Buyers can smell desperation

If they ask you for a discount, don't tell them you can't do it. Just tell them the truth. Sure, but it won't get you the result you actually want. Cheap and good, they're never the same thing. You can have it cheap or you can have it work. The real stuff costs what it costs. When you cut your price to win someone over, you don't just lose money, you agree to do worse work. And they quietly start expecting less. And I know how it feels when the market's slow, when the rents coming, take, get the thing on the board. The cheap client you grab out of desperation is the one who pays late, argues over everything, and leaves someone's the cheaper. The ones worth having don't want the cheapest. They want it done right. And when you hold your number without flinching, that's exactly who you start to attract. Your price is a signal. Drop it and you tell the market your work was never worth much. And hold it and you tell them the opposite. So when they push, tell them straight. Good work is the price. If they don't pay for the result, they'll never your client anyway.