“My advice to anyone starting out freelancing?” says editor Barb Adamski, “Double your rates at least once in your career.”
Year end is one traditional time to raise your rates. For existing clients, tell them now that, come 2025, your rates will be going up by $5, 5%, or even double (your pick). It’s even easier to raise your rates with new clients: just quote the new figure when they inquire. But existing clients appreciate a heads-up on what their next project will cost. Two months notice would be even kinder, but there’s no requirement unless your contract says so.
Five dollars is an easy increment for a raise. Though it might be too small if your rates are very high, or too high if you’re talking about a per-page rate rather than per hour. If your hourly rate is very low, raise it at least enough that you’re uncomfortable asking for it.
Five per cent is a little more than cost of living increase, and it’s still nowhere near the 50% more that groceries are costing since a couple years ago. It’s also easier to calculate 5%, and a little “rounder” of a figure, which is more easy to accommodate emotionally than some arguable decimal value researched by the Federal Reserve or Bank of Canada.
“My rate will be increasing by $5 in January.”
That’s it. That’s all you have to say. You don’t need to justify it or explain. Raising rates is a normal part of business.
Some clients might balk at the higher cost. Others won’t even bat an eye. One year, after a handful of years charging the same entry-level rate, I started quoting $5 an hour more on each new assignment. Not one client balked. In fact, I made so much more money that year that my accountant asked what happened.
Why are you raising your rates? Because your earnings have to keep up with the cost of living, and besides, you have
- another year’s worth of experience
- more training
- more efficiency now that you know their style
“I doubled my rate once,” editor Barb Adamski told me. “It was awesome. (I did too!) And instead of people asking me to lower my low rate, I got clients who said, ‘Oh, what do I get for that rate?’ It was a total game changer.
What if, by raising rates, you price yourself out of the market? Well, next week we’ll talk about finding better assignments—and look at several factors beyond what they pay.
Photo by David Goehring, used under CC BY-2.0 license. Previously published in [the now defunct] Copyediting.com.
Learn more about marketing your services in the Marketing Action Plan for Freelancers! It has dozens of case studies from successful freelancers, and worksheets to develop your plan.
