Freelancers, how to determine our rates?<\/a>\u201d. However, I did get a lot of personal responses to the post asking why the rates were so low \u2013 I assumed people would be asking the opposite. Well the answer is easy, I took into account the psychology of a rate.<\/span><\/p>\nA lot of my close friends and colleagues place their rates between $75.00 and $150.00 an hour. Granted these individuals are extremely talented and have the portfolio and experience to match. I just can\u2019t see justifying that high of a rate without coming across as arrogant or alienating many of my clients. But that doesn\u2019t mean that I am making less money per project \u2013 I actually make slightly more. Because it has nothing to do with your hourly bill rate, it has everything to do with your clients\u2019 comfort level with your relationship.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve determined that the optimal rate for small to medium sized clients is $65.00\/hour. It is slightly more than $50.00\/hour, connoting some sort of value, and significantly less than $100.00\/hour \u2013 I\u2019ve found that anything close the breaking point of $80.00\/hour is generally perceived as expensive and typically unnecessary. Clients generally have a point at which they will \u201cwork with you\u201d because they realize they get what they pay for \u2013 however back-of-mind they also have a point at which they realize you are too expensive and negotiations will be uncomfortable and impolite. Don\u2019t be naive, clients are doing the math and realize that a rate of $100.00 an hour comes out to be roughly over $200,000.00 a year \u2013 more than most are making themselves. And yes, unfortunately most are not taking into account that you are not constantly working a 40 hour week or just doing this on the side.<\/p>\n
So how do I keep up with my colleagues charging $100.00 an hour when I only charge $65.00? It is simple; I play the psychology card and work on everyone\u2019s comfort level. If I changed a client $100.00 an hour for 5 hours of work that is $500.00 \u2013 simple math. Instead, I charge clients $65.00 and hour for 8 of work which works out to be slightly more — $520.00. The thing I realized first in this industry is that clients will negotiate over a few dollars an hour but won\u2019t over a few hours on a project. They are more concerned with the project rate and its cost than the duration of the project.<\/p>\n
The simple fact is that most business people will assume they know how much they should be paying for your services, but have no idea how much time it takes you to do your magic. The clients that say \u201cit should only take you \u2026\u201d are the ones you should be running from anyway. Now, don\u2019t get me wrong \u2013 I am not conveying poor business ethics or in anyway proclaiming you mislead your clients. I simply suggest incorporating the idea of charging less for the opportunity and convenience of having a longer project duration. Longer project durations reduce stress, increase time for creativity and help alleviate the possibility of missed deadlines \u2013 all completely justified reasoning. Also, including this buffer will give you some negotiating room \u2013 if the client requests a fast turn-around, you simply explain that it is possible but at a raised rate. Let the client at that point make the decision.<\/p>\n
I should mention that the psychology of your rate works both ways \u2013 know your client! If you have a large and established client, a small rate will leave them thinking you are inexperienced and unprofessional. Most larger corporations want to pay over $100.00\/hour \u2013 it isn\u2019t that they want to pay that, it is that they want to hire the designer demanding that. Larger clients know more than anyone that you get what you pay for, and they are willing and have the resources to do so.<\/p>\n
Your rate is a personal thing \u2013 don\u2019t take my or anyone else\u2019s advice right on. You have to work out your rate for yourself. This post and others should be used as a reference point! Figure your rate out through trial and error \u2013 you may take some projects at less than you are worth and you may lose some gigs because you went to high; but that is the nature of figuring out this all important number!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The question I get asked most from fellow freelancers is, \u201chow do you determine your rate\u201d? It is a tricky question with no direct response that is appropriate for anyone one person in any one area. There is a lot of that goes into determining a rate \u2013 a lot of personal questions need to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-web-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eyoungwon.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}