Built by freelancers who charged too little for too long
Venusalo started from a simple observation: most freelancers know their rates are too low. The problem is not knowledge. The problem is the conversation.
How Venusalo came to exist
Venusalo spent nearly a decade as a freelance brand strategist. For the first five years, she charged rates she had set at the beginning, adjusting them only slightly even as her skills grew, her client list expanded, and her work became demonstrably more valuable. The reason wasn't laziness or lack of ambition. It was a very specific fear: that asking for more would end relationships she had worked hard to build.
The breakthrough came not from a book or a podcast but from a single conversation with a mentor who helped her understand what was actually happening psychologically. The fear was not about money. It was about rejection. Once that became clear, the conversation with her client became much simpler.
She raised her rates. The client stayed. And she realised that the same pattern was playing out for almost every freelancer she knew. Venusalo was founded to address that pattern directly.
Four principles that shape the coaching
Honesty about patterns
The coaching does not avoid uncomfortable truths. If a freelancer is undercharging because of a pattern that goes deeper than pricing, that is worth naming. Clarity is more useful than comfort.
Practical over inspirational
Motivation fades. Specific language and rehearsed responses do not. Every coaching engagement produces something tangible: a plan, a script, a conversation structure that the freelancer can use and adapt.
Respect for client relationships
Raising rates does not have to mean risking relationships. The coaching is designed around approaches that preserve and often strengthen the trust between freelancer and client. Abrupt or adversarial approaches are not what we teach.
Building a repeatable skill
The goal is not one successful rate conversation. It is developing the capability to have that conversation whenever it is needed. Freelancers who complete the coaching are better equipped for every future negotiation, not just the immediate one.
Coaches with real freelance experience
Each coach at Venusalo has worked independently. They understand the specific pressures freelancers face because they have faced them.
Venusalo
Lead Pricing CoachNine years as a freelance brand strategist. Founded Venusalo after recognising that the barrier to raising rates was psychological, not practical. Her coaching draws directly on her own experience of having the conversations she now teaches.
Marcus Chen
Negotiation PsychologyApplied psychology background with a focus on decision-making under social pressure. Marcus joined Venusalo to bring a more rigorous psychological framework to the work. His sessions often surface the specific belief driving avoidance behaviour.
Priya Mehta
Client CommunicationFormer freelance copywriter and editor. Priya focuses on written communication: how to raise rates in an email, how to respond to a client who asks for a lower price, how to follow up after a difficult conversation without making it worse.
James Okafor
Freelance Business StrategyWorked as an independent consultant across design and technology sectors for over a decade. James helps freelancers see pricing not as an isolated conversation but as part of a broader positioning strategy that affects which clients they attract.
How Venusalo has developed
The First Session
Venusalo ran the first informal coaching session with a freelance designer friend who had not raised rates in four years. The session worked. The designer raised their rates the following week. The client stayed.
Venusalo Founded
After two years of informal coaching sessions, Venusalo was formally established. The coaching methodology was documented, the intake process was developed, and the first paying clients began working with Venus directly.
Team Expansion
Marcus Chen and Priya Mehta joined the practice, bringing psychology and written communication expertise. The coaching offering expanded to cover both verbal and written pricing conversations, and the team began working with freelancers across the UK.
Sheffield Base Opens
Venusalo established its base at City Road, Sheffield. In-person sessions became available alongside the existing online format. James Okafor joined to lead the business strategy strand of the coaching work.
Methodology Refined
After working with freelancers across a wide range of industries and situations, the five-stage coaching methodology was refined and formalised. The current approach reflects everything learned across hundreds of pricing conversations.