The letter is easy. The hard part is choosing the date, the number, and what to say to the three clients who will reply within an hour. Here is the version that keeps them.
Most price increase letters fail for the same three reasons: they apologise, they explain too much, and they give no date. An apology invites negotiation. A long explanation invites an argument about whether your costs are real. No date means nothing changes.
You are not asking permission. You are telling a customer what a thing costs from a certain day. That framing changes the tone of every sentence that follows.
Send it at the right moment
Timing does more work than wording. Three rules, in order of importance.
First, send it after a completed job, not during one. A client who is mid-project reads a price rise as leverage. The same client, two weeks after you finished something well, reads it as a supplier keeping up with costs.
Second, send it away from a busy season. If you raise prices the week before your quietest month, every customer has time to shop around. Raise before the period when people need you, so the choice is “accept the new price” or “find someone else at short notice”.
Third, allow notice. Thirty days is standard for regular clients, sixty for anyone on a contract or retainer. Less than that feels like a trap, and it costs you the goodwill the letter was meant to protect.
The letter itself: three sentences
One sentence on what changes, one on when, one on what stays the same. No preamble about the economy. No paragraph about how much you value the relationship, which reads as a prelude to bad news and makes people defensive.
You are writing a short price increase letter for a small business owner. FACTS - Business: [trade or service] - Client: [name, how long they have been a customer, what they usually buy] - Current price: [amount] - New price: [amount] - Effective date: [date, at least 30 days away] - Reason in plain words: [materials up / insurance up / travel time / wage costs] RULES - Three sentences maximum before the sign-off. - Do not apologise and do not use the word "unfortunately". - State the new price and the date in the first sentence. - Do not justify with percentages or industry averages. - Warm but final. No invitation to discuss the number. - Sign off as the owner by name, not "the team". Write the letter, then write a one-line version suitable for a text message.
The client who pushes back
Roughly one in five replies. Most are not refusing, they are testing whether the number is fixed. The reply that keeps the relationship offers two options and no third one: accept the new price, or reduce the scope so the old budget still buys something.
What not to do: offer a discount in the first reply. It tells them the price was invented. If you do decide to hold someone at the old rate, do it as a stated exception with an end date, not a negotiation you lost.
Write a reply to a client who pushed back on my price increase. CONTEXT - Their message: [paste it] - Old price: [amount] / New price: [amount] - What I can flex: [scope, frequency, payment terms] - What I cannot flex: [the hourly rate, the call-out minimum] Write two short paragraphs. The first acknowledges their point without conceding the price. The second offers exactly two options: the new price as quoted, or a reduced scope at their existing budget. End with a clear question so the thread has a next step. No discounts.
Grandfathering, and when it is worth it
Long-standing clients often get a staged increase: half now, half in six months. It works, but only if both dates are in writing in the same message. A verbal “we’ll review it later” becomes a permanent discount, because nobody wants to reopen the conversation.
Choose who gets it deliberately: your best ten clients by revenue, or by how easy they are to work with. If you grandfather everyone, you have not raised your prices, you have announced that you might.
Draft a staged price increase notice for an existing contract client. DETAILS - Current: [amount] per [week/month/visit] - Stage one: [amount] from [date] - Stage two: [amount] from [date six months later] - Reason: [plain reason] - Contract terms: [notice period, review clause if any] Rules: name both dates, state that stage two is not conditional on a review, keep it under 150 words, and end with a single line confirming the next invoice date.
What to raise first
Not everything should move at once. Materials are the easiest to justify because the client can see them. A minimum call-out charge fixes the jobs that were never profitable. Labour is the hardest conversation and the one that matters most, so do it in the same letter rather than a second one three months later.
Before you write the number, check it against your actual costs rather than the market. The overhead calculator gives you the per-billable-hour figure your prices have to clear, and the rate calculator turns that into a rate. If the new price still leaves you under that line, the increase is too small to bother with.
The order to tell people
Staff first, so nobody hears it from a customer. Then contract clients, who need notice. Then regulars. Then new enquiries, who simply get the new price with no letter at all. Publishing the new price on your site last is deliberate: it gives your existing clients a day of feeling informed rather than replaced.
If a client leaves, let them. A price rise that keeps everybody is usually a price rise that did not happen. The quote builder handles the new numbers cleanly, and chasing an overdue invoice is easier once the price is right in the first place.
Frequently asked questions
How much can I raise prices in one go?
As much as your costs justify, in one step, with notice. Small annual rises feel fairer to customers; large infrequent ones feel like a shock. If you have not raised prices in three years, the honest number will feel large to you before it feels large to them.
Should I mention percentages?
No. A percentage invites arithmetic and comparison. State the new price and the date.
What if I have already quoted a job at the old price?
Honour it. Quotes are normally valid for 30 days anyway. Withdrawing a quote you have sent is the fastest way to lose the customer and the referral behind them.
Do I need to tell clients on a fixed contract?
Check the contract’s review clause. If it allows an annual review, follow the notice period and say so. If it does not, wait for the renewal date rather than testing the terms.
What about clients who pay late?
Raise their price like anyone else, and put the payment terms in the same letter. Declining work politely is the other half of the same skill.
Last reviewed and updated on November 10, 2026.
