The question you are probably avoiding I have had three conversations this month with people running their own thing who asked me the same question: should I raise my prices? Every time, the answer was yes. And every time, they had been sitting on the decision for months. Here is what I have noticed. People who work for themselves tend to underprice. They set a number when they started, adjusted it once or twice, and then left it alone because the conversation felt uncomfortable. Meanwhile, their costs went up, their skills improved, and their clients got better results. But the price stayed the same. If you are reading this, you probably already know you should charge more. The question is whether now is the right moment. Why now is different Costs are rising in ways that are hard to ignore. Next just announced price increases of up to 8% on goods sold outside Europe, citing shipping and supply chain pressures. Airlines have cut 13,000 flights in May because jet fuel got too expensive. Your suppliers are feeling the same squeeze, even if they have not passed it on yet. Four in five Britons are worried that geopolitical tensions will make food more expensive. That is not pessimism. That is people noticing what is happening. If your input costs have gone up, your prices need to follow. Not because you are greedy. Because the alternative is working harder for less money until you burn out or go under. The maths most people avoid Last year, I worked with someone in London who had not raised prices in three years. Their hourly rate was £75. Their actual costs, including software, insurance, taxes, and the time they spent on admin, had crept up by about 18%. When we did the calculation, they were effectively earning £61 per hour in real terms. That is a 19% pay cut they had given themselves without noticing. Here is a simple test. Take your current price. Subtract what it costs you to deliver the work, including your time at a rate you would actually accept as an employee. If the margin is thinner than it was two years ago, you have already lost ground. The Decision Matrix tool at alira.london can help you weigh this against other factors, but the maths is usually clearer than people expect. When raising prices makes sense Not every situation calls for a price increase. But most do. Raise your prices if your costs have gone up and you have not adjusted. This includes rent, software, materials, and the cost of your own time. Raise your prices if you are fully booked or turning away work. Demand is telling you something. Listen to it. Raise your prices if the value you deliver has increased. Better results, faster turnaround, more experience. These are worth more than they were when you started. Raise your prices if you have not done so in over a year. Inflation alone justifies a 3-5% adjustment. If you skip it, you are effectively taking a cut. When to wait There are a few situations where holding off makes sense. If you are in the middle of a major client project with agreed terms, honour those terms. Raise prices for the next project. If your market is genuinely contracting and clients are leaving competitors, you might hold steady to capture share. But be honest about whether this is strategy or fear. If you have just raised prices in the last six months, give it time to settle before moving again. Frequent changes erode trust. How to do it without losing people The fear is always that clients will leave. In my experience, the ones who leave over a reasonable price increase were never your best clients anyway. Here is what works. Give notice. Tell existing clients 30-60 days before the new price takes effect. This shows respect and gives them time to adjust budgets. Explain briefly. You do not need to justify yourself at length. A sentence or two about rising costs or increased value is enough. Do not apologise. Hold the line. If someone pushes back, you can offer a smaller scope or fewer deliverables at the old price. Do not discount the new rate just because they asked. One person I worked with last year raised their project fee from £2,400 to £2,800. They lost one client out of twelve. The remaining eleven stayed, and the business made an extra £4,400 that quarter with no additional work. The real cost of waiting Every month you delay, you are subsidising your clients with your own time and energy. That is not sustainable. I have seen people run themselves into the ground because they were afraid of a conversation. The conversation takes ten minutes. The burnout takes years to recover from. If you are unsure whether your pricing makes sense, the SWOT Analysis tool at alira.london can help you map out where you are strong and where you are exposed. Sometimes seeing it on paper makes the decision obvious. What to do this week First, calculate your real margin. Take your current price, subtract all costs including your time, and compare it to what that margin was two years ago. Write down the number. Second, decide on a new price. If you are undercharging, pick a figure that feels slightly uncomfortable. That is usually the right one. Third, draft the email. Write the message you would send to existing clients announcing the change. You do not have to send it yet. But having it ready removes the friction when you decide to move.