Tell them at a natural boundary with real notice: a renewal, a new phase of work, or the start of a year, with at least one billing cycle of warning. The moment counts more than the wording, and the wording should be one plain sentence with no apology attached to it.
Raise it at a renewal or a new phase, and tell them at least one billing cycle ahead.
A boundary makes the change read as a normal business event and leaves nobody feeling ambushed.
Look at your calendar, find each client's next boundary, and put the conversation there.
You have the right to get an agreement that's good for your business.
Leah Neaderthal, Smart Gets Paid
The right moment is a boundary in the work, and there are only a handful of them. A boundary gives the change a reason to exist that has nothing to do with how you feel about asking.
The boundaries worth using:
And the moments to avoid: the middle of a project, the week a deliverable is due, and any point where your client is under pressure from something else. A rate change lands as a change in terms when it arrives mid-stream, and that reading is fair.
Give at least one full billing cycle, and give a long-standing client more. Notice is what separates a business decision from a surprise, and being surprised is the thing people object to.
A workable scale:
That last one turns the conversation on its head. A client who knows in October what you'll cost in January can put it in the plan. A client who finds out in January has to go and find money, and that's the version where you get a no that has nothing to do with your value.
Say the number, the date it starts, and nothing else. The whole message is two sentences, and its power comes from what you leave out.
That's the whole thing. No apology, no explanation of your costs, no paragraph about how much you value the relationship, which reads as softening a blow and tells your client a blow is coming.
Never justify or defend a price. State it and move on. Building a case invites your client to evaluate the case, and now you're negotiating about whether your reasoning is sound instead of whether they want the work. If they ask why, one line is plenty: the value the work delivers, or that you review your rates annually. Then stop talking. The number itself comes from what the outcome is worth to them.
Raise it once, to the number the work is worth now, and skip the impulse to catch up in stages. Consultants who've held a rate for years often try to phase the increase to soften it, which stretches an awkward conversation across three years instead of having it once.
What to do with a large gap:
One thing to let go of: the idea that you owe this client something for having stayed. Loyalty runs both ways, and you've been delivering at a number set by a version of you who knew less about this work. Deciding to move it is a business decision you're allowed to make.
The longest relationship is almost always the worst-priced one, and there's a reason. You set that number early, they said yes, and the price got embedded in something that started to feel like a friendship. Now the idea of changing it feels like changing the terms of the friendship.
So I want to separate two things that get tangled here. Your client's affection for you and your client's budget are different systems. You're treating the increase as though it puts the whole relationship at risk, and on their side it goes to a line item and a plan.
The other thing I hear is "they've been so good to me." Look at that squarely. They've been getting excellent work at a below-market number for years. That isn't generosity from them. It's a good deal, and you gave it to them.
Pick the boundary, give real notice, say one sentence, and stop talking. The silence after you name a number is the hardest part, and it's usually your client doing arithmetic rather than getting upset. Let them.
Tell a long-standing client on a call, then confirm in writing the same day. A call lets you say it plainly and hear the reaction; the written note is what their finance team needs and what stops the detail drifting. For smaller or newer engagements, a clear email on its own is fine.
Finish the contract at the agreed rate. Changing a number partway through is a change of terms, and it costs you more credibility than the extra revenue is worth. Tell them now that the next phase carries a new rate, which gives them notice and keeps the current agreement exactly as they signed it.
No. Price each engagement on what the outcome is worth to that client, which means different clients legitimately land at different numbers. What you want to avoid is a discount that exists only because a relationship is old, since that is the pattern that leaves your longest clients funding your lowest margins.
Give them what they need to make the case: the new number, when it starts, and one line on the value. Your contact is selling this internally, and a rate they can explain in a sentence travels better than one they have to defend. More notice helps here too, because it lets them raise it inside their own planning cycle.