Real questions from real freelancers

"Can you provide an email template for freelancers increasing prices and moving to retainers?"

 I prepared an email for long-term clients that we’ve talked about.

Going to be honest, it took me almost 2 hours to figure and calculate everything out, haha.

Oh man, that’s too much time! I totally get how long drafting careful emails takes though. If I have a tough client sometimes it can take me like an hour to draft something careful, so I try timeboxing it to constrain the time!
I’ve made some edits to your email, as I’m looking at it from the outside,  I hope you take this as constructive feedback and discard what you don’t feel comfortable with.

After

Hi XXXX,

It’s YYYYY

We’ve been working together for 2 years, I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work with the whole team,
I feel we’ve now reached the point where I intuitively know and understand your needs for YYYY

Which saves a lot of back and forth on briefs and admin etc.
Over the last 2 years my client roster has grown,
I’ve picked up new skills,
but many of my favourite long-term clients are still on outdated legacy rates.

 

I’m going to be moving away from Upwork, to focus on growing my motion design agency.
I plan to continue improving my output to be better than ever, and even offer more services in future.

This means I will be transitioning to retainer packages,
So I’m reaching out to my favourite long-term clients,
To see if you are interested in continuing to work with me.

The way we work together day to day won’t change,
But working on a retainer will mean I spend less time on admin,
So I can spend more time on delivering even better results and value for you.

My new retainer package is going to be a super simple packaged service which includes….

✅ X of explainers
✅ X no of revisions per project
✅ 24hr response time
🎁 Brand new seamless comms system
🎁 Stress-free project management on Clickup

As a solo agency owner, the number of clients in my roster will be limited to X in 2024.
I am reaching out to existing clients first to offer this package at the flat rate of £X/m, as I would love to keep working with you.

I realise this is a change from our current working patterns,
And I really hope we can continue working together under my new package.
Just let me know if you have any questions,

Otherwise can we schedule a call to discuss setting up our new agreement? 🙂🙂🙂

Kind regards, YYY

Asked by

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*Redacted*

Freelancer

Answered by

Picture of Nicholas Robb

Nicholas Robb

Founder, Design Hero
Author of Life by Design

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