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How to change your money mindset and earn more through fear-free baby steps.
Rachel Meltzer
Charging more for your freelance services isn't just about “having faith in yourself” or “believing that you do good work.”
Actually, what it boils down to is your money mindset.
Money Mindset
Your rates might be suffering if you believe that:
- the clients you're pitching can pay the rates you want
- that other people are also charging this much
- that you don't need to be scared to charge this
- that even if this potential client says no to your rates, it doesn't mean someone else won't say yes 2 weeks later.
- that you're worth it
- that money can be easier to earn than you've learned throughout your life
- that money doesn't have to be scarce and you have the power to make it abundant
Maybe that sounds “woo woo” but I stand by it. Because those are all lessons I had to learn the hard way.
If you listen to my podcast at all, you'll know by now that I grew up pretty poor. And it informed my concept of money. I thought money was insanely hard to earn.
Anyway… the way I overcame it was by what I like to call ooching.
Ooching
Gradually trying something new in increments to show yourself you don't need to be afraid of it.
First, I propose a slightly (~20-30%) higher rate to each new client I do a discovery call with. I only propose a rate increase to older clients once I secure two new higher paying clients.
That way, if the older client couldn't afford the new rates, I could slowly phase them out by replacing them with a third higher paying client.
It felt so much more secure than just trying to raise my rates across the board with all my clients or charging double right away to new clients (both pieces of advice I'd gotten from business coaches).
And my income steadily rose still! It only took me 3 months to do this entire process and I nearly doubled my income.
This is how I hit my very first $10k month.
Here's an example:
It was 2022. I was writing content and emails for coding bootcamps.
I wanted to be earning $500/blog. But I had started out charging $99/blog.
I got offered a gig at $300/blog – their standard rate for freelancers – and I took it, thinking holy moly this is great!!
But after a few months, realized it still wouldn't be enough money to reach my income goals.
So I pitched my next client $400/blog. They accepted. But then the next client, I tried $450 per blog and they declined. So did the next 5 clients I pitched…
I needed to earn more. So I didn't want to just take no for an answer… And I knew coding bootcamps weren't doing as well as some other industries…
I realized: maybe I just need to change my niche?
So I started pivoting into tech.
My first client asked for my per word rate… so I proposed $0.40/word (~$600/blog). They said yes! And I was ecstatic.
I felt confident asking the next one for $0.50/word (~$750/blog). They said yes!!
So the next client I asked for $0.60/word (~$900/blog). They said yes!!
None of these new clients hesitated to say yes. I got all three of them in a 3 month span. June, July, and August 2022.
And I learned that the niche really matters.
I also learned that baby steps are actually awesome sometimes.
I didn't go back and raise my rates with those first two clients, either. I felt more secure just having them and knowing they were happy.
But going forward, I proposed $700+ for all blogs over 1k words.
And I also raised my hourly rate over time from $55 → $75 →$100 → $125 → $150.
It felt much safer to ooch and layer like this!