Valuing your services on the basis of your skills, knowledge, and experience—as opposed to hourly rates for a task—gives your freelance business a lot more income potential than blindly following rate sheets. It’s not a calculation you can make in isolation, however. A value-based pricing approach requires looking at the situation from the client’s perspective: What can they expect from their investment if they hire you? [Read more…]
Different freelance prices for different industries
Wanted to do a quick video followup on a post earlier this week that talked about how you shouldn’t assume a smaller company within a given industry is going to command a lower price than a larger company in that same industry.
Transcript
The reason I bring this up is that I do believe you should price your services differently based on different industries. As an example, a few weeks ago I was at a networking meeting with a group of other small business owners, and the featured presenter was the former CEO of a large industrial metals company. They produced everything from automotive steel to aerospace materials to fine-grade machine tools. His comment was that they priced differently by sector, region, and country, and they would have been foolish to do otherwise. [Read more…]
Freelance pricing guide from Dr. Freelance
Over the course of the years I’ve been writing this Dr. Freelance blog, I’ve received countless questions about freelance pricing for writing, editing, ghostwriting, and other freelance jobs. By its nature, the 300-400 word blog format isn’t ideal for dealing with such a complex and important part of your freelance business. So, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve just published The Science, Art and Voodoo of Freelance Pricing and Getting Paid. [Read more…]
Raising rates for a friend of a client
Dr. Freelance: I have been working with a private partner/funder on a writing and research project for the past year in which I accepted a low rate in exchange for the lion’s share of credit and 50% of royalties. He has now referred me to a friend of his, and I’m realizing I should probably charge about 60% more. (That’s how deeply I discounted myself.) With that said, what’s your thought on raising rates that much for a friend of a current client? It’s not a project that I’m especially passionate about, nor do I expect there to even be a book, so I hesitate to use royalties as part of my negotiation. More generally, is $40 a reasonable rate for someone who is relatively new to the game? — Ready4Raise [Read more…]