Whether you’re days into your freelancer career, or years into your craft. We’ve curated a list of essential tips to know when pricing your work, and essentially, your value!
Talking about money in any job feels weird. It’s always an uncomfortable conversation that you don’t want to raise, but one you know you need to discuss.
As a freelancer, you have the privilege of pricing yourself on your own terms. Which, in hindsight, sounds great, and it is. But it doesn’t make the conversation any less awkward.
Here are a few tips to make the process easier!
The basics…
What services do you provide? What is your experience in years? Have you built skills that make you a pro at the job? What evidence do you have to prove your work’s value? Once you’ve figured out the answer to these questions, you’ve just made the task of pricing your work a whole lot easier.
Knowing your work and the extent of your capabilities is a big insight into understanding what you should be charging. It goes without saying that more experience means more pay. And rightfully so.
What if I’m at an entry/junior stage in my career?
Then your best bet is to check what other companies are paying for the same role. Also, don’t be afraid to ask freelancers in your network what they charged at that point. Respect goes a long way, and most freelancers understand that the graft is continuous, so they are likely to give you advice.
Sites like Glassdoor and The Dots are great places to cross-check salaries. Glassdoor is more for corporate jobs. While The Dots has a section dedicated to discovering freelance and contracted roles. Thus, you see a lot of day rates flying around with job descriptions. It can be helpful to use this as a stepping stone to understanding what you could be charging. If your experiences line up, great! You’ve just found solid advice. But, if the role requires experience that you don’t have, maybe it’s a good idea to drop that rate a bit.
It’s all about measuring your skills and success according to what you can deliver in the job.
Lastly, and more importantly, don’t forget to account for taxes. Since you’re accounting for that yourself, it’s smart to take 20% off for your taxes, 10% for expences and 10% for food. A 40% reduction sounds like a lot, I know. It may seem larger than usual, but we promise you, this is the same chunk that workers are having deducted from their monthly salaries. Worst-case scenario, you’ve deducted too much, and you are entitled to claim some of it back. Which is ultimately, a best-case scenario, if you think about it.
How often can I increase my rate?
While there is nothing set in stone as to when you can and can’t increase your day rate, there are two easy indicators. If you’re based in the UK, April is the official period of the new tax year. Thus, most freelancers will use this period as official grounds to increase their day rate, since major companies will issue formal salary increases, and the cost of living takes a steep surge.
Additionally, for work milestones, if you’ve been working with a client for a long period of time and have successfully delivered what they’ve asked of you routinely. Or even better, exceeded their expectations. This is a great opportunity for you to raise your fee. Achieving and overachieving are great indicators to your client that you’re the expert they’re looking for. Expert skills require salaries that match the output.
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What’s one of the biggest misconceptions of going freelance?
That it’s the ‘easier route.’ Ask any freelancer, and they’ll tell you it’s a tough job to crack. There is no certainty in your workload. No certainty in your pay schedules and a lot of personal admin to upkeep behind closed doors. If you want to go freelance, you need to have the personality that is happy to take accountability and responsibility at all times.
If you aren’t able to handle your own admin, hiring an accountant is a good alternative, arguably essential. Since you don’t have a company managing your taxes, it’s imperative that you’re tracking all of your ingoings and outgoings accordingly.
It’s important to remember that being a freelancer, whatever profession it may be, requires you to be your own boss, HR and accountant. You’re practically adding three large roles on top of your own.
I’m not telling you this to hinder you from the prospect. There are plenty pros of freelancing, like being able to charge adequately for your services. Or having flexibility in your work hours and more. However, we’d be selling you a lie if we didn’t highlight the parts of the job that make it hard.
Why are more young adults going freelance?
Because it offers more creative freedom. More flexibility in schedules and more autonomy in the input and output of your day-to-day tasks. More young adults are excited by the prospect of devising their own careers, and less interested in having a boss micro-managing them.
If you’re a young person aged between 16 – 24, you can become a member at Inside Success, where you can learn essential skills in developing your career through mentorships.
Laviea Thomas is a journalist at Inside Success who writes about film, music and politics.
Outside of that, she is an experienced freelance journalist with bylines in NME, The Quietus, Metal Hammer and more.
Over the years, Laviea has been an active panellist discussing fundamental conversations in the music industry, such as diversity and inclusion, and the importance of grassroots venues. She has been a panel guest for Kerrang! Focus Wales Festival, Future Yard and more.
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