time tracking, pricing and what i’ve been learning

I've spent the past couple of months with my head properly inside the numbers. Time tracking. Pricing calculations. Working out what my work actually costs versus what I've been charging for it. And honestly? It's been uncomfortable. The kind of uncomfortable that makes you want to close the spreadsheet and pretend you never opened it in the first place. But I kept going. Because I needed to know.

The wake-up call

In March, I started tracking my time properly. Not just the billable hours - the repairs, the visible work - but everything. The admin, the emails, the sourcing, the photographing finished repairs, the back-and-forth about whether someone's jacket can be saved or needs scrapping. The invisible labour that eats up half your week without you noticing.

And the numbers didn't lie. Some weeks I was hitting 77% billable. Other weeks, 60%. That's a massive range. And it completely changed how I thought about my pricing. Because if you don't know how much of your working time is actually billable, you can't possibly know what to charge per hour.

The invisible labour is real. It's not laziness. It's not inefficiency. It's the actual work of running a repair practice. And if you're not accounting for it, you're undercharging without even realizing it.

The uncomfortable bit

Once I had the time tracking data, I started doing the proper maths. Not the vague, hopeful "I think I need about £1,500 a month" kind of maths. The real kind. The kind where you look at every single cost - personal and business - and add them all up. The kind where you can't pretend anymore.

And the number I needed to charge was higher than I'd been charging. Not by a huge amount. But enough that it made me uncomfortable. Enough that I had to sit with the question: am I undercharging because my work isn't worth more, or am I undercharging because I don't believe it is?

Spoiler: it was the second one.

Why this matters

Here's the thing about pricing that no one really talks about: it's not just maths. It's identity. It's boundaries. It's all the stories you've been telling yourself about what you're worth and what people will pay and who you might lose if you charge more.

I've been doing repair work for over 20 years. I'm good at what I do. I've trained, I've practiced, I've built a skill set that most people don't have. And yet, every time I looked at raising my prices, I felt like I was asking for too much.

Why? Because somewhere along the way, I'd internalised the idea that repair work should be cheap. That making clothes last longer is virtuous, so it shouldn't cost much. That I should be "accessible" - which really just meant I should charge less than I needed to live on, and somehow make that work.

But accessible to who? At whose expense? If I'm pricing so low that I can't sustain this work, then I'm not being accessible. I'm just slowly burning out while pretending it's fine.

What I built

Once I'd worked through my own pricing - the maths, the mindset, the messy internal stuff - I started thinking about other repair artists. The ones I mentor. The ones I see on Instagram, brilliant at their craft but pricing like they're apologising for existing.

And I realised: most of us are guessing. We're looking at what other people charge, or what we think people will pay, or what feels "fair" without actually knowing what we need to earn.

So I built a framework. A way of working out what you actually need to live, what you actually need to charge, and how to build a pricelist that doesn't quietly drain you. That framework became Reclaim Your Worth 2.0.

It's not a magic formula. It's not one-size-fits-all. It's a step-by-step process that walks you through the whole thing - the numbers, the beliefs, the uncomfortable moments where you realize your pricing has been too low and you have to decide whether you're going to do something about it.

Pricing is a flex

Here's what I keep coming back to: pricing is a flex. It's like a tiny muscle that needs regular attention. To build it strong, it needs commitment, not perfection.

I'm still learning. Still tracking my time. Still adjusting my pricing when I notice a pattern. Still having moments where I second-guess whether I'm charging too much, even though I know the numbers are fair.

This isn't something you do once and forget about. It evolves with you. Your costs change. Your efficiency grows. Your confidence builds. And your pricing shifts to match.

What I want for you

If you're reading this and you've ever felt like you're undercharging but you don't know how to fix it - I get it. If you've ever looked at your bank account at the end of the month and wondered where all the money went, even though you worked your arse off - I've been there. If you've ever felt guilty for wanting to earn enough to actually live on, not just survive - you're not alone.

I don't have all the answers. I'm still figuring this out as I go. But I do have a framework that works. A way of pricing that's grounded in real costs, not guesswork. And that's what Reclaim Your Worth 2.0 is built on.

Not a magic solution. Just clarity. And the confidence that comes from knowing your numbers, knowing your worth, and charging accordingly.

Here's to showing up with more worth - the quiet, solid kind.