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Kristina Viera asks,
How do you know what to charge?
Deciding how to price your work is one of the hardest part of freelancing. There are so many different factors that can affect your price — your own experience, your location, what type of clients you’re interested in working with — that it’s impossible to say that you should be charging X dollars per hour.
That said, here’s how I came up with my price. First of all, I calculated how much I needed to make per month to cover all of my bills (and I was very pessimistic about that number, assuming big bills). I then padded that number so that I would have something put in savings, as well as enough to cover unexpected emergencies. Then I doubled it — yep, doubled it — for taxes. I’m not in a tax bracket where I’m paying 50 percent of what I make to the IRS and neither are most freelance writers, but when you add in state taxes and any county or municipal taxes you may have, it can come close.
From there, I assumed that I could work 30 billable hours a week (based on having administrative tasks that would eat up about two hours a day) or 120 hours per month. I divided the amount of money I needed to make per month by that number. It was an odd number, with plenty of decimals, so I rounded it up.
Even if you aren’t freelancing full-time, I’d recommend basing your rate on the same calculations. That way, if you find yourself freelancing full-time, you won’t have to immediately raise your rates (and therefore run the risk of losing existing clients).
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Leslie Joy asks,
How do you turn networking contacts into clients?
I take networking pretty seriously. I come home from events with stacks of business cards, often with scribbled notes on who I talked to and what I talked to them about. I sit down after meeting someone new and add their email information into Gist. Because I try to end every introduction with some sort of offer to email my new contact (“I’ll give you the name of the tool I use,” “Let me send you a blog post I found on that topic,” etc.), I can immediately follow up with something deeper than “It was nice to meet you yesterday.” It’s important to be helpful and talk more about the contact than yourself. Unless a contact specifically asks me to send my rates and information about my business, I tend not to. I’ve found that building a relationship where I’m not immediately asking for something pays off better in the long run.
Usually, I’ll get a response back. From there, I continue the conversation. If an opportunity to talk about any of my projects comes up, I do so. The goal is to get contacts to think of you as a good connection overall, as well as a great freelancer. That way, they’re more likely to come to you when they have a project.
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Have a question about the business side of freelance writing? Send it my way and I’ll answer it here next week!
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Comments
02.22.10
Great post. I think that in addition to industry standards and making some calculations, when setting a fee you are also asking your clients to value you at a particular dollar amount. I believe that we have to teach people how to value us, that potential clients aren't going to automatically value us. Sometimes it's helpful to checkin and ask, how am I valuing myself? Am I feeling confident? It's hard to convince someone else to value the work you are going to do, if you are difficulty valuing it for yourself. If you are struggling in that area find some who who believes in your work that can give me some honest feedback about your work and what to charge.
02.22.10
@Sarah, That's a good point. As a freelancer, you have to be confident in the rate you set — otherwise, clients will have an easy time of negotiating you downwards, putting you in a position where you may have tons of work to do, but you aren't making enough money to get by.
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02.22.10
As someone who is dipping her toe in the freelance waters in both the advertising and writing rivers, this post provides some great advice in terms of setting rates. Thanks so much for sharing! =]
02.22.10
Fantastic post, Thursday. Thank you. Setting my rate was the most difficult part of setting up my freelance graphic design business! The formula you laid out is excellent not just for freelance writers, but for all types of freelancers. @Sarah, "How am I valuing myself" is one of the most important questions I can ask myself as a freelancer, but I don't ask myself as often as I should. Thanks for the always-valuable reminder.
02.22.10
This is great...I've been struggling with how to value myself and my talent for a while. Though it's a part-time opportunity for me, you're definitely right about valuing it as if it were full-time...I wish I had thought of that! I'm struggling with being firm with the rates I set, although I am fairly inexpensive...I have to realize the value of time and effort I put into making quality work.
Thanks again for these tips!
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