Raise the price. Keep the client.
The letter, the email, the text, the notice, the replies. From your numbers. $29.
Before · the owner's notes
“Last time I raised prices I texted everyone some long apologetic thing I rewrote nine times and I still lost one client over HOW it came out, not the number… I don't want to apologize for three paragraphs. I don't want to explain my insurance to people. I just want to say it clean and not lose the good ones.”
After · the letter set
The letter, the middle
From January 5, the price of your biweekly clean will be $160… This is the first change since February 2023. You don't need to do anything.
The reply to “keep me where I am”
“I can't — the new price is the price, and it's the same for everyone. What I can promise is that it won't move again soon: the last one held for three years.”
Questions for you
New-client price from today, or from January 5? The set assumes new inquiries are quoted $160 now.
Sample letter set · an invented business, from the 410-word notes below
Three steps.
Send the rant
Your prices now and what they become, the date, when you last raised them, the real reasons, how clients book with you, anyone you want held at the old price, and what went wrong the last time you tried to write this. However rough — the message you'd send a friend at 11pm is exactly right.
We write the five pieces
A letter that states the change in the second sentence, gives one plain reason and doesn't apologise for three paragraphs. An email and a text in the same voice. A notice for the counter and the invoice, and a post naming the new price. And the replies: what to say when someone asks why, asks to stay at the old rate, or mentions the other company. Nothing added that you did not give.
Read the questions
A Word file, a text file and a PDF proof within two days, with a list of what we tidied or kept out and why, and your open questions: the client mid-contract, the holdover end date, when the post goes up. One free round of changes within a week, so a forgotten client still goes in.
What you send, what you get.
From: Dana Whitfield To: (draft I never sent) Subject: price letter?? Okay here's everything. I run Brightside Home Cleaning in Maplewood — it's me and one helper, Rosa, two days a week. 38 regular clients, most are biweekly. The standard biweekly clean is $140 and has been since February 2023. Deep cleans are $220. I'm going to $160 and $250 starting January 5. I have to — supplies are up about a third since then, my liability insurance renewal came in $400 higher, and I'm driving further now that half of Maplewood's parking is permit-only, which sounds dumb but it adds 40 minutes some days. The problem is the letter. Last time I raised prices (2023) I texted everyone some long apologetic thing I rewrote nine times and I still lost one client over HOW it came out, not the number — she said it felt like I was blaming her. I don't want to apologize for three paragraphs. I don't want to explain my insurance to people. I just want to say it clean and not lose the good ones. Most clients book by text, that's just how it works, so I need a text version — short. Some of the older clients I email, and Mrs. Albright still wants paper with her invoice, so a real letter too. And something I can pin in the front of the binder Rosa carries, and maybe a line for the Facebook page so new inquiries see the right price. One more thing — I have four clients who've been with me since the first year, all retired, all on fixed incomes. June and Walter Pell, Mrs. Albright, Dorothy K., and …
Brightside Home Cleaning · the letter set
The letter
“Costs have moved in those three years — supplies most of all — and the new price is what lets me keep doing the job the way you're used to: same team, same standards, same schedule.” one reason, said once
The text message
“Hi [first name], it's Dana from Brightside. From Jan 5 your biweekly clean will be $160 (first change since 2023). Everything else stays the same — same team, same schedule. Nothing needed from you; just wanted you to hear it from me first. Happy to talk any time.”
What we tidied · questions for you
Seven lines saying what was moved or written from your facts (“apologize” nowhere, the insurance number kept out, no percent signs, the holdover note private with an end date) and six questions your notes left open, each a one-line change. No price, date or reason is in the set that you did not give. nothing invented
An invented business and the owner's 410-word notes. Yours is written from your own numbers: one change, five pieces.
Editable price-increase letter templates sell for $1.50 to $12 a download: a page with blanks, the hard sentences still yours to write. This is the words themselves — your price, your date, your reason and your replies, written so you can send them without rewriting them nine times, with every file and every right kept by your business.
- The letter, one page, for email or your letterhead
- The email version, subject line included
- The text message, ready for the thread your clients book in
- The counter and invoice notice, plus the social post
- The replies: why, the old-rate ask, the competitor line — and the private holdover note
- A Word file, a text file and a PDF proof · one free round of changes
Send the story.
Three questions.
What exactly do I get?
Five pieces for one price change, within two days after payment, as a Word file you can edit, a text file and a PDF proof (Letter for the US, A4 for the UK): the letter, one page, ready for email or your letterhead; the email version with its subject line; the text-message version, short enough to send in the thread your clients already book in; the counter and invoice notice plus the social post naming the new price; and the replies — what to say, word for word, to “why?”, “can you keep me where I am?” and “I might look around”, plus a private note for any clients you hold at the old price. With it: a list of what we tidied, moved or wrote from your notes and why, and a numbered list of the things your notes left open. One free round of changes within a week.
Will you invent a reason, a number or a date?
No. Every price, date, percentage and reason in the set is one you gave; where your notes leave something open, the set takes the plainest reading and lists it as a question for you. If you don't want a cost explained — your insurance, your rent, a helper's pay — it stays out, and the set never dresses a raise up as something it isn't. We don't advise what to charge: the numbers are yours, the words are the work.
Is this a template, pricing advice or legal advice?
Words only, written from your notes — not a template with blanks, and not advice. We don't recommend a price, and nothing here is legal, contract or tax advice: if some clients are on a signed agreement that fixes the price, the set flags it as a question for you rather than advising on the contract. No design, no printing, no sending: the letter goes out from you, in your name, and we never contact a client. One business and one price change at this price; a second service with its own letter, or a second business, is a new order, and we say so before you pay.
Get the sample letter set first
The invented Brightside set: the owner's notes and the five finished pieces as a PDF, with the change list and the open questions.