Raising your rates without losing your clients
Your rates haven't moved since the start, but your costs, your experience and the cost of living have. Raising your prices is nerve-racking, especially with long-standing clients. Yet it goes very well with a bit of method.
Why you have to do it, even if it's scary
Your rates haven't moved since the start, but everything else has. Your costs have gone up, so has the cost of living, and your experience is worth more today than at the beginning. Staying at the same price for years means accepting a disguised drop in income. Raising isn't a whim, it's keeping up with reality.
Give notice, don't improvise
An increase is announced in advance, with a clear effective date. The start of the year is a natural moment, or the next new project. Warn your regular clients ahead of time, simply, without launching into long justifications. The calmer and more anticipated it is, the better it goes.
How to announce it
A short, firm message is enough. For example: "From [date], my rate rises to [amount]. Projects already quoted stay at the agreed price." You inform, you don't ask permission. A calm tone does the rest.
And if a client refuses
Some will accept without flinching, others will want to discuss, a few will leave. That's normal, and often healthy. Those who leave over a few francs are frequently the least profitable and the most time-consuming. Their departure frees up time for clients who pay your real price.
Raise in steps
No need to double all at once. Regular, moderate increases go down much better than a big jump every five years, for you as for your clients. Better to adjust a little often than to end up well below the market and forced to catch everything up.
To put a number on all this: calculate your freelance hourly rate in seconds.
Know how much to raise by
VUED recalculates your fair rate when your costs change, so you know when and by how much to review your prices.
Recalculate my rate