Want more clients? Raise your rates
There’s a disturbing myth out there telling new freelancers they need to charge low rates in order to get clients.
Something about how they don’t have any experience, and clients won’t work with them unless they give their services away…
And don’t worry, I went through that myself, which is the same reason I wanted to tell you one little secret…
It’s complete bullshit
In the beginning of my freelance career I decided to be a bookkeeper.
I really didn’t like this field too much, but I have my Master’s in Accounting and knew it’d be a great place to start…
So I quickly setup an account on Upwork.com, and like most freelancers, I started off by charging a really low rate ($25/hr).
I figured I’d do this until I could get my first couple clients, then once I had a steady amount of cash coming in I’d begin raising my rates and that’s when I’d start making the big bucks.
A few days later I was ready to start finding clients, so I began submitting proposals like a madman.
I actually submitted so many in the first 2 days that I ran out of connects (ability to submit more proposals), so I decided to take a break after that…
Figuring it was only a matter of minutes before all the job offers came rolling in.
So I waited a couple minutes, then a couple days, then a couple weeks…
Until my hard work finally paid off, I landed my first client at $25/hr!
Now I was extremely excited to get this first job, so I responded to the client right away and we began working immediately after that…
But by the next morning, I started to realize this whole self-employed thing wasn’t all it was cut out to be.
I woke up at 7 a.m. and the client had already sent me 5 emails (and even one text), telling me he had some rush projects that had to be done by 9 a.m. — no exceptions.
This already ruined the day, but he was my only client and I wanted to keep him happy…
So I got to work right away, completing his work by 9 a.m. and making a whopping $50 along the way.
This relationship continued on for a few months, and I actually picked up a few other clients by this time, but no matter how many proposals I submitted or how much networking I did…
I couldn’t find enough clients to pay the bills.
Then I read “Influence” by Robert Cialdini
If you’re not familiar with this book, or Robert Cialdini himself, he’s a well-known figure in the persuasion industry.
He’s actually dedicated most of his life/studies to this topic, and after years of study, he decided to write Influence…
A book that talks about all the automatic triggers we’re born with.
There’s a bunch of em, but to give you a few good examples, it discusses things like:
- Authority persuasion — How we’ll listen to anybody with advanced credentials, even if it doesn’t make sense (like an overweight Doctor talking about nutrition)…
- Herd mentality — How we think that if everybody else is doing it, then it’s gotta be a good idea (like smoking in the 70’s)…
Or in our case:
- Pricing psychology — How we think that higher prices always means better quality (too many examples to show)
Now this entire book was interesting to me as I was trying to figure out how I could get more clients, but the concept of pricing psychology really stuck out to me…
Mainly because I could relate (I’ve always gravitated towards expensive things, even if it doesn’t make sense), but also because I started to realize this might be one of the main reasons I couldn’t gain clients.
My results
After reading this book and realizing there was such a thing as “pricing psychology”, I wanted to see how this would work for me…
But I had one problem.
I knew potential clients could see I was charging really low rates to current clients, and another component of his book talked about how people always fall for comparison, meaning that trigger could override my new concept of pricing psychology…
So I decided to learn a completely new skill (writing), double my current rate (well, almost, going from $25/hr to $45/hr), and then submit a few proposals to see if this was going to work out.
Then, to my surprise, within 2 days I’d landed my first writing client…
Which was insane already…
But to top things off, he was willing to pay me $45/hr!
This gave me enough momentum to keep going with my new rates, and before I knew it, I’d created a brand new side hustle in a field that I had zero experience in…
Which allowed me to regain my sanity, start paying my bills again, and continue on with my freelance career.
What I’m trying to say is…
Now obviously there’s still some guidelines you need to follow with this.
Please don’t think you can come flying outta the gates and start charging $250/hr right away, as you still need to be somewhat practical, but remember…
There’s a lot of people out there that charge over $100/hr, so if you start with a decent rate (such as $50/hr) you’re still giving them a good deal (while using pricing psychology to your advantage)…
Plus, even if low rates did work, they’re nothing more than a fast-track to burnout…
So what’s the point of it anyway?
P.S. And if you’d like more information on how to navigate the crazy world of online freelancing, I’ve created a free mini-course for you — found here.
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