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Hit 100 Upwork jobs this week and it made me rethink my whole rate structure
I always thought staying at $50/hr kept me busy, but looking back at 100 completed projects, I realized I left at least $15k on the table by not raising prices after job 30.
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rosepark2mo ago
left at least $15k on the table" oh man, that hit hard. I did the same thing with my freelance writing gigs, kept charging $40 an hour for two years because I was scared people would stop hiring me. Then I finally bumped it to $55 and only lost like two clients, but I easily could have made an extra $8,000 over that time if I'd just raised it sooner. Felt like I was paying a tax on my own insecurity or something.
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wadejenkins2mo ago
The $40 to $55 jump you made @rosepark is actually pretty close to that sweet spot I've noticed in my own side hustle data. $40 is the default "I'm just starting out" rate that everyone picks, and $55 puts you right at the median for experienced freelancers in most cities. What nobody talks about is how raising your rate also changes the kind of feedback you get. When I was at $40, clients felt comfortable nitpicking every tiny thing, but at $55 they started treating me like a professional whose time actually mattered. I tracked it for a year and my revision requests dropped by almost 40 percent after the raise. So you not only made more money but you also spent less time dealing with annoying revisions.
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the_john2mo ago
Right? That insecurity tax is exactly what it is. I think we underestimate how much clients value stability over a few bucks difference on the hourly rate. The ones who leave over $15 an hour were probably going to be a headache anyway.
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