Been freelancing for about four years now doing illustration and layout work. There's this client I've had basically since month two, and they've been steady. Problem is, every year they ask me to do a little more and I just... never raised the rate. My own fault, I know. Last month they asked for a project that would've been three weeks of work and I quoted my same old day rate. They said thanks but went with someone else who charged triple. And weirdly that stung more than if they'd just been shirty about money. I guess I keep telling myself I'll raise them 'next time' and then I don't.
Pricing
I lost a client because i was too afraid to raise my prices
they didn't leave because you were cheap. They left because they assumed cheap = not serious. You priced yourself like a backup plan.
ok but the fact they told you the other person charged triple is kind of a gift? lke they were basically letting you know you undersold
Nah that's not a gift, that's them flexing. Still, info is info. You know your number now, roughly.
Honestly hadn't considered the "cheap means risky" angle. I've been treating low prices as a favor to them. As though I was being nice.
i raised my rate 40% two years ago, and lost exactly one client who was already a headache. the silence after the email was 3 days and then most people just said ok. the fear is louder than the reality like 95% of the time
What did you actually send them when you quoted? An email? Was there any language around "this is a limited rate" or was it just a number in a table?
Just a number in a breakdown. No framing at all. I've read like five articles about anchoring and clearly internalized zero of them.
This is going to sound harsh but the client didn't get lost. You not raising prices for four years is the thing that lost them. You can't un-do the past rate but you can stop offering it. New work, new number.
also just throwing it out there — do you have a contract that locks the rate? if not then congrats you were always allowed to change it
Whole thread is people telling OP to raise prices and nobody asking whether OP can actually afford to. Like, if cashflow is the panic, the advice changes. Do you have other clients lined up or is this one a big chunk of your income? That matters.
gently — do you charge by project or day? because "day rate" is where a lot of people accidentally bake in fear, you scope it tiny to stay 'fair' and then you do three weeks of unbilled revisions
Was also wondering the day rate vs project thing. A day rate invites them to question the days.
the word "afraid" in the title keeps bugging me. you're not afraid of the number you're afraid of the conversation
Project work work, mostly, so the day-rate thing is moot but fair. And no contract locking it, no. I think the thing that actually broke is I'd built the whole relationship around being easy to work with, and cheap got glued to that. Anyway I've got a new quote going out this week that's about 45% up. Not confident it'll land but sending it regardless.
Good. Send it. If they flinch you'll at least know what you're actually working with instead of guessing, though.