Invoice generator › Raising rates

How to raise your rates

New clients are easy: quote the new number. Existing clients are the hard part, and the wording matters more than the percentage.

The five signals that it is time

1. You are fully booked. The clearest one. Demand above capacity is what a price rise is for.
2. Nobody has said no in months. A quote that never loses is under the market.
3. You are better than you were. If you deliver in three days what took five a year ago, an unchanged day rate means you earn less for being more skilled.
4. The rate has not moved in over a year. With inflation, a flat rate is a real-terms cut you gave yourself.
5. You resent a particular client. Almost always a price problem wearing a personality costume.

New clients: just quote the new number

No announcement, no justification, no reference to the old rate. The next enquiry gets the new figure as if it had always been the figure. This is where the whole increase should start, because it costs nothing and it tells you within a few quotes whether the market accepts it.

Give it three or four quotes before judging. One loss is not data.

Existing clients: notice, then a number

Two rules. Give at least 30 days' notice, and give a number, not a range. Then say it in four sentences without apologising.

Subject: Rate change from 1 October

Hi [name],

A quick note that my day rate goes from 480 to 560 from 1 October.
Anything already booked or quoted stays at the current rate.

I'd rather tell you well ahead of time than surprise you on an
invoice. Happy to talk it through if it's difficult.

Thanks for the work this year — [specific project] was a good one.

[you]

What that email does: names the date, names both numbers, protects work already agreed, opens a conversation without inviting a negotiation, and ends on something specific rather than generic. What it does not do: explain your costs, apologise, or mention inflation as if the client owed you compensation for it.

How much

For existing clients, 10–20% annually goes through without much friction. Above 25% on a long-standing client usually produces a conversation, which is fine if you are prepared for it.

If your rate is badly below market — it happens after a few years of not looking — do not try to fix it in one step with a client who has been paying the old rate for three years. Two increases six months apart works better, and in the meantime set the correct number for every new client.

What to do when they say no

Three legitimate answers, and none of them is caving immediately:

Hold, and mean it. "I understand. The new rate is what I can do the work for from October — I'd be glad to keep working together at it." Then be prepared to lose the client. Some will come back within a few months, and some were not profitable anyway.

Trade something for the price. If the number cannot move, change what is in the box: fewer revision rounds, longer lead times, a smaller scope, a minimum monthly commitment. Same rate, less delivered.

Phase it. Half now, half in six months. Reasonable with a long-standing client and a genuine budget cycle. Only offer it once.

What not to do is quietly revert. A rescinded increase teaches the client that your prices move when they push, and the next attempt will be harder than this one.

The uncomfortable arithmetic of losing a client

Five clients at 480. Raise to 560 and one leaves.

Before:  5 × 480 = 2,400 a day of capacity booked
After:   4 × 560 = 2,240 — and one day a week freed up

You lost 160 a day of booked revenue and gained a day of capacity worth 560 if you fill it. Even at half filled, you are ahead — and you gave up the client who valued the work least.

This is why the fear of losing a client to a price rise is usually mispriced. The risk is real; it is just much smaller than it feels.

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