"What do you charge?"
A potential client named Andrew asked Austin that question when he first started freelancing.
Austin had just been laid off from his job at a marketing agency, and he chose $40 per hour as his rate because his agency had billed out his time at $85 an hour. If he charged half, then maybe clients would feel like they were getting a good deal.
He wasn’t confident in that rate though and would have agreed to less. With only $486 to his name, he was desperate for a paying freelance gig!
Does that describe you now?
Are you one of the many freelancers who think clients only want a good deal? Do you come down on price when clients push back? Do you feel like you have to charge less than the next guy or gal to be competitive?
Chances are, you're charging less than you should be.
But how do you know how much your work is worth? What are the actual costs of doing business? Who even decides these things? Pricing our services can feel like pulling teeth.
Here's something to think about:
Steve Jobs once paid a designer named Paul Rand $100,000 to create a logo for NeXT Computing. You read that right—$ 100,000 for a logo. In 1986.
Was Paul Rand’s work a hundred times better than the designer who charged $1,000?
Of course, not!
Talent or skill can’t explain a 100x higher price. So what gives?
What we’re able to charge often comes down to our confidence and mindset. Our target audience is certainly a factor too. What value do clients in that market or niche put on the outcomes you deliver?
Things are worth what people will pay, and what people will pay goes up with perceived value. Perceived value goes up with perceived expertise.
If you aren’t satisfied with your prices or your freelance income, you need to reassess self-imposed psychological barriers.
What if you knew that shifting to a particular pricing strategy could help you stand out from the competition? What if you were confident that your freelance pricing were sending the right signals about your brand, services, and value?
Your pricing strategy can attract the types of clients you want.
This episode will give you the chance to ponder your current pricing, identify your mental traps, and start upgrading your limiting beliefs. To get paid what you're worth, you’ve got to take your head trash to the curb.
If you do nothing else, follow the advice Andrew gave me: raise your prices.
Key points
- Intro (00:00)
- The great recession and my journey into freelancing (00:37)
- Learning about value-based pricing from an unlikely source (02:42)
- The most important lesson I learned from this experience (08:09)
- Price-sensitive vs value-focused clients (11:30)
- What signals are you sending with your prices? (12:55)
Notable Quotes
“When you’re in a vulnerable moment, you really appreciate people who don’t take advantage of your vulnerability – but instead take that opportunity to elevate you.”
“When you’re coming out of any type of job where your work has been commoditized or devalued, you may have already gotten into the habit of devaluing your work yourself.”
“You’ll find it easier to build a profitable business with value-focused clients who will like the quality, experience, and professionalism you deliver.”
Resources mentioned in this episode:
freelancecake.com/coaching
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For specific beliefs, principles, and practices you can use right away to make the freelance game more profitable and satisfying, subscribe to Freelance Cake podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts!
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