Finally raised my rate after 3 years of being scared, and it worked out fine

I've been doing freelance bookkeeping from my home office in Tucson since 2021, always charging $35 an hour because I was terrified of losing my two steady accounts. Last month I had a new inquiry and on a whim I quoted $50, fully expecting them to haggle. They said yes within a day and now I'm wondering if I've been leaving money on the table this whole time. Has anyone else found that the fear of raising rates is way worse than the actual conversation?

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oliviabutler3d ago

Isn't it funny how we do that in every part of life, not just work? Like I held off asking my landlord to fix my AC for months because I figured he'd say no, then when I finally sent the email he had a guy out there the next day. Same with asking for a table by the window at a restaurant or telling a friend their joke fell flat. We build up this whole scary story in our heads about how people will react, and usually they just say okay or even act like it's no big deal. The hard part is almost never the actual conversation, it's the hours or days of dread before it. Glad you finally made the jump, it sounds like it was way overdue.