Know your worth 💸

When is the right time to increase your prices?

Jun 03, 2020

In last week's email, I shared my views on pay transparency and my earnings from FY19/20 - my first full year as a freelancer. Since then, I've embarked on a journey into discovering my worth.

I am very fortunate that my business has not been significantly affected by the pandemic. In fact, I have seen a near-constant flurry of new leads for copywriting and web design projects.

I want to caveat this by saying I am very grateful for my existing clients, as well as those new ones. I understand that the pandemic has been a very difficult time for many freelancers so I am over-joyed to be in this position.

As a sole trader, it doesn't take much to become busy - there's only so much one person can do! That's why it's important to price your time accordingly - you can't sell an hour of your time more than once.

When you're consistently at full capacity, there's no better time to increase your prices.

That's what I learned this week. Knowing this fact and enforcing it are two very different things. So many of my fears are around self-confidence: am I really worth that much money? Will I lose clients if I put my prices up?

The truth is: increasing your prices when you're busy is win-win-win.

There are three potential outcomes:

The client agrees to the new rate and the same amount of hours (More money)
The client agrees to fewer hours on the new rate (More time for other projects)
The client leaves me (Again, more time for other projects.)

And there is no shortage of new projects right now.

How comfortable are you about asking for more money? Do you increase rates with existing clients or only pitch higher with new? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this - catch me on Twitter @ContentByTheSea.

In a surprising turn of events, I haven't completed a single book this week!

In May, I read nine books, not bad going when I'm working such long days, but reading has become my preferred form of escapism in this increasingly stressful world. My days of inhaling Netflix's goriest true crime documentaries are over; I couldn't even make it through the first episode of the new Jeffrey Epstein series - past-me would be very disappointed.

Instead, I've found solace in the pages of fictional worlds. After reading A Little Life the bank holiday weekend, I struggled to find a book that could confidently follow that heart-wrenching tale. In the end, I returned to the comfort of Lallybroch and picked up Voyager, the third novel in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. This 900-page monster is exactly what I need right now, and I'm just over the halfway mark, so maybe I'll have finished in time for next week's newsletter!

Black Lives Matter

I'm sure you are all aware of what is happening in the USA right now. Yesterday, I posted a status on LinkedIn asking for recommendations of books by black authors as I would like to expand my scope and give my support to the black community right now. If you have any books in mind, let me know.

Alongside the update, I shared a list of (just a few) ways we can help - here it is again, in case you missed it:

Petitions to sign

Please let me know if there are any more, as I am sure there are.

That's all from me this week, folks. Come talk to me on Twitter @ContentByTheSea and don't forget to add me on Goodreads here.

If you've read this far, then consider this photo of Potter and Harmony sharing the sofa your reward.