A guy at a Chicago diner called my pricing 'cowardly' and it cost me $8k in a good way
Sat next to a dude named Marcus at a diner near Wrigley back in April, and he ran a small landscaping outfit on the south side. He asked what I charged for my consulting and I said around $60 an hour, mostly because I was scared to lose clients. He put his fork down and said, 'That's not a price, that's an apology.' I raised my rate to $150 over the next 2 months and only lost 2 clients out of 14, and the new ones never blinked. Now I'm booked out 6 weeks and pulling in about $8k more per quarter. What's the rate you know you're worth but keep talking yourself out of charging?
That's not a price, that's an apology" hit me hard because I did the same thing with my design work, charging $45 an hour for two years while telling myself I was building experience. When I finally bumped it to $95, I braced for angry emails and got nothing but yes from almost everyone. The fear was way bigger than the actual loss.