How Much Should I Raise My Rate at Once?

The most common answer practitioners default to is “a small amount, because that feels safe.” And the most common outcome of a small increase is that the practitioner finds themselves back in the same conversation eighteen months later, again wondering how much to raise.

The increment question is worth answering more carefully.

What “Safe” Usually Means in This Context

When a practitioner describes a rate increase increment as “safe,” they usually mean one of two things: safe enough that existing clients are unlikely to leave, or safe enough that the practitioner won’t feel too exposed holding the new number. Both of these are real considerations. But optimizing for safety tends to produce rate increases that are too small to close the gap between the current rate and the work’s genuine value.

The cost of increments that are too small is that they require multiple increases to reach the right rate — and each increase involves the same process: the advance notice, the client conversations, the internal adjustment. A practitioner who raises rates in small increments every year is doing more of that work than one who assesses the rate gap honestly and makes a larger, more accurate adjustment less frequently.

The Right Framework

The right question is not “how much can I get away with?” or “how much will feel okay?” It’s: “What is the gap between my current rate and what the work currently warrants?”

What nobody explains about the size of a rate increase is that the increment should be calibrated to close that gap, not to approach it gradually. If the work genuinely warrants a rate that is 40% higher than the current one, a 10% increase isn’t a step toward the right rate — it’s a smaller version of the same problem.

The honest assessment of the gap requires the same work as initial rate setting: what does the work currently produce, what does it cost to deliver at the current level, what does the market look like for comparable offerings, and what rate reflects all of those inputs honestly?

What Makes a Larger Increase Workable

Whether the time is right and how to execute the increase apply regardless of the increment size. Larger increases require the same elements as smaller ones — advance notice, honest communication, a defined transition period for existing clients — and don’t produce systematically greater client loss if the rate genuinely reflects the work’s value.

What does produce client loss is an increase that isn’t grounded in anything real — a large increase taken because the practitioner wants more income, not because the work warrants it. That kind of increase tends to wobble under questioning, because the practitioner doesn’t have a clear account of what the new rate reflects.

A Practical Approach

Assess the gap honestly. If the gap is small — the work warrants 10-15% more than the current rate — a proportionate adjustment is appropriate. If the gap is significant — the current rate is substantially below what the work warrants — a single adjustment that closes most of the gap tends to be more sustainable than a sequence of small adjustments.

What to expect from the increase doesn’t change dramatically with the size of the increase, as long as the new rate is grounded in something real and communicated with adequate lead time.

The Abundance GPS Skool community supports practitioners in assessing the gap between current and warranted rates — and in making increases that are calibrated to reality rather than to safety. Join us here.