What
Establish a day rate and set of pricing guidelines for yourself, by researching market rates and reviewing your financial baselines.
Why
You’ll need to be setting a day rate which is a) competitive to others in the market at a similar level of experience to you and b) allows you to reach your commercial targets as set in previous tasks.
Many freelancers struggle to define their pricing, and will often get negiotiated down by clients, or find themselves offering a rate which is lower than they should be charging.
Having a rate card will also help you save time, every time you develop a proposal. Almost half of freelancers are calculating their rates at the start of every project - which only adds anxiety and time to every conversation about new business.
By exploring and setting your pricing now, you will have more confidence in conversations with customers about the cost of your services.
How
We can’t tell you what to charge, but here are some considerations you might want to factor in when thinking about how and what you’re charging.
1. Research what others in your space are charging, using salary and day rate surveys.
There are lots of really useful guides on what freelancers are charging across many sectors, such as creatives, research, developers, copywriting, etc. We have a list of regularly updated day rate guides, but do your own research too.
2. Explore the different pricing models which might apply to your business.
Whilst many freelancers might use “day rates”, there are plenty of ways to charge - including project fees, licenses, value based pricing, etc. Explore what might be right for your business.
3. Refer back to your business budget, and identify roughly what you need to be making as your minimum “rates”.
Make sure your pricing is based upon your goals and time available. If you’re pricing yourself too low, you might not have enough time or capacity to hit your targets.
4. Don’t forget to factor in profit, cost of business and taxes.
Remember that the price you charge is not neccessarily what you end up taking home - after taxes and the cost of doing the work.
5. Remember you’ll not always be working.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming you’ll be working full-time. There’s often a suggestion of setting an annual target, and dividing that by 220 days - but that’s only works if you’re working every single day.
6. Recognise you won’t always be setting the day rate
Much of the time you might just be applying for projects with a defined day rate, so set your own ‘lower’ limits.
