{"id":41677,"date":"2016-12-07T05:00:30","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T13:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?p=41677"},"modified":"2024-04-12T03:20:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T10:20:02","slug":"justifying-freelance-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/justifying-freelance-rates","title":{"rendered":"How to Justify Your Freelance Rates Without Feeling Embarrassed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Money is always an awkward subject to talk about, especially when you’re a freelancer asking for payment, and even more so when you’re a new<\/em> freelancer still learning the ropes.\n“Am I worth this much?â€, “Is this an acceptable amount to ask for?â€, “What if I scare the client away?†— these are some of the things you might be asking yourself. Admittedly, after 10 years of freelancing, I still worry about how the client will respond to my quote, but that’s a natural part of the process<\/em>.\nIt all comes down the value of what you’re offering and whether the client understands that value or not. It’s up to you to communicate your value without getting overly technical about what your work actually involves. In this article we’re going to discuss how to quote your clients and how to justify your rates, so that the subject of money is never awkward or embarrassing.\n

<\/span>Establishing Expectations During the Initial Consultation<\/span><\/h2>

\nA consultation is much more than a casual email exchange, and it is<\/strong> absolutely necessary. It doesn’t have to be overly formal, but the communication does need to be thorough. I would highly recommend offering a breakdown of the costs as opposed to only your fee amount, which ensures that the client is aware of how much time<\/strong> you’re dedicating to the work. You don’t need to explain your workflow in too much detail, but you should be able to discuss what you do<\/em> in that time to justify your fee.\n

<\/figure>\n \nFor example, it’s not exactly unheard of for clients to think that logo design is about throwing some fonts and shapes around for a few minutes. If you don’t (briefly) explain your process, then you can’t blame the client for thinking that way. Clients often don’t understand why things cost what they do and this leads to either the freelancer feeling cheated out of their time, or the client feeling cheated out of their money.\n(And this is an awkward situation for everybody involved).\n<\/p>

<\/span>How to Quote Client Costs<\/span><\/h2>

\nSo lets talk about quotes. A quote is an estimate of how much your services cost — a good<\/em> quote involves a brief overview of what needs to be done, the time it will take, the skills required to do it and the expenses incurred along the way.\n

<\/figure>\n \nAll of these things highlight the value in what you do without explicitly telling the client that your work involves more time that they might think, as well as specialised set of skills (that the client probably doesn’t have). If you’re worried about coming across as condescending or a complete know-it-all, a thorough quote is a more subtle and far less embarrassing way to go about it. But how do you even know how much to charge?\n<\/p>

<\/span>How Much Should You Actually Charge?<\/span><\/h2>

\nFor starters, the minimum is your cost of living, and the maximum is the amount you need to live comfortably. If your quote is less than your MRFS (Minimum Required For Survival — yes I made that up<\/em>), then you need to either add more value to your services, communicate your value better, or realise your value and self-worth<\/a>.\nIf your quote is “too high†it’s usually an indicator that the client will be very difficult to worth with, which will end up costing you<\/strong>, not<\/em> them. Never be afraid to ask for what you’re worth and also consider the economic value for the client<\/strong>. Will your designs help them generate more conversions, traffic or sales? Your ultimate worth is this economic value!\n

<\/figure>\n \nQuick tip: never, ever, ever, immediately slash your prices. The client will either lose faith in your value or constantly try to reduce your fee — because they know (or think) they can.<\/em>\n<\/p>

<\/span>Increasing Your Rates<\/span><\/h2>

\nIf you’re only starting out and you’re still unsure about what to charge, start with your minimum and work up. A lower fee will naturally result in more clients, and when you’re fully-booked up, you can afford to start quoting higher. C.S. Jones<\/a> talks more about the equilibrium of the supply and demand method of pricing.\nMarshall Taylor<\/a> also has some terrific advice about pricing your services and goes into detail about researching the client, calculating expenses, and what constitutes as billable time.\n<\/p>

<\/span>Don’t Get Sensitive About “Extrasâ€<\/span><\/h2>

\nIt’s quite normal for the scope of the work to evolve over time, especially in larger ventures, and so the final cost has to be adapted as well. Tread carefully<\/em> — it can be a bit of a shock to the client when the fee changes. When explaining why a client request should be considered an “extraâ€, make sure you have the scope of the work written down, and of course the section in the contract (never work without a contract!) where it says that should the scope of the work change, so will the final fee.\n<\/p>

<\/span>Conclusion<\/span><\/h2>

\nIf you’re following these guidelines you can significantly reduce the chances of an awkward encounter with your client, because lets be fair, they can be downright embarrassing sometimes, especially for a new freelancer who is still trying to figure out their workflow and understand their self-worth.\nActually getting paid<\/em> is a whole other story and many designers struggle with this on a daily basis. If you’re looking for more useful tips I’d recommend checking out the The Complete Guide to Getting Paid<\/a><\/em> by our very Laura Busche, which goes into further detail about ways to ensure that the client pays your fee. Proving your worth by being able to justify your freelance rates is one of those ways!<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Money is always an awkward subject to talk about, especially when you’re a freelancer asking for payment, and even more so when you’re a new freelancer still learning the ropes. “Am I worth this much?â€, “Is this an acceptable amount to ask for?â€, “What if I scare the client away?†— these are some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[157,1128],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-41677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shop-center","tag-freelancing","tag-money"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Justify Your Freelance Rates Without Feeling Embarrassed - Creative Market Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/justifying-freelance-rates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Justify Your Freelance Rates Without Feeling Embarrassed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Money is always an awkward subject to talk about, especially when you’re a freelancer asking for payment, and even more so when\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/justifying-freelance-rates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Creative Market Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/crtvmrkt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-07T13:00:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-12T10:20:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Daniel Schwarz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@creativemarket\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@creativemarket\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Schwarz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/justifying-freelance-rates\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/creativemarket.com\\\/blog\\\/justifying-freelance-rates\",\"name\":\"How to Justify Your Freelance Rates Without Feeling Embarrassed - 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