Nothing is more "gutting" than purchasing something only to see the price drop later. While I personally understand the allure of waiting for sales like Black Friday, this phenomenon isn't something we replicate. We work so hard to foster a community at PACT, with our students signing up not just to learn from us, but to develop together as a cohort. Introducing unfairness by allowing recent sign-ups to pay less than students who have been preparing for months isn't conducive to building the strong, lasting relationships we value within our cohorts.
The PACT way: We only offer discounted options for our members purchasing subsequent services, scholarships, or people who work for charities. We are very open about these routes upfront and encourage people to use them. There will be people on our courses who have paid different rates, but we have never sold anything at a price and then made it cheaper later.
All-Inclusive Pricing
Personally, I find it frustrating when I proceed to checkout only to discover hidden, additional costs. It was great to see earlier this year that it became mandatory in the UK for all organizations to clearly publish the full cost of something in their marketing, including booking fees and VAT. Unfortunately, adding extra fees later has become a standard practice in many sectors, often designed to mislead consumers into believing a product or service is comparatively cheaper when, in reality, it is not.
The PACT way: For years, our prices have included all mandatory costs; consequently, when this UK legislation was introduced, we were already fully compliant. All the prices we publish are inclusive of all mandatory fees; there is no "plus VAT," handling fee, or venue booking charge. If you book a DOGX ticket, that is all you need to pay! DOGX is a great example for some insight into how seriously we try and put this in practice: This year, our University hosts introduced onsite parking charges on campus. Having identified this new charge, we negotiated a flat fee with the university and have covered that cost for everyone attending. We didn't have to do this, but we WANT everyone to have a great experience with no surprises that could take the edge off the day for them. Obviously, this is a bit of a financial hit for us, but it didn't feel fair to us to allow people who have purchased a ticket to have to pay for something later that they were not made aware of at the time of purchase, especially for people returning to DOGX having not previously paid for parking.
Our PACT to You!
As alluded to above, anyone who knows me will be well aware of my love of spreadsheets; I have been monitoring PACT price changes across our services since day 1. While some of our fees have increased, overall this has been less than inflation, and not all of them have. Next year will be our 3rd year since we increased our full membership fee, which hopefully shows how much we do our best to avoid increasing future fees for people already part of the community.
Hopefully, you have found this of interest and maybe given you some ideas for your business. All of this and more is set out in our ethical marketing policy on our website, a policy that has been independently reviewed as part of our B Corp certification.