I am not a freelancer so I'm not speaking from experience. So... grain of salt eh?
Have you tried charging per week or per project instead of per hour?
Maybe clients will respond better to "My rate is 78hundred a week" than they do to "My rate is $150 per hour"?
Or anchoring the cost against the value of the project? "Once this project is complete, how much extra revenue do you expect it will bring to your company?". Keeping focus on the value, makes the cost look low in comparison. And if it's not going to bring them very much value, then maybe not a good fit for your skillset.
I also wonder if you have tried getting contracts where the client pre-pays for a certain amount of "maintenance/minor fixes" hours from you at the conclusion of a successful project. (Where the hours are use-it-or-lose-it during the time period. Bonus points for making that a rolling contract)
I presume you are already mining clients for referrals. One trick I heard on a podcast (years ago so I don't remember which one. Maybe Pat Flynn or Kalzumeus?) was to ask for the referral at the time the client agrees to the project. (Which kind of blew my mind but made sense in the context of the person being happy/excited that about the project so they are more willing). Maybe worth trying?
Have you tried charging per week or per project instead of per hour? Maybe clients will respond better to "My rate is 78hundred a week" than they do to "My rate is $150 per hour"?
Or anchoring the cost against the value of the project? "Once this project is complete, how much extra revenue do you expect it will bring to your company?". Keeping focus on the value, makes the cost look low in comparison. And if it's not going to bring them very much value, then maybe not a good fit for your skillset.
I also wonder if you have tried getting contracts where the client pre-pays for a certain amount of "maintenance/minor fixes" hours from you at the conclusion of a successful project. (Where the hours are use-it-or-lose-it during the time period. Bonus points for making that a rolling contract)
I presume you are already mining clients for referrals. One trick I heard on a podcast (years ago so I don't remember which one. Maybe Pat Flynn or Kalzumeus?) was to ask for the referral at the time the client agrees to the project. (Which kind of blew my mind but made sense in the context of the person being happy/excited that about the project so they are more willing). Maybe worth trying?