The email that saved my business: How one bold ask tripled my rates overnight

There’s a special kind of exhaustion that comes from knowing you’re good at what you do and still quietly undercharging for it. Not the loud, dramatic burnout where everything collapses at once. The quieter one. The kind where your calendar is full, your inbox is busy, clients keep saying “we love working with you,” and yet your bank account tells a very different story. The kind where every new project feels heavier than the last, even though nothing is technically wrong.

That’s where I was earlier this year: overbooked, underpaid, and deeply afraid of asking for more.

When the math stopped making sense

I run a solo graphic design business. No agency. No investors. No junior designers cleaning things up after me. Every concept, revision, and final file comes from my own hands.

For years, I convinced myself that charging low rates was part of the plan. I framed it as accessibility. Relationship-building. The long game. What I didn’t admit was that I was afraid that if I priced my work honestly, the work and the clients might disappear.

But the numbers didn’t lie. I was working full-time hours (and then some) and still struggling to feel financially steady. My monthly revenue hovered around the same plateau no matter how hard I worked, roughly $2,000–$2,500 a month from a long-term client who took up the bulk of my time.

The real issue wasn’t demand. It wasn’t talent. It was that I was pricing from fear.

Fear of being seen as “difficult.”

Fear of being replaced.

Fear that asking for more would expose me as delusional about my own value. 

The email I didn’t want to send.