Set a $50 minimum project fee and lost a repeat client over it

I had this one guy in Seattle who paid me $30 to do small copy tweaks every couple weeks, but last month I told him I couldn't take anything under $50 anymore. He got all quiet and said he'd find someone else, and now I'm wondering if I messed up my income stream for principle. Has anyone else lost a regular just by setting a floor on what you'll work for?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan2713d ago

thing is, that $20 difference might've actually been about him testing your boundaries, not the money. I've had clients who nickel and dime you on purpose, and once you give in, they start expecting more favors or lower rates on bigger projects down the road. My old rule of thumb is that if someone balks at a $50 minimum, they probably weren't planning on growing with you anyway. That said, I get why you're second guessing yourself, because steady $30 work adds up over months and covers a lot of bills. Maybe you could've framed it differently, like offering him a bulk rate for five batches at a time to keep him happy while hitting your number.

angelamurphy3d ago

Wait, hold on - did you just say you gave him a full month's notice and he still ghosted you over $15? That's wild. I had a similar thing happen with a guy who paid me $25 to clean his gutters every season, and when I bumped it to $30 he acted like I'd asked for his firstborn. @abbyf79 your friend dodged a bullet though, because if $15 is the breaking point after three years, that relationship was built on sand. Those types are never going to be the clients who stick around when you actually need to raise rates for real.

abbyf793d ago

...and my friend Jenna did the exact same thing with a landscaping client. Dude was paying her $40 a week to mow his lawn and trim bushes. She raised her minimum to $55, told him ahead of time, gave him a month's notice. He just stopped calling. No warning, no nothing. Three years of steady work gone over fifteen bucks. She was pretty bummed about it but said it freed up her Saturday to take on a bigger property that paid $120 a pop.