For two years I quoted low and called it strategy. Building a portfolio. Being accessible. Getting my foot in the door. All reasonable-sounding sentences for one plain fact: I didn't believe I could ask for more, so I didn't.
What broke the pattern wasn't a mindset shift. It was arithmetic — and the mindset shift showed up about six weeks later, uninvited.
Start with the floor, not the market
Everyone tells you to research what others charge. Do that eventually. Do it second. Market rates tell you what's possible; they tell you nothing about what you need, and a price you can't survive on isn't a price, it's a countdown.
Your floor is built from three honest numbers.
- What the month costs. Business expenses plus the money you actually need to take home. Not a heroic minimum — the real one, including the quarter you owe tax on.
- How many projects you can genuinely deliver. In a normal month, with a sick child and a slow client in it. Whatever number you first thought, subtract one.
- The unpaid hours each project really takes. Calls, revisions, the emails, the invoicing, the two hours of quiet dread before a kickoff. Count them.
Divide the first by the second, adjust for the third, and you have a floor. Mine came out uncomfortably higher than what I'd been charging, which is how I knew the exercise was working.
A floor is a fact. Your feelings about it don't get a vote.
Then quote the whole thing, in writing
Half of what felt like underpricing was actually scope leak. The number was low AND the boundaries were soft, which is a fast way to resent work you chose.
Now every quote says, in plain sentences: what's included, how many rounds of revisions, what happens if the timeline moves because of me, what happens if it moves because of them. It's one extra paragraph and it has saved me more money than raising my rate did.
- Deliverables, listed. If it isn't on the list, it's a new quote — kindly, but genuinely.
- Two rounds of revisions. Two is generous and finite. Unlimited is neither.
- A payment rhythm. Fifty percent to hold the slot, the rest before launch.
On saying the number out loud
The first three times I quoted my new floor, my voice did a thing. I said the number and then immediately kept talking, filling the silence with justification nobody had asked for.
Here's what I do now: say the number, then stop. Let it sit there. It's uncomfortable for about four seconds and then the client says something perfectly normal, because to them it's just a price for work they want.
Two of those three said yes, by the way. The third had a real budget constraint and we found a smaller scope that fit. Nobody was offended. That was the fear, and the fear was wrong.
When to raise it
When you're at capacity — not when you feel ready. Feeling ready is a lagging indicator and it may never fully arrive. If your slots are consistently full at your current floor, the floor is too low. That's it. That's the whole signal.
If you only keep four things
- Confidence follows the number. Don't wait for it to arrive first.
- Your floor comes from real costs and honest capacity, not from what feels reasonable.
- Quote the whole scope in writing, including revisions and timeline.
- Raise the floor when you're at capacity, not when you feel ready.
Work out your floor this week and write it on a sticky note where you take your calls. Then quote from it once. — Leslieann
