Negotiating a 28% increase to your bill rate

One of my readers who signed up for a consult asked for help to re-negotiate her bill rate to get a higher raise.

She was performing work at a higher level than she was hired to do, so she wanted to be compensated appropriately.

She was already doing great work which is a requirement, but here is what else she did to get her raise:

• Identified who she needed to talk to (combination of government clients and prime program managers)
• Developed scripts she could use over e-mail to begin negotiation
• Began negotiations at an opportune time (when the option year was ending and another was beginning)
• Hinting she would walk away if she didn't get a bump in bill rate, without actually committing to quitting

And it worked! She got a 28% increase to her bill rate.

If you were billing $100/hour and then started billing $128/hour, on an 1800 hour/year basis, that's an extra $50,400 per year!

Her next challenge is to figure out how to get paid the same, or more, to work less, given her job is generally not conducive to part time work.

In the mean time, I suggest she take a nice vacation with her family. She can definitely afford it now ;).

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.