I’ll be raising my hourly rate in February, 2012, and I needed to let some of my clients know. I did not notify clients if I only bill them by project price quote, since they don’t need to know my hourly rate. And I decided to only notify clients who I have worked with recently. If I work with a client a couple of times a year, I’ll just let them know the next time they contact me about a new project.
The folks I did notify are those that I work with often and bill on an hourly basis for at least some of their projects. I let those clients know about a month in advance.
I wanted to have the notification in writing, so I opted to email each client individually. I kept the email short and to the point, but I did add a bit of info about my standard policies. Something like this:
Hi Client,
As of February 1, 2012, my new standard hourly rate will be $##. Projects are billed in 15 minute increments with a 30 minute project minimum.
A ##% rush charge may be applied to rush projects, at my discretion. I will always let you know in advance if a project will be subject to a rush charge.
Thank you for the opportunity to work with you!
An hour after I sent the email, I had a few replies. I’ll save the good ones in a file as a confidence booster next time I raise my rate. My favorite reply so far: “Thanks for the update. We look forward to working with you more in 2012.” And guess what? I look forward to working with them, too!
How do you notify clients about rate changes?