When you are deciding on your freelance rate, you might get a bit stuck. Are you charging too much? Are you charging too little? The problem can get more significant when you are just starting out too.
You don’t always have the biggest amount of experience, and you don’t want to charge too much and lose potential clients, but charging too little and you won’t cover your costs either.
So here are a few systems that you can use to work out what you should be charging.
Before you start working out numbers related to what you charge, you need to work out a couple of things.
What are your overheads? If youhave to pay for hosting, web design, graphic designers and so on, then take that into account. If you don’t have an office outside the home, but you have an office in the house, then you have to know what that costs. This goes up depending on everything you need to run your business. You need to add your bills on to this to get a minimum you need to make.
What is your goal salary? The chances are you have an idea in mind, and the goal will need to be broken down into smaller, more manageable amounts. Setting these goals will give you the motivation to meet them.
Remember that your salary is subject to change because so is your work. But try to always focus on that goal as a starting point. You can scale when you are ready.
A quick way to calculate an hourly rate is this:
Take your yearly salary goal are to remove three zeros from the end. And you now have your hourly rate. So it might look something like 35,000 minus those 0s, and you have 35 an hour. BUT WAIT – yes, that will put your yearly salary at a much higher rate.
It is working on the basis that you won’t be working the typical 8 hours+ a day, 5 days a week. If you aren’t comfortable quoting something so high – half it for your first client. And work up to it again at a later date when you have more experience.
There is a rate that you won’t work for. In fact, it makes you feel funny to consider taking something so low. So, if you feel like 7 is just too low for you, then simply double it. That is it. Take something you don’t want and double it into something that you feel comfortable with.
In the early days, you might be focusing on making money more than what you won’t work for, but eventually, you will have an amount that you would turn down flat. So use that when you really get stuck pricing something up.
This one might be the most straightforward method of them all. Take a look at what other people are charging for what you do. Steer clear of places like Fivver and Upwork as they will give you a very low number to work with – ideally, you and your client should both value what you do. Supply and demand is a real thing, and you kind of have to work within those lines.
In the end, it is about what you need to get your bills paid, and what you want on top to spend.
