One of the first difficulties you face as a new freelancer is determining how much to charge your clients. The method you employ to determine your freelance rates is crucial because you need to charge the ideal amount to attract clients. If you charge too much, the consumer might never reply to your offer. If you set your rates too low, the client will assume you are an inexperienced, low-cost freelancer.
However, there is no reason to be concerned. There are a few techniques you can employ to determine the optimum price for your freelance services, regardless of whether you’re a beginning freelance writer, designer, developer, or marketer.
1. Set a target for your annual salary
Do you provide for your family or just yourself? Are you able to cover your living expenses with your savings or do you depend on your income? A full-time income or a supplement to an existing income can be obtained by freelancing.
You can determine your freelancing rate by working backward from how much you need to make and how much you want to make. You can use this to determine how many working hours you’ll need to put in to earn a certain yearly salary after choosing one.
2. Look through freelance websites
Investigating what other freelancers are charging on freelance sites is another method for determining the optimum price for your service.
Visit a well-known freelancing marketplace like terawork and browse the categories to see what other freelancers are charging.
All independent contractors have varying pricing, as you’ll see. Going to the category for your industry on the freelance website and choosing the two freelancers who charge the least and the one who charges the most will help you determine the cost of your service.
Examine their profiles in more detail to learn more about the experience and skills they possess. After that, try to negotiate a price between those two freelancers’ prices based on your job experience.
3. Recognize your value
To make sure you’re asking a fair price for your services, you need to be aware of your worth. Based on the value you offer the client, anchor your price point. How do you value the information you have gathered, the talents you have honed, and the services you provide to customers? Examining your former work portfolio, experience, and skill set will help you assess your value.
Knowledge is an expense, not a cost. Naturally, you can charge more for your time the more experience you have. An independent web developer with ten years of expertise will be able to charge more than an independent web developer with only two years of experience.
4. Price more than you anticipated
Don’t undersell yourself or hesitate to demand what you believe you are entitled to. The worst that can happen is that nobody pays, in which case you can drop your pricing or allow customers to negotiate.
If you’re just getting started, you can price your services too low since you lack the industry knowledge and experience necessary to determine what to charge. However, if you give an estimate that is too low, you run the danger of missing out on earnings or you might even have to lower the standard of your job to stay within your pricing range.
On the other hand, if you quote too high, you run the risk of losing a client or a contract. This is especially true if your service is offered in a market where there is competition and customers have a variety of service options. Your target audience will choose those services if they are available for less money and of comparable quality.
5. Ask an expert
The best course of action is to see a professional if you are still having trouble determining the optimal price for your services. This is not going to be simple at all. because the majority of seasoned and professional freelancers won’t disclose their fee to other freelancers. Obviously due to competition. So you can’t immediately ask them about their prices.
You’ll need to adopt a novel strategy. Act like a client and request a quote.
Consider the scenario when a client offers you a web design project but you are unsure of the price to charge. So you may now email a reputable freelancer as a client and request an estimate for the same project.
Posting a job as a client on a freelance network is an even better option. By doing this, you’ll gain a lot of insight into how others set their service prices and construct their offers.
6. Allow the customer to decide
The majority of clients might not respond well to this unconventional approach. However, give it a shot if you come across a credible customer with relevant experience. Don’t mention your price in the first pitch when you contact a client with a proposal or even when a client contacts you.
Ask questions and continue the conversation to acquire a better understanding of the client’s expectations for the project.
When negotiating a graphic design job for a social media campaign, for instance, you might inquire from the client how much buzz they hope to create with the postings. Alternatively, enquire about their advertising spending and budget.
And when it comes to discussing the pricing, just ask the customer how much it’s worth to them considering the amount of buzz the campaign will produce.
Let the client determine the cost of each job, to put it simply.
