You. Can. Charge. MORE. But to do so, it’s more than just believing in yourself.
When you charge lower fees, clients value you LESS. And when clients value you LESS, then you will believe you are worth LESS – while also feeling like you deserve MORE. Charging lower fees than your work deserves devalues your deliverables, which reinforces you don’t deserve more. It’s actually a vicious cycle. So, let’s talk about that cycle, how to break it, and how to move forward.
When I first started out as an attorney, I charged a fairly low amount for my services – about $100 an hour. I believed that because I was “young” and “inexperienced” and thus, that translated into the hourly rate I should charge. I was never more wrong in my life. Well, except for that one time in the summer of 86, which I won’t get into here.
I quickly learned that $100 an hour was not enough for the VALUE that I was providing to my clients. I was poring over very complicated legal documents. I was researching and writing and drafting communications and letters way into the night, when I should have been sleeping. I was thinking about my clients all the time – puzzling over how to give them the best outcome available to them.
Sidebar – I had an amazing coach and therapist. Her name was Nadine. Miss that woman every single day. One of the things we worked on together was clarity about my value as a HUMAN. We also worked on my confidence in my VOICE and saying what I meant and meaning what I said. But one of the most important things she and I worked on was my COURAGE. I would say to her, “but I don’t know what to say to XYZ (fill in the blank – whoever was causing me excessive stress that week” and she’d say, with a huge smile on her face, “Tell them to go f*ck themselves!” To which I always replied, “I can’t do that!” And she’d always say – “then what’s the next best thing you could say?” And I always came back to what I knew I wanted, what I knew I deserved, and together, we came up with a script of what to say to get the outcome that was right for me.
So, why does all that matter when it comes to what you charge your clients? Because when you believe you deserve more, but your ACTIONS are opposite of that, your VOICE says something different, and your CONTRACT reinforces that error, then it’s very difficult to convince yourself to do the next best thing for yourself.
What I forgot in the way I was pricing myself was that I actually had decades of previous experience in the law, but it was the first time I was working on my own. I believed that somehow, just because I was a new business owner, that meant that I also had to lower my fee. But in reality, I should have priced myself according to the decades of experience I had honing my skills – which, I am sure you also have. You’ve probably been creating your unique and wondrous thing for decades. Maybe you’ve always been able to pick up a pen and draw. Maybe you see the world in abstract colors. Maybe you see every blank wall or canvas as an opportunity to make the world more beautiful. Maybe you see the world as one big giant branding opportunity. And chances are, you’ve spent decades honing your craft, too.
And look, I’m not going to pretend that charging more is easy. It’s not. It’s a lot easier to tell you to do it than to actually do it. But that’s where the clarity and confidence and courage come in. That’s where knowing all the hard work – and heart work – you’ve put into something comes into play. So, yes, you might have clients now who need to be paying you more and that might make you resentful, or frustrated, angry, disappointed in yourself for not advocating for yourself, but here’s the secret no one tells you: you can raise your prices ANYTIME YOU WANT, even with a current client who’s already agreed to a rate. What it takes is communication – clarity in what you need and deserve, confidence that your client cares about the outcome, and the courage to know you can always tell them to go fuck themselves if you wanted … but you don’t have to go that far to get what you want.
Every single time you do an intake on a client, you can increase your rate. You don’t have to do it once a year. You can do it every single time – raise it by 5, 20 dollars an hour until someone blinks. If they don’t blink, you’re not charging enough.
I’m sure that you’ve been setting your fees by what you believe the going rate is, the “industry standard” is – but here’s another secret for you: no such thing exists. It’s a range of what I set, you set, they set, your friend sets … and everyone’s value of themselves and their work is DIFFERENT. Setting your fees based on what OTHER PEOPLE ARE CHARGING IS just plain WRONG. And it hurts you and it hurts your industry. It hurts your friends. It hurts your peace. It hurts your heart. It hurts your reputation.
In the US, we have this agency called the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They have an Occupational Outlook Handbook. There, you can find the range for every profession you can think of. It reports RANGES – hourly and salary, depending on where you are in your career, and what city you live in. In 2023, the median pay for a graphic designer was $58,910 per year, but I’m sure you know people earning more and earning less. The 2023 median hourly rate was $28.32 per hour. I’m sure you know people earning more and earning less. But these are not numbers to live and die by, because they are not YOUR reality. YOUR experience. YOUR vision. YOUR relationships. YOUR quality of life. YOUR needs and wants. Those numbers are not YOUR life. But the range of salary pay for graphic designers? It ranges from $36,420 to more than $100,450.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Graphic Designers (visited February 05, 2025)
When you have clarity about all of the tiny bits of value that you bring to the table – in your literal values as a Human, or in your literal creative value as a Professional – then you don’t need to keep trying to price yourself according to other people’s standards. You will price yourself according to YOUR standards – your standard of care, your standard of living, your standard of values, your standard of what you literally stand for.
The big problem with pricing is always that there’s so much out there in the world, telling and SHOWING creatives that they aren’t valued, when actually, all you’re hearing is the loudest talkers. Because creatives are valued. We could not have the world we have – for better or for worse, let’s be honest – if it weren’t for creatives. Who thinks up the designs for all these buildings we live in, or how water gets into our homes, or even what colors to paint a new therapist’s office so that her clients feel most at ease when they walk in? Creatives just like you. The problem is knowing YOU believe in your value, but allowing society and people outside of you CHANGE YOUR BELIEF in yourself.
And look, a lot of creatives feel scared, stuck, and unsure of themselves when they value themselves by what they believe OTHERS should value them as. That’s because when we value ourselves by other people’s standards, we will never feel like we are authentically ourselves.
So, instead of setting your value – your pricing, for example – based on what other people say you deserve, start valuing yourself – in your pricing, for example – based on what you KNOW you deserve. And more than just what you DESERVE – what you NEED to have the standard of living you want. We all have a survival number. We all have a living number. We all have a thriving number. What do those numbers look like to you? I don’t want you to just survive. I want you to THRIVE.
In order to have the life you want, you need to value yourself appropriately, yes, but you also need to demand that OTHERS VALUE YOU APPROPRIATELY, too.
So, let’s say you’ve got a long-time client that you’ve been giving a steeeep discount to. They have your original prices from when you just started out, but you never raised your prices with them because you value them and their trust in you. How do you raise your prices with them? If you were to ask yourself, “What Would Sheila Say?” –
🎧 LISTEN HERE FOR WHAT TO SAY! 🎧
Now, ideally, you’d say this to them in person first, before you put it in writing to them. Sure, it’ll be scary, but if you truly have that great of a relationship, then they’ll rise to the occasion. And if they don’t, then your backup plan can be to stop doing work for them as of December. So, there’s a runway of sorts, but also, so that they know you won’t just abandon them.
Having the understanding of what you want is not enough. You need to take action. That action can start with a conversation about what you’re doing for others, highlighting the exception to the rule that they are, and then asking for them to meet you halfway. Any time I’ve done this with a client, they’ve met me halfway. Not because they’re afraid, but because they value me and the work I do with them. Now, this isn’t the only way you can handle this, we’re going to talk about that next.
At the end of the day, what you want is to have the confidence and courage to have a hard conversation with a client.
I’ve outlined already how I have experience with this issue. And I’ve told you how it’s worked out for me. And when I’ve done this with clients, it’s been the same outcome. In fact, with one client, we doubled her 3-figure rates to higher 3-figure rates and not a single person bowed out. Not a single person said no. And what’s funny about that is that we actually doubled her prices in the hopes that clients would bow out, so she could have more time back in her life. Now, the next time, we’re going to double them again.
Remember: If they don’t blink, you aren’t charging enough.
At the end of the day, it’s about clarity in who you are and what you want, and particularly in why you want it. It’s reclaiming and redefining and renewing your faith in yourself. It’s about setting the right boundaries from the start in your contract, and resetting expectations you have of yourself and others. It’s about making decisions that make you feel GOOD, not just to avoid confrontation. It’s about protecting your peace, your heart, and your reputation. Because that person who’s paying significantly less than other clients, when they refer people to you, chances are they’ve shared how much they pay you – which means it makes it that much harder to set the right rate with the referral.
So, let’s start wrapping this up.
First and foremost, you can change your rate anytime you want. With every new client. Even with continuing clients.
Second, you want to be sure you have at least two kinds of rates in your contracts and proposals – maybe that flat fee for the project, but also, an hourly rate that’s much higher for anything outside of your scope. You’d put that into your Pricing Section on your contract. And we’ll get into flat fees later. If you want to dive a bit deeper into choosing your services and determining your prices, go listen to Episodes 24 and 25:
🎧 Listen to Episode 24 – Services
🎧 Listen to Episode 25 – Pricing
Society tells creatives like you and me that our services and our worth is tied to our time. That’s not true. Capitalism wants you to devalue yourself so that others can extract as much as they can from you. That’s wrong.
Society tells creatives like you and me that we should make money for the sake of money, to have more just for the sake of more, defining ourselves by our PRODUCT and not by our inherent value as Humans. That’s wrong, too.
Society tells creatives like you and me that we have to keep putting pressure on ourselves to do more, produce more, and BE MORE, but for LESS. And that’s wrong, too.
I believe that we can do good work for good people for good pay.
I believe that we can make a positive impact on the world AND be paid appropriately.
I believe we are service providers who deserve to provide that deliverable and still want more than just the money that comes from that deliverable – to beautify our world, to be mission-driven.
If you change your contract and your communications to ensure you’re valuing yourself properly and that you’re ensuring your client does, too, then I’m confident things will change for you, if this is something you’ve been struggling with. When you start making these changes – things like ensuring you’re paid properly – you will change not just yourself, but society and your community at large. When you start advocating for yourself, you will start attracting people who will advocate for YOU – and yes, that includes your clients. Because they’re as invested in you as you are in them, if you let them be.
And, if you need support, I’ll be running an 8-week Contracts Course soon – the waitlist link is below – but also, go do my free 12 Simple Tweaks Form to help you get a clearer client contract. I’m here if you need me.
Next Steps
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Hi! I’m Sheila, your guide to a Joyful and Thriving™ creative life! I have lots of titles: attorney, social worker, coach, consultant, keynote speaker, educator. And while I’m proud of those titles, I am a human first and a title second – just like you. I want to help you reset expectations, set boundaries, and make aligned decisions, so you can streamline and focus your energy on the people, projects, and pay that actually matter to you.
Instagram: @sheilamwilkinson | LinkedIn
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