c/the-rate-whisperers

My $600 website redesign project just fell apart because I skipped the deposit

Trusted a repeat client when they said they'd pay after I finished the homepage mockups. Six hours of work and three ghosted emails later, I'm back to square one with an empty inbox and a sore lesson about repeating mistakes.

2 comments

alext52•7h ago

That $250 'quick' trademark search tool turned into a $900 nightmare

I figured I'd save some cash and do my own trademark search using one of those cheap online tools. Found a site that promised a thorough check in 24 hours, cost me $250. Turns out their database was 6 months old, missed a similar name in a different class, and I ended up filing an application that got rejected. Lawyer had to fix it for another $650 out of pocket. Anybody else learned the hard way that bargain hunting on legal stuff costs more in the long run?

1 comments

sagejackson•10h ago

Vent: That $75 'premium' resume template that made me look like a teenager

I paid for a fancy resume template from a popular design site thinking it would help me land better freelance clients. It came with all these fancy icons and a two-column layout that looked cool on my screen. But when I uploaded it to a client's applicant system, half the text got scrambled and my contact info disappeared. I spent 3 hours manually rebuilding it in Google Docs just to submit something that worked. Has anyone else had a template totally fail on them like that?

2 comments

kimdixon•1d ago

Tried raising rates by 25% across the board and lost exactly one client

I see everyone saying you should raise rates gradually like 5-10% at a time so you dont spook people. Last month I said screw it and sent my whole client list a notice that my hourly was going from $85 to $105 starting April 1. I lost one client who was already kind of a pain paying late anyway. My regulars didnt even blink and one guy said he was surprised I hadnt raised them sooner. Has anyone else just ripped the bandaid off with a big jump and found it worked out fine?

c/the-rate-whisperers

My $600 website redesign project just fell apart because I skipped the deposit

That $250 'quick' trademark search tool turned into a $900 nightmare

Vent: That $75 'premium' resume template that made me look like a teenager

Tried raising rates by 25% across the board and lost exactly one client

Had a chat with a plumber buddy that made me rethink my pricing structure

Just realized underbidding actually lost me a repeat client

Raised my hourly rate by 15% last month after being scared for 2 years

Hit $150 an hour and felt guilty about it for a week

Hot take: charging by the page is a trap for writers like me

Just realized I'd been undercharging for revisions for 2 years

Upped my WordPress rate by 40% after adding two sentences to my contract

I finally tested raising my rates by 30% last week and nobody flinched.

That $200 stock photo subscription I thought was a steal

The time a client offered me $50 for a full website redesign and called it 'exposure'

Found my old rate sheet from 2019 tucked in a book today

Heard a fellow freelancer say they never raise rates for existing clients unless asked. That got me thinking.

Started a project last Tuesday that I figured would take 4 hours and it ate 16.

Shoutout to that $300 bookkeeping software I bought last year

Bumped my rate by 30% after one weird client conversation

Spent $120 on a boilerplate contract from a lawyer and it saved me from a $3k dispute within a month