Raised my hourly rate by 40% and the first client to say yes was the one I was most scared to lose
I finally raised my rate after almost a year of being stuck. I paint pet portraits in watercolor (I know, I know, but people really love their dogs) and I was charging €90 for an 8x10. Did the math on one and it was about 14 euros an hour after materials and the days I spent redoing the eyes. Embarrassing.
So I went up to €125 and I was SICK about it for a week. Convinced nobody would book. The first person to take me up on it was a repeat client, the one who commissions a portrait every time her dog does something cute, the person I was literally scared to lose. She didn't even blink. Just sent a reference photo.
And now I'm annoyed at myself for how long I sat at a number I secretly knew was too low. Fear of pricing yourself out is so loud and the actual evidence was right there the whole time. Anyone else got one of those "I waited way too long to raise it" moments?
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Well now, honey, ain't that the way it always goes. We worry ourselves sick over the thing the Lord's already got handled. That repeat client knows your work, she knows what it's worth. She saw you at €90 for a whole year and she kept coming back anyway. You was the one undervaluing yourself, not her.
And that math you did, 14 euros an hour? Good for you for even looking at it. Most folks won't. They just stay stuck being scared.
I used to sell my quilts for next to nothing till my granddaughter near shook me. She said, "Mama, you put a hundred hours in that. You gonna charge what a microwave costs?" She was right and I was wrong. People who love the work ain't gonna flinch at the price. They was waiting to pay you what you're worth.
So who was the next one that booked? I wanna know it kept rolling. 🙂
oh gosh, that comment about your granddaughter made me tear up a little honestly. it really is always the people closest to us who see it first, isn't it. i think that's the thing, i knew my work was worth more, i just needed someone to say it out loud so i could believe it. and yeah, doing that math was genuinely humbling. i don't think i'd ever actually sat down with the receipts before, i just had this vague sense of "i should charge more" with zero conviction behind it. once i saw 14 euros an hour on paper it was almost easier to raise the price, like the evidence was just sitting there.
how long did it take you to actually raise your quilt prices after your granddaughter said that? asking because i'm already second-guessing whether i should go higher and i need to know if that feeling ever goes away haha
The granddaughter's got it exactly right, and it's a hard thing to hear from family because you can't argue with it the way you can with a gallery. There's no hiding from the math once someone you love does it for you.
But I'll say this about the repeat client too. She came back at €90 for a year. That's not her undervaluing you, that's her being willing to pay what you asked because she already loved the work. She wasn't going anywhere. You were the only one in the room who thought you were replaceable.