How Raising your Rates Creates an Upward Spiral of Sanity in your Design Business

Recently I was having an open and honest discussion with a couple of other designers about what our billable rates are these days (shout out to Designer Sanity’s Power Hour!), and it really got me thinking about how raising my rates in the past has affected so much more than the bottom line in my business.  

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that raising my rates created an upward spiral of more Sanity in my business.

I resisted the idea of raising my rates for years.  I told myself it was because I wanted to be “down to earth” and accessible to “regular” people, but in reality there was a lack of confidence at the bottom of it.  

You see, when I was charging bargain basement prices for my services, it was because I was a bit of a mess behind the scenes.  I thought that charging lower rates would keep my client’s expectations low and they would be more forgiving of me if I was late or disorganized.  

What I didn’t realize was that charging a lower rate was reinforcing the cycle of disorganization and keeping me stuck in stress.  Why?  Because by undercharging, I had to work more hours to cover my expenses.  I had to take on more jobs at a time, which led to me being spread too thin and running from task to task.  

When I was constantly stressed and overworked, my work was late and things were constantly slipping through the cracks.  I didn’t have the money or time to hire help or set up better systems.  This led to me constantly apologizing to my clients, and often discounting their bill even further (gah!) because their work was late or messed up.  

Then I would have to take on even MORE work to cover this lack of funds, and the cycle of stress and overwhelm started all over again.  

A few other ways undercharging reinforced my cycle of stress?

• When I was known for being cheap and working with people who were looking to get a deal, guess what my referral base became?  You guessed it - more people looking to get a deal. More stress for me.  
• My low-paying clients put me squarely in the DIY market, so more often than not my clients wanted to micromanage me and my work to be sure I wasn’t using too much fee, etc.  They would often want to do part of the work themselves, which gunked up my process and made everything less efficient and more time consuming. 
• Undercharging meant there was not enough money to present an elevated image - I couldn’t afford proper photography or a professional looking website.  This, in turn, turned away higher end clients and reinforced this low-paying cycle. 

Okay - so stop the madness, right? 🤪

Against all odds, at a certain point I did start to get leads for higher end clients.  And what I quickly realized was that charging a bargain basement rate was not an attractive feature for them.  To them, a too-low price was suspect - as in, “she must not know what she’s doing.”  I had to take the leap and raise my rates to get the higher end jobs and be taken seriously.  

That’s when I discovered how charging what you’re worth can break the cycle of stress and create a new upward spiral of Sanity in your business. 

Here’s how:

First, and most simply, is basic math.  When you charge more per hour, you can work fewer hours to make the same amount of money.  Charge twice per hour and work half as many hours.  Simple.  

When you work fewer hours, you can stop running around like a chicken with your head cut off and show up to work rested, calm and able to do your highest level work.  Your creativity will soar and your clients will be thrilled with what you are creating for them, leading to more referrals.  

When you have more time, things will stop slipping through the cracks and being late will be a thing of the past - no more apologies or discounted bills.  

When you work fewer hours, you will also have more time to spend in self care and reflection.  You can step back from the day-to-day hustle and make the higher-level decisions that will move the needle on your business.  

When this happens, you’ll have the opportunity to up your game in your business in every way which will reinforce the cycle of less stress and more income.  For instance, you can:

• Improve your systems to make things run more efficiently 
• Increase your knowledge, expertise and certifications 
• Hire help so you can focus on your zone of genius. 
• Up your professionalism 
• Align your image - photography, website, etc. - to appeal to a higher-end market
• Provide a higher level of customer service

This creates an upward spiral of Sanity internally in your business.  

Raising your rates leads to

👉working fewer hours, which leads to

👉upping your game and providing a higher level of service, which in turn allows you to

👉charge even more, 

👉which starts the upward cycle over again. 

It just keeps building on itself, creating more Sanity and more income over time.   

But wait, it doesn't end there!  As I thought about this more, I realized that there is another, overlapping upward spiral that happens when you raise your rates - an external upward spiral. 

Here’s what that looks like:

We start again with raising your rates.  A higher rate will knock the bargain hunters out of your sphere, and attract higher end, more professional clients.  In my experience, charging what I was worth put me more in line with my ideal clients (busy executive families), who were in the habit of hiring professionals to do work for them because they were too busy to do it for themselves (they were prioritizing their time in other ways).  They valued paying more to have the work done right so they could take it off their list and focus on other things.  

That meant I was free to do my work with very little interruptions or micro-managing, leading to a lot more productivity for me and ultimately more Sanity and profits.  

As I was able to serve these clients well, guess who my new referral base became?  You guessed it, other clients who were in my ideal client’s circle = more ideal clients.  

These higher end jobs also attracted a more professional team of contractors, architects, etc. who were also working with more of my ideal clients.  So my new referral base not only included my ideal clients referring me to their friends, but my ideal contractors, architects, etc. referring me to their clients (repeat business!).  

I discovered that working with your ideal client is the gift that keeps on giving with referrals to more ideal clients.  

In other words, as you attract your aligned ideal clients and jobs, you are able to grow your aligned project team, which in turn leads to more referrals at that higher rate.  

As you work on more and more elevated jobs with more elevated teams, you will continue to up your game even more.  You’ll gain knowledge and experience that will increase your value to the next high-end client, allowing you to raise your rates even more in the future.  

Photography ties into this too - ideal projects on your website & social attract more of the same.  Another upward spiral.  

And the outward upward spiral of Sanity repeats itself -

👉higher rates lead to

👉more referrals to clients at that level, leading to

👉more introductions and exposure to a higher level of professionals also referring you to higher level clients,

👉allowing you to up your game and charge even more.

This outward upward spiral reinforces the inward upward spiral that I described earlier.  

Again, as you charge more, you can work less and provide a higher level of service, take more time for yourself and align with a higher vision for your business. 

You can up your game and charge more, aligning yourself with higher end clients more aligned with your services… and on and on. 

I can hear you (or more accurately, your lack of confidence) right now, because this used to be my mantra:  

“That all sounds good but I can't charge more yet because I don’t have the level of service to back it up - that would be dishonest.”  

Yes, I hear you.  So I’ll make this suggestion:  In the immortal words of 👟-  Just do it.  You can start with baby steps if you wish.  On your next proposal, increase your rate by $25 / hour.  Then on the next one, do it again.  And again.   

I can pretty much guarantee, if you do nothing but charge more, your level of service will instantly increase because you’ll have more time to do a better job.   

Congratulations!  You’ve stepped out of the downward spiral of undercharging and stress into a new paradigm - the upward spiral of more Sanity. 

Keep going - your future self is waiting for you - the one who is living your ideal vision of the kind of designer you want to be.  

🌸🌸🌸🌸

I’m here to support you on your journey toward having more time and Sanity in your business.  

Ready to up your game in a major way?  Check out my Design Roadmap course here.  Signing up for my course gives you much more than training - you’ll be welcomed into a community of other like-minded designers supporting each other in the journey toward having more Designer Sanity.  

I also have a lot of free resources to get you started here.  

And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @designersanity!  I’m on there all the time so stay in touch!  

We’re better together!