This article is a way of working, not financial or legal advice. Prices and norms differ from market to market, and what follows is ratios rather than amounts.
He agreed a price per video with the client on their first job together. That was two years and four months ago. Since then he has made eleven videos for them at the same number.
And today's video is not the first video. It has on-screen text now, two extra ratios for the short-form platforms, and a review round with a new team on their side. It takes twice as long as it used to. Last month he turned down another job because his schedule was full of this client's videos.
He knows his price has slipped, and he knows what stops him raising it: the fear of losing the client he depends on.
Raising your price is not a reward you hand yourself. It is a correction to a number you agreed in circumstances that have ended.
Five signs the time has come
They do not all have to appear, but three of them together is a decision:
1. Your schedule is full and you are turning work down. This is the strongest and clearest sign. Anyone turning down a job every month is selling below their value.
2. The work has grown. Extra ratios, more review rounds, a report after publishing. The growth that crept in gradually and was never priced.
3. Your results have improved. Your audience is larger or more precise, and your previous work for this client did what they wanted. You are selling a different outcome from the one you agreed on.
4. Your real cost has risen. Gear, people who help you, hours that have multiplied. Counting it as in What does one video actually cost you? is what turns a feeling into a number.
5. Everyone who asks agrees the same day. Instant agreement with no discussion, from every client, is a sign your number is under the market.
The one sign that is not a reason: your personal expenses have gone up. That is a real reason for you and no business of the client's, and it does not go in the message.
How much to raise
There is no single rule, and there are three practical cases:
| The case | The usual raise | How it is presented |
|---|---|---|
| A routine annual correction | A limited increase | Mentioned at the start of the year or the new cycle |
| The work has changed and grown | An increase matching what came in | Explained item by item: ratios, rounds, report |
| Your price is far behind the market | In two stages, not one jump | One stage now and one in several months, announced from the start |
The rule that prevents a loss: do not double your price in a single message to a continuing client. Doubling works for a new client; a long-standing one is moved in two stages.
Start with the new client
The easiest price rise is the one nobody is told about: the new number applies to the first new client who asks, with no messages and no discussion.
Do this a month or two before telling the long-standing ones. You gain two things: practical evidence that the number is acceptable in the market, and the confidence to say it.
And anyone who knows how their first price was built, as we set out in How Do You Price Your First Paid Collaboration?, knows how to redo that calculation each time.
When to tell the long-standing client
Three rules on timing:
- At a new cycle, not mid-project. After delivery and before the next agreement. Raising a price in the middle of agreed work is breaking an agreement rather than raising a price.
- With enough notice. If you have a monthly arrangement or a quarterly plan, give a full cycle's notice. It is the suddenness that angers people, not the number.
- In writing. A written message rather than a phone call, so what you agreed stays clear.
A continuing client on a yearly arrangement is a special case, and we covered it in From one video to a yearly deal.
A message in five lines
A short message beats a long one full of justifications. Five lines:
- One brief line of appreciation. "It has been good working with you on this year's videos."
- The news, directly. "I am updating my rates from the start of next month."
- The new number and what it includes. The price, the number of rounds, the usage term, the number of ratios.
- The date it starts. "It applies to work agreed after this date; the current job stays at its current price."
- One line about continuing. "I hope we carry on, and I am happy to discuss what works for you."
Three things you do not write: an apology, a justification from your personal circumstances, and the question "is that all right?". A question at the end of a price-rise message opens a negotiation before it starts, so a clear statement with an open door to talk is better.
Three objections and their answers
"The budget cannot take it." That may be true. The answer is not to lower the price but to reduce the work: a shorter video, one ratio instead of three, one review round. The same price for less work protects your value; a discount protects the old number forever.
"We were working at a lower price." Yes, for a smaller job. Restate the items that crept in: the ratios, the rounds, the report. The client usually has not noticed that growth, because it arrived in stages.
"We will think about it." Do not follow it with a string of messages. Wait, and finish the current job at its price. A client who comes back three weeks later comes back at the new price.
And if it ends in a request you should not accept, the decision to decline has its own signs, in When to Say No to a Sponsorship or Collaboration.
And if you lose the client
This is the possibility that frightens everybody, and in the arithmetic it is smaller than it looks. A client who leaves over a limited increase is a client who would have left at the first cheaper offer.
The calculation that settles you: if you have five clients and you raise your price by a percentage, losing one of them does not necessarily reduce your income, and it gives you back time you can sell to somebody else.
And do not depend on one client for most of your income. When the client you are afraid to tell is half your work, the problem is not a pricing problem but a diversification one, and the income alternatives are in Ways to Earn From Your Content Beyond Platform Ads.
Review your price on a fixed date
Most people who are late raising their price are late because they are waiting for a moment when they feel they deserve it, and that moment never arrives.
The alternative is to give the price a review date: once a year, in a specific month, when you open your hours calculation and the list of what has crept into the work, and decide. A review on schedule turns an awkward decision into an ordinary administrative item.
A client working with a professional expects their rates to be updated. And someone who has not updated a price in two years does not look kinder; he looks smaller than he is.