The most expensive towel I never bought

Yesterday morning, I stepped out of my shower and realised I had made a critical error.

No towel.

Standing there, dripping wet, I quickly assessed my options:

Call for Rohan? He's upstairs in his office with noise-cancelling headphones on. I could scream the house down and he wouldn't hear me.

Ask Chorizo for help? My dog just stared at me with those vacant, utterly useless eyes that somehow conveyed both confusion and complete indifference to my plight.

So I had three real options:

1. Sprint naked through my house to grab a towel from the linen closet
2. Air dry for 20 minutes while shivering
3. Use my dirty clothes as a makeshift towel

In that moment, I would have paid $500 for a fluffy towel. Maybe more.

Here's the thing: that towel normally costs $30 at most. But when you're standing naked, cold, and desperate, the value equation changes completely.

The cost of the towel stayed the same. The cost of NOT having the towel became astronomical.

This is exactly what happens with your freelance clients.

That presentation they need fixed before the board meeting tomorrow? The website that crashed during their biggest sale of the year? The marketing campaign that's haemorrhaging money because the copy isn't converting?

You're looking at these problems thinking: "This is just a few hours of work. I can't charge much for this."

But your client is standing there, metaphorically naked, willing to pay $500 for a $30 towel.

They're not paying for your time. They're paying for the relief from their expensive problem.

Yet most freelancers are too uncomfortable to ask for what the solution is actually worth. They're afraid of looking greedy. They're scared of the conversation. They'd rather run naked through the house than have an awkward pricing discussion.

So they charge $100 for solving a $10,000 problem.

Meanwhile, their client would have happily paid $5,000 to make the pain go away.

The most expensive problems your clients face aren't technical problems, they're emotional ones.

• The fear of looking incompetent in front of their boss
• The stress of missing a crucial deadline
• The embarrassment of a public failure
• The anxiety of losing a major client

When you solve these problems, you're not just delivering a service. You're delivering peace of mind, credibility, and sleep.

That's worth a lot more than your hourly rate.

I just wrote about this concept in depth on my blog, including:

• The 3 types of problems clients will pay premium prices to solve
• How to identify what your client's problems are actually costing them
• The "Problem Pathway" framework that maps your offers to how clients really behave
• Real examples of how this changes your entire pricing strategy

​Read the full post here: Problem-Based Pricing Strategy]​

So here's your challenge:
The next time a client comes to you with an urgent problem, don't ask "How long will this take me?"
Ask "How much is this costing them every day it goes unsolved?"

Then price accordingly.

Because somewhere, there's a client standing naked in their metaphorical shower, willing to pay $500 for your $30 towel.

Don't let them shiver.

P.S. I'm trying out a new format for this blog post, would love to hear what you think of it.