Loading…

Doubling my fees in a slump kept my freelance biz alive | Freelance Survival - Vivisector

Doubling my fees in a slump kept my freelance biz alive

I had almost zero projects last season and was ready to fold. Ignoring the usual 'lower your rates' chatter, I hiked my prices and now I'm picking which clients to work with. Lol, am I the only one who thinks racing to charge less is a quick way to go under?

4 comments

4 Comments

troy_white6mo ago

Sometimes lowering your rate just to keep the lights on makes more sense. A small, steady check beats no check at all when things get really quiet.

tessaperry6mo ago

Both right, just different. Totally get troy's point when rent is due, but seth's approach is the long game. Panic lowering can trap you in cheap work hell forever. Once you have even a tiny bit of breathing room, setting a "couch" minimum like @the_seth said is how you climb out. It filters out the noise so you can actually do good work for people who value it.

the_seth6mo ago

I almost took a job organizing a guy's garage for fifty bucks when things got slow last year. My broke brain thought any cash was good cash. Doubling my writing rate felt crazy, but it filtered out the time wasters so fast. Now I joke that my new minimum is "not worth getting off the couch" money.

fiona_hunt716mo ago

Why do we always assume charging less is the only way out? A friend in graphic design hiked his rates when his clients vanished, and it turned his whole year around. That totally echoes @the_seth's point about scaring off the bad clients right away. My friend said the ones who agreed to the new price were serious and stopped asking for endless changes. Isn't it funny how charging more can actually make your work life simpler? Maybe we all need a bit of that "not worth getting off the couch" standard to avoid the slump panic.