It’s a brand new 12 months and it’s time for a author’s pep-talk. Job one: it’s time to boost your charges.
I can hear you quaking in your boots from right here. However I would like you to think about this. The start of a 12 months is a naturally nice time to interrupt the information to present shoppers that charges are going up. Ideally, you need to put the information out to them within the waning days of the earlier 12 months, however at worst the primary month.
Message: it’s a brand new 12 months, an enhancing financial system, and my charges are going up.
Perhaps not for each consumer. However should you’re going to maintain elevating your common hourly price, you could preserve elevating charges.
So it’s time to try who you’re writing for, and what they’re paying you. Who pays the least, on an hourly foundation? Make a listing of your lowest payers.
Now you’ve bought a choice to make. There are solely two methods to make charges go up: Both present shoppers must pay extra, or you must exit and discover better-paying shoppers, after which drop the decrease payers.
So first query: Do you assume there may be any likelihood you will get these shoppers to pay extra? In case you write for flat-rate content material websites or bidding websites, that will be a giant no. Their pay will seemingly stay precisely the identical within the coming 12 months. In case your shoppers aren’t negotiable on charges, it’s time to take a look at your advertising plan for including better-paying shoppers.
Will you write recommendation articles on Biznik? Attend in-person networking occasions? What’s been working for you previously? What do you need to attempt that’s new? Work out how you’ll appeal to new shoppers this 12 months, and create a schedule for if you’ll do your advertising.
Whether it is potential your present shoppers pays extra, it’s time to write down them a letter. Allow them to know your small business is rising and thriving, and charges are rising.
Elevate your charges: an instance
I really simply did this with a consumer I had on a two-month contract at $1,600 a month. The undertaking suffered from large scope creep because it went alongside and have become actually $3,000 or extra a month of labor. After they let me know they needed to increase the contract, I knowledgeable them I used to be pleased to maintain working for them, however not at that price. I proposed a brand new price—not $3,000 as I used to be certain that will make them bolt, however one which gave me almost a 30% increase, to the purpose the place I felt the account could be price persevering with and wouldn’t decrease my general common hourly price.
I documented how the undertaking had modified and what going charges had been for the sorts of work I used to be now doing. I confirmed them the huge low cost they’d nonetheless be getting. I discussed that the financial system is popping round and many purchasers are competing for my time.
And backside line, charges needed to go up. Or I’m strolling.
Feels scary, doesn’t it? However you’ll want a bit braveness should you’re going to extend what you earn 12 months to 12 months.
In the mean time I despatched this proposal, in mid-December, January was solely about half booked up, and a variety of assignments had been nonetheless hanging and unsure. But it surely needed to occur, as a result of the purpose of all of it is I must make a residing.
Now could be the time to lock in higher charges. You by no means know when the chance will disappear to speak price will increase. For instance, I had one hourly-rate consumer that I used to be getting $85 an hour with. I had the sense different freelancers for them had been making extra, so I advised them my price was going up within the subsequent 12 months to $95 an hour. They grumbled a bit, however went for it. (I later discovered others had been getting $120, so I used to be nonetheless a deal.)
In fact, my timing was nice. Lower than a 12 months later, the financial system was collapsing, and I wouldn’t have dared to broach a price enhance.
The payoff: it turned out to be a really busy time for this consumer, and I earned greater than $5,000 of extra revenue over the following two years. That’s proper, 5 massive for doing precisely what I might have finished…simply getting paid extra for it. As a result of I merely requested for it.
So ask for a increase—you deserve it, and it’s definitely worth the danger.
This submit initially appeared on the WM Freelance Author’s Connection.