The Price-Wrong Crisis (And How Raising Rates Saved Us)

Early on, I thought pricing was just a sales tactic.

Something you adjusted to “win the client”.

So I did what a lot of founders do when they’re trying to get momentum:

I underpriced everything.

A marketing project that should have been around £5,000… I’d quote £2,000.

Not because the work was smaller.

Not because we had some clever advantage.

Just because I thought I was being “competitive”.

I told myself it was the smart move.

Lower price. Less friction. More yeses. More growth.

And for a while, it looked like it was working.

We landed jobs.

We stayed busy.

The calendar was full.

From the outside, it looked like progress.

But what I didn’t understand yet was this:

You can build a “busy” business that still isn’t sustainable.

What Went Wrong: Drowning in Work, Starving for Profit

Once we started getting traction, the problem became obvious.

We didn’t just win a few projects.

We won loads of them.

And because our pricing was low, we needed volume to make it work.

So we did more.

And more.

And more.

Until it stopped being “growth” and started being survival.

We were delivering constantly, but somehow never felt ahead.

Every week was full.

Every day was reactive.

Every project had pressure.

And the part that messes with your head is that you assume the issue is effort.

So you try to work harder.

But underpricing punishes hard work.

Because no matter how well you deliver, you can’t outwork broken economics.

I remember one month in particular.

We’d done loads of work.

Invoices went out.

Projects were delivered.

Clients were happy enough.

And then I sat down, looked at the finances properly, and realised something that honestly made my stomach drop:

After expenses and paying the team, I personally made almost nothing.

Not “less than ideal”.

Not “tight this month”.

Almost nothing.

It was one of those moments where you stop and think:

How can I be working this much and still feel broke?

And then the second problem kicked in.

Because when you’re underpaid and overworked, something has to give.

So you start cutting corners — not because you want to, but because you don’t have enough margin to breathe.

You shorten the planning.

You rush the review.

You stop iterating.

You ship things earlier than you should.

And inevitably, quality starts to dip.

Not dramatically at first.

Just enough that you feel the standard slipping.

And once that starts happening, everything feels heavier.

Delivery gets harder. Clients get pickier. Morale drops.

The whole system becomes fragile.

The Moment of Realisation: I Was Paying for the Privilege to Work

The turning point wasn’t a dramatic conversation with a client.

It wasn’t a sudden business breakthrough.

It was a quiet, late-night realisation.

I was sat there, exhausted, going through the numbers again, and I finally saw the truth:

The problem wasn’t that we didn’t have enough work. The problem was that the work wasn’t priced properly.

We weren’t “building a business”.

We were building a workload.

And I realised something even worse:

I was effectively paying for the privilege to work.

I’d underpriced projects so heavily that even when we delivered well, the margin wasn’t there.

So the business couldn’t grow properly.

It couldn’t create breathing room.

It couldn’t invest back into itself.

It couldn’t reward the team properly.

And it definitely couldn’t protect me from burnout.

That’s when the founder math becomes impossible to ignore:

If you’re fully booked but barely profiting, it isn’t a marketing problem. It’s a pricing and scope problem.

The Lesson: Don’t Race to the Bottom

This is one of the most uncomfortable lessons to learn, because it challenges the “be competitive” mindset:

Cheap work attracts expensive problems.

And in my experience, the clients who push hardest for the lowest price often come with the most friction.

They’re more likely to:

• haggle constantly
• question every invoice
• expand the scope slowly
• require more reassurance
• expect fast turnaround with little flexibility

It’s not because they’re bad people.

It’s because the relationship starts from the wrong foundation.

If the only reason they chose you is price, the second someone cheaper appears, you’re replaceable.

But if they choose you because they trust your ability to deliver a result, you become valuable.

What Changed Everything: We Raised Rates

Eventually we did the thing I was scared to do:

We raised our rates.

Not slightly.

We doubled them.

And I expected one of two things to happen:

Either:

Clients would disappear

Or:

We’d have to justify ourselves constantly

But what actually happened was much better.

We started attracting better-fit clients.

Clients who respected the process.

Clients who didn’t treat every message like an emergency.

Clients who were paying for outcomes, not hours.

And because we finally had margin, we could breathe again.

We could plan properly.

We could do better work.

We could protect quality.

And the best part was this:

Revenue and quality of life went up together.

The Takeaway: Charge What You’re Worth

If you’re delivering real value, your pricing should reflect it.

Not in an arrogant way.

In a sustainable way.

It’s far better to serve fewer clients at a fair rate than to overload yourself with volume just to make the numbers work.

Because the “volume at low margin” model doesn’t just hurt profitability — it hurts delivery, reputation, and energy.

And if you’re constantly exhausted, even good clients will eventually feel the cracks.

Actionable Tip: Fix Your Pricing in One Sitting

If you’re not sure whether you’re priced correctly, do this exercise:

Step 1: Calculate true cost per project

Include everything:

• delivery time (including revisions)
• admin time
• meetings and communication
• software and tools
• overheads
• team time (not just yours)

Most founders underprice because they forget the invisible work.

Step 2: Add margin on purpose

Margin isn’t greed.

It’s the thing that lets the business:

• survive delays
• handle rework
• invest into better systems
• stay calm under pressure

Step 3: If you’re booked solid but barely profiting, change one of two things

• Raise prices
• Narrow scope

And if you’re scared to do either, here’s the founder shortcut:

The right clients will understand. The wrong ones will leave.

And that’s not a loss — it’s space being created for the business you actually want to run.

If you want to support this with systems, PathWAI can help you track time, workload, and project overhead properly — so your pricing decisions are based on real data, not guesswork. But even without tools, the exercise above will get you 80% of the way there.