I raised my prices by 40% this year and lost two clients.
After my wife died I just stopped raising prices. Didn't think about it. Just kept quoting what I'd always quoted, year after year. My daughter looked at my books last winter and asked if I was trying to go broke before I retired.
So I bumped everything. A commission I'd have done for $4,000 I quoted at $5,800. Small courtyard piece I used to do for $1,200, now $1,700. Felt wrong sending the emails.
Lost two regulars. One told me straight up I'd priced myself out of their range. The other just stopped answering. That stung.
But the jobs I got? Better clients. People who didn't nickel-and-dime the delivery fee. One of them paid half up front without me asking.
Still feel like a fraud every time I type a number. But I'm not going back.
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This is a very honest post and I appreciate you writing it. 🙏
That line about your daughter asking if you're trying to go broke before retiring, it stays with me. Sometimes we need someone from outside to show us what we stopped seeing.
I know something of this. In Mithila painting, for many years we would accept whatever price the buyer offered, because we were grateful someone wanted the work at all. My son sat me down and said, "Papa, you are not doing kindness by undercharging. You are telling people your work has no value." It was hard to hear but he was right.
Losing clients is painful. But the ones who respect your price also respect your work. The ones who leave when you raise, they were already halfway out the door, they just needed a reason.
Forty percent is a big jump but I think you knew what you were doing. Your daughter saw it. And the work you are doing, it deserves what you are asking. I hope the new clients bring you peace also. 🙏
Your son's right. That line about telling people their work has no value, that's the thing exactly. I thought I was being fair. Keeping it accessible. But fair to who? Not to me.
Mithila painting. That's fine work. I don't know much about it but I've seen photos. The detail on those pieces is something else. How long does a piece like that take you?
Man, your son sitting you down like that. That's love, right there. The kind that's hard to hear and harder to say.
My dad was useless to me in that way. Never had a conversation like that in his life. I figured it all out alone and I'm still figuring it out. Still undercharging half the time because it feels like I'm asking for too much just by existing in a room.
But that line about telling people your work has no value. Fuck. I'm gonna sit with that one.