You’re Not Stuck—You’re Undercharging

INTRODUCTION

I spend a lot of time talking with content creators and service providers (especially copywriters), and I notice some really common patterns,

“I’d love to work on my marketing but I can hardly breathe with client work.” 

“I really want to fire my cheap, toxic clients but I just get scared that I won’t be able to find better ones.”

“I’m too burned out / freaked out / just plain afraid to reach out to decent clients.”

And the biggie —

“I know I should just raise my rates.”

Don’t you love that word “Just”? 

Because raising our rates isn’t a “just.” For most of us, it’s damned hard. 

Today I want to dive into a few of the most common reasons we don’t raise our rates, especially in service or content-driven businesses.

And I’ll share some specific areas of focus I work on with clients, to untangle these and start moving to a more profitable, sustainable model.

Is it imposter syndrome?

You may think I’m going to tell you your rates are low because of “imposter syndrome,” or that you’re “afraid of success.”

But actually … I don’t think so.

Sometimes those do play a role. But more often it’s a much more straightforward set of issues — that come down to one common factor:

Business confidence is a learnable skill.

➡️ If you don’t have that confidence yet, it means you haven’t picked up those skills yet. 

That is a fixable problem.

Let’s dig in.

First — Here’s what doesn’t work

If I hear one more “girl boss” Instagram influencer tell us to,

“Just add a zero, bae ...”

I’m going to lose my lunch.

Maybe “just adding a zero” works for a few people. I’m skeptical, but the world is a big place.

But for most of us, we need to have a realistic, practical pricing process in place. That process lets us:

• Systematically move to higher-value offers,
• Adjust our marketing to support those offers, and
• Trim back the bargain-basement work until the balance is right.

3 reasons we’re not charging what we’re worth

There are three really common reasons we stall out on serving our clients and customers at a higher level.

Reason 1: I’m scared I won’t be able to find better clients to replace these cheap ones.

I would say this is the reason I hear more than any other in my client work. 

This feels impossible — and it’s actually completely fixable. 

It’s a sure sign that you need to move to a more robust client attraction strategy.

When all of your clients come in on referral, the expectation is set that you’ll work for them on the same skimpy rates you charge for the person who referred you.

We tend to over-rely on “inbound” marketing (people finding us through referrals or our content).

And we underestimate our ability to go “outbound” (proactively reach out to folks we might be able to work with).

I’m not talking about cold calling. (I know you don’t want to cold call — and I don’t either. I’ve tried it a few times and I am horrible at it.)

You really can systematically reach out without being a spamlord. 

I have some favorite tactics I use over and over again, but the key to all of them is to reach out in a relevant way.

A little time spent making sure you’re reaching out to the right person will make outreach a million times less painful — and something you will actually do.

How to fix it:

As you grow in your business, your marketing strategy needs to grow with you.

It needs to become intentional and specific, instead of just waiting for clients to bump into you.

That means you need a robust, repeatable way to get in front of great-fit new potential clients — the kind who need what you offer and have the right budget in mind.

(In other words, prospecting. Take a look at Ed Gandia 's work for lots of solid tactics. BlackFreelance also has a ton of useful resources.)

You also need a good way to keep those conversations going until the person needs your services.

(In other words, lead maturation. Strategic content is superb for this, of course.)

And you need a simple-to-understand offer that makes sense for your clients to buy and for you to deliver.

This is often a signature service package, but it can also be something like a course, an audit, or other program.

When I work with clients, I nearly always start by defining that signature offer first, then crafting a marketing strategy to support it.

Reason 2: I tried raising my prices, my clients hated it

I think this one may be aggravated by the “Girl, add a zero” crowd. 

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Because yeah, if your clients are used to getting you for clearance rack prices, they’re not going to love paying more.

It doesn’t mean you don’t deserve better rates. It just means that people like paying as little as possible for good things, as long they can get away with it.

How to fix it:

The answer isn’t (usually) to flush your existing client list and start fresh. 

I mean, you can do that, but you’ll create a bunch of stress and heartburn. Which is why you didn’t do it the first time someone recommended it.

There are dozens of techniques to tackle the “My clients are cheap” problem, but let’s start with two:

For clients who are toxic (they don’t respect you, they don’t pay on time, they second-guess everything you create for them, or you just don’t like the kind of work you do for them), go ahead and raise your prices (like, double or triple).

Be sure to smile and wave as they run away. 

If all of your clients behave like this, I want to give you a hug and encourage you to book yourself a spa weekend. But for most folks, these clients are the small and painful minority. 

Go ahead and flush.

For clients you love, put them into a price-raising system.

Grandfather them into their current rate for some period of time. (How much time depends on how energizing you find it to work with them.)

Let them know that prices are going up, and by how much.

Optional: Give them a chance to pre-book some work with you at your current rates. They have to pay today, though.

This is also where a well-polished signature offer comes in handy. It’s easy to say, “I’m transitioning from one-off projects to this well-defined package where I know I can give you my best work.”

Reason 3: I’m not sure what I do is that valuable

This one is the closest to “imposter syndrome,” and it’s really common for seasoned professionals.

You’ve spent so much time and energy to get where you are that you’ve forgotten what your topic looks like from a less-informed point of view.

You’ve learned from some of the best of the best in your field — and you know you aren’t them.

You can get stuck spinning your wheels if you look at this as some kind of psychological problem on your part. 

Imposter experience is just professional humility, and it’s not something you have to cure.

 How to fix it:

My favorite quick tactical fix for this one is to hold a public Q&A. 

• Let your audience know you’re on hand to answer questions about your topic.
• Collect the questions in advance.
• Answer as many appropriate questions as you can in one hour, on a public platform.

Be sure to record it. Because not only is this one of the best things you can do to boost your confidence, it’s also a superb source of genuinely useful material to fill your content channel for months.

You can also hold what my colleague Pamela Wilson calls “brown bag” sessions. These are short (usually around 20 minute) live presentations where you teach something useful about what you do.

Remember to teach (and answer questions) on topics that good clients want to know more about.

For example, if you’re a marketing copywriter, teach higher-level marketing strategy — not the mechanics of how to put together a call to action.

Here’s what I would love you to take away

You aren’t under-charging because you aren’t good at what you do. And you aren’t under-charging because you have some deep, underlying psychological problem.

You’re under-charging because you didn’t grow up with skills and systems for asking for fair compensation.

And those skills and systems can be learned. 

There’s a great, big wonderful tool bag of techniques to do it. 

But I’ve learned over and over with my coaching clients and marketing students that the smartest place to start is by creating a signature offer that's easy for clients to say Yes to, and makes great business sense for you to deliver.

CONCLUSION

Undercharging isn’t a sign that you’re not talented — it’s a sign that your business systems haven’t caught up with your skills. The good news? That’s totally fixable. With a clear signature offer, a confident marketing approach, and smart pricing strategies, you can finally align your income with the real value you bring. Stop waiting for permission — it’s time to charge what you’re truly worth.