I need to stop working with a client and I have no idea how to say it - what does ending an engagement well look like?

On raising your price to make them leave: I would not, and it is worth saying why beyond the ethics.

It often fails. They say yes, and now you are doing work you did not want at a rate you named, which makes it much harder to leave later - you set the price, so the problem is apparently solved.

It is dishonest in a way people can feel. You are hoping for a no while pretending to offer a yes.

It teaches you nothing. The actual problem here is not the money, it is the weekend messages and the reversed decisions. A higher rate does not fix either.

Where a price increase is legitimate is when the money genuinely would change your answer: you would happily keep doing this at a rate that reflects the disruption. If that is true, say so plainly: this level of availability is a different service and here is what it costs. That is an honest offer and they can take it or not.

But you said you want out. So go out, cleanly. Using price as an indirect way of saying something you could just say is how people end up in a second year of a job they resigned from in their head twelve months ago.

Do it directly, in writing, with notice and a handover. It is much less dramatic than it feels beforehand.

What I send, roughly:

A clear statement with a date. I will be finishing our work together at the end of next month. Not thinking about, not may need to: a decision with a date.

A short, neutral reason. Changing focus, capacity, a shift in the kind of work I take. You do not owe a diagnosis of the relationship and giving one invites a negotiation about whether the diagnosis is fair.

What you will complete before then, specifically. This is what turns a resignation into a plan and it is what stops people panicking.

A handover offer. Documentation, a call with whoever takes over, access and credentials sorted. This is the part that determines what they say about you afterwards.

Notice length: for a year-long relationship, four to six weeks is normal and generous. For a project, finishing the current phase.

What to expect: some surprise, occasionally an offer of more money, occasionally a slightly cold fortnight. Almost never a fight. The version people fear: anger, damaged reputation - is rare, and it is much likelier if you leave badly than if you leave clearly.

One thing worth knowing before you write it: clients you leave well are a genuine source of future work.

I have been rehired twice by people I resigned from: once for a project that suited me much better, once as a referral to someone else. Neither would have happened if I had disappeared or priced myself out.

What makes the difference, in my experience:

Never leave mid-thing. Finish the piece you are on, or hand it over so completely that finishing is straightforward for whoever is next.

Write down what only you know. The undocumented decisions, the workaround for that one thing, where the credentials live. A page or two, and it is the difference between a clean exit and three months of one-off questions you feel obliged to answer for free.

Be genuinely helpful about the replacement. Recommend somebody if you can. It costs you nothing and it is the single thing people remember.

Do not use the exit to deliver feedback they did not ask for. The urge to explain the weekend messages is strong and it converts a clean ending into an argument. If they ask why, be brief and factual and stop there.

And on the guilt about leaving decent-but-disorganised people: it is a business relationship ending with notice, not an abandonment. They will be fine.