Raised my prices this year and lost half my regular buyers

I finally did it. After three years of charging 1500 SEK for the same A3 paper collage, I bumped it to 2000 in January. Thought it was modest enough to keep people around.

Lost three people who'd bought from me every year. One of them wrote back saying she was "surprised by the increase." That one stung more than I expected because she'd always seemed genuinely interested in the work, not just the price.

I'm not going back down. But I didn't expect the silence to feel this specific. I thought I was ready for it and I wasn't.

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Dimitra Vasilakis·2w

Three years at the same price is a long time. Materials go up, your time is worth more, it's just reality. But the silence is always sharper than you expect, especially from the ones you thought were actually looking at the work, not the tag.

I had a similar thing a few years back when I raised my smaller mosaics. Lost a woman who'd bought one every Christmas for four years. Never heard from her again. It made me question everything for about two weeks. Then I remembered that the people who stay are the ones who understand what goes into it, and the ones who leave were probably never really seeing the work anyway. They were seeing a price they liked.

The "surprised by the increase" comment though. That's hard. Because it means she felt entitled to your old prices, like they were a permanent agreement instead of what you decided your work was worth at the time. That's on her, not you. But knowing that doesn't make it sting less, I know.

Hold the line. The right buyers will come. They always do, just slower than the wrong ones leave.

Elin HolmOP·2w

Yeah. The woman who said she was surprised, that's what got me. Not angry, not even that she couldn't afford it. Just surprised. Like I'd done something slightly inappropriate.

You're right about the ones who stay. I've had a few newer people find me since January, and they don't blink at the price. They just ask about the materials or the process. Different kind of buyer entirely.

Sol Reyes·2w

Ugh, that last bit hit me. The silence. It's not the people who just stop buying, it's the ones who make you feel like YOU changed the terms of the relationship somehow. Like charging what your work is worth is a betrayal.

I had this happen with a commission client I'd worked with for years. She'd buy a piece every Christmas like clockwork. I raised my prices finally and she just... vanished. No reply to my email. Nothing. And I sat there for weeks thinking maybe I'd been greedy, maybe I'd ruined it.

But here's the thing. You didn't lose them because the price went up 500 SEK. You lost them because they had a specific comfort level with you being affordable and the second you weren't, the relationship shifted. That says more about them than about your prices.

Three years is a long time to hold the same number. Your work grew, your materials cost more, your rent probably went up. You're allowed to match that.

The sting is real though. Let yourself feel it. Just don't let it talk you back down.

Elin HolmOP·2w

That bit about her buying every Christmas like clockwork, that's the kind of regular you convince yourself is also a friend, isn't it. And then they prove they weren't.

Mine wrote back, at least. I don't know if that's better or worse. She was polite about it. That almost made it harder.