Rules of Freelance Pricing
Are you a photographer, designer, programmer just starting out? Here are the essential (and infallible) rules to pricing your work.
1. Always cover your costs - How did you pay for your equipment? Do you ever want to buy new equipment? How about rent, phone, internet? Your wife/parents will only support you for so long before telling you to get a real job.
2. Always base your estimates in reality - You know it takes more that 2 hours to design a web page. The only person you’re screwing over is yourself by not being realistic with your time.
3. Always account for unbillable time - Email, phone calls, tech support, etc. It all takes time and nobody wants to be billed for it.
4. Always make a profit - Profits allow you to enjoy your time when your not working. Remember what that was like?
5. Raise your rates periodically - Everything costs more over time. It’s called inflation. It affects you too.
6. Forget about what other people are doing - Nobody else has your costs, skills, experience, etc. If they want to each Mac & Cheese for the rest of their lives, that’s their problem.
