The rate sheet from 2011 that resurfaced in my email

I was cleaning out my old email folders on Sunday and found a rate sheet I sent to a contract gig back in 2011. My hourly was $28 then, and I remember thinking I was killing it. This week I quoted the same type of work at $55 and the guy just said "okay" with zero pushback. Made me wonder how many years I left money on the table because I was scared to ask for more. Anyone else dig up old numbers and cringe at what you accepted?

2 comments

2 Comments

sagejackson2d ago

Wait, is that math even right? If you were at $28 in 2011 and now you're at $55, that's basically double, which sounds great on paper, but inflation alone should have put you closer to $40 just to keep pace. So the real cringe is that you probably only gained about $15 in actual buying power over 13 years, and the client saying "okay" just proves you had more room than you thought. I dug up my own 2012 spreadsheet and saw I charged $35 for something I now bill at $75, and honestly the gap between what I thought was fair and what the market would bear is the scariest part.

jesse_smith102d ago

But holding at $55 for 13 years while only tracking inflation means you're basically just treading water, not losing ground, which is a win when most freelancers are still charging what they did in 2015. And honestly, that client saying "okay" is just them being polite, not proof you left money on the table, because raising rates too fast just chases away the steady ones.