- Good clients are generally not the clients looking for the cheapest workers they can find. They are customarily more vested in abilities than actual price points.
- Good clients know that quality workers demand more than a bare minimum rate.
- Good clients customarily find good workers and continue to return to those workers in order to maintain a level of quality.
- Good clients respect the worker and understand that a business transaction must be beneficial both ways.
- Good clients openly discuss issues to solve them rather than focusing on blame.
- Good clients understand rates may increase over a period of time - they understand inflation, cost of living, and other business principles such as this as a "whole" rather than focusing only on what they must pay.
- Bad clients will always shop for the cheapest worker they can find.
- Bad clients will be slow to pay.
- Bad clients generally have issues with scope creep.
- Bad clients will only return to hire you again if they feel they got the "better end" of the deal.
- Bad clients never accept an issue may be on their end and almost always assume if there's a problem it's the worker's fault.
- Bad clients always want the same price, or a better price - if they happen to return to you. They always argue for discounts, want a "deal", or complain your rates are too high (even if they are remarkably low). They focus on what they are paying, not what they are receiving, your skills, abilities or other things you offer.
These are generalizations. However, in the $10/hr range you are setting yourself to build a stable of bad, demanding, problematic clients. In all my years of experience, I have never run into a single client looking for the "cheapest rates" that was anything other than a problem. Now, that is my experience. perhaps yours is different. And I do not know your region or specific fields. So, things could be different.
In order to build stable, repeat, long-standing, clients you need one thing from them -- loyalty.
So you need to ask yourself who is more likely to value your services and feel more loyal over a period of time - the client paying you $10/hr or the client paying $50/hr?
Or look at it this way... which do you take better care of and value more - the $20 pair of sunglasses you got at the grocery store or the $300 pair of Oakleys sunglasses?
Then ask yourself where you want to be positioned in the market.
Gaining a quality stable of good, return, clients may take some time. However, I have yet to ever see a bad client turn into a good client. Things just do not happen that way.
Anyone bargain shopping and hiring you for $10/hr is going to be a one-off, get it and be done, client. If they happen to return to you it will be out of necessity (or cheapness) on their part, not due to any loyalty towards you. And the moment you raise your rates, they will start looking for someone else at $10/hr rather than pay a higher rate.
You can never start cheap with a client and expect them to be a long-standing, quality, client. They will customarily balk at each and every rate increase and as soon as they find someone cheaper, they'll drop you like a hot potato.
Again, I don't know your region or current rate trends for your specific skill set. But it seems to me, pricing yourself low is never a valid business decision unless you know you just want any work you can get, no matter how bad that work or client may be.
In addition, there's some general thought to the industry you are in. If everyone in your specific field is charging $30-$80/hr and you price yourself at $10/hr, you kind of do a disservice to everyone in the industry by conveying to the word that the work isn't worth much money. Granted this is a minor, secondary, thought. But if you ever want to be making really good money, you should keep the industry as a whole in mind and seek to elevate it, not lower it.
Also be aware.. I don't use online services like "upwork" because that's where a lot of bad clients find workers. There are better ways to find quality clients. How can experienced contractor survive outside Elance/oDesk/Freelancer?
Edit for additional note: I do not know where you are located... but here, the U.S. state minimum wage is currently just above $9/hr -- so at $10/hr your basically saying you essentially have no more skill or experience than any random person off the street. Be aware of the message you send with your pricing.
