Last month I finally caved and bought one of those fancy mesh chairs after 4 years of using a dining room chair. My neck was so wrecked I couldn't even look at my laptop to send invoices, so I guess it was worth it. But here's the funny part, after 3 days of sitting right, I felt clear headed enough to actually raise my project fee by 15% without panicking. I told my repeat customers it was due to my new setup giving me more energy, and two of them just said "makes sense" and signed. Anyone else ever spend money on gear just to realize it quietly fixes your confidence with clients? I'm curious if a $300 standing desk would do the same or if I should save it for a new keyboard next.
Last Thursday I was grabbing coffee before a meeting and ended up talking to this barista who also does freelance photography. I mentioned I was nervous about raising my editing rate from $35 to $45 an hour. She said something like "you're not selling hours, you're selling the result" and then told me she charges a flat fee per session, not per hour. That hit me different because I've been tracking minutes for 3 years now. I did the math on my last 5 jobs and my actual hourly came out to $52 anyway, so the flat rate actually makes me more. I'm trying my first flat price package next week for a product shoot. Has anyone else made that switch and how did you explain it to regulars who liked seeing hourly breakdowns?
One said my use of 'per project' sounded like I was hiding extra fees, the other said my itemized line for 'miscellaneous' looked shady. I switched to clean bullet points with exact dollar amounts and dropped the word 'misc' completely. Anyone else get feedback that felt nitpicky but actually boosted their response rate?