Raised my commission price to €180 and lost a warm lead, and I'm still not sure I regret it
Okay so I finally did it. Bumped my base commission price from €140 to €180 for an 8x10 watercolor, which honestly still feels low when I look at the hours, but for me it was a big leap. And the very next inquiry I got, this woman who'd been following me for months and was SO sweet in her message, she replied "oh that's more than I expected" and just... went quiet. Never heard from her again.
And the thing is, I keep going back and forth. €180 for something that takes me like 6-8 hours including the sketch and the back-and-forth? That's still under €30 an hour. But also, I did the actual math on it and with materials (I use good paper, homemade honey watercolor, proper sable brushes that cost an arm and a leg) it's like €15-20 just in supplies. So I'm basically charging for my time at a rate that's less than I made scooping croissants at the bakery.
The part nobody warns you about is how much the silence hurts. Like the polite rejection email I could handle. But the ghosting? My brain has been replaying that message for two weeks wondering if I should've said "well, I can do €150 if it helps." And my partner keeps telling me the right clients will come, and logically I know that, but also rent is due on the first.
Hoping the next one who says yes makes up for it. Anyone else had the "I'll wait and see" regret thing happen after raising a price? How long did it take before it started paying off?
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The lead that goes quiet over €40 was never going to be your repeat client. That's the part that took me years to learn.
€140 for 6-8 hours of actual work, plus the correspondence you don't bill for, puts you under minimum wage in most countries. You're not pricing high. You're pricing low and apologising for it. She didn't leave because €180 was unreasonable, she left because she'd built an expectation. That's not the same thing.
The quiet ones hurt because they feel personal. But the person who comes back next year and orders again, and the one after that, they're the ones who never flinch at the number. You want those. You lose the others either way, just sooner.
Keep the €180. In six months you'll wonder why it took you so long.
You're right and I hate how right you are haha. The math genuinely is that sobering when I actually write it out. Six to eight hours PLUS the emails back and forth, the reference photo questions, the "can you add my dog" messages... it's so much unpaid labor on top.
The "built an expectation" thing really hit me though, because I think that's exactly what happened. She wasn't comparing me to other artists, she was comparing me to a version of me she'd already decided on. And no price was going to fix that once it felt off to her.
Still stings a bit though, ngl. But I'm holding at €180. I keep telling myself the right client won't flinch and I'm starting to believe it. How long until that stopped being scary for you, or is it just always a little scary?