Why I Became Obsessed With Increasing My Freelance Rates

The e-mail above is one of many similar e-mails I have received during the first two years of my freelancing career. The prices I set for my services at a time were pretty low compared to my competitors’ rates. Yet, more than 70% of my clients would still try to haggle with me and negotiate them down to way below the lowest marketplace. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but in most cases I would say “yes”. I kept coming up with excuses for accepting this type of treatment, which in my mind seemed both reasonable and sensible.

“I’m new to the market”, “I’m not experienced enough”, “If I charge less I will get more clients”, “If I agree to their price they will keep coming back and give me more work” — these were the thoughts I was using to justify letting clients abuse me to the extent that I was losing my sense of self-worth and self-respect as a professional.

After the first two years of participating in this freelance battle the long hours and constant worries about money had finally taken their toll and my health deteriorated. That’s when I realised that selling myself cheap was not a good long term strategy. These days, when I tell my friends, family or clients how much I charge for my services they are ready to send me to a mental institution. But you know what? I no longer care. I am happier, more energetic and way less worried about anything anymore, really. So to any one accusing me of madness, I am presenting my case for (almost) overcharging my clients.

My new price-setting paradigm

The truth is that most freelancers set their prices by doing a bit of research on what others in the same field charge. We get an idea of the lowest and the highest margins, assess our levels of confidence and then place ourselves somewhere on the scale between “cheap” (underpaid, overworked, inexperienced and lacking confidence) and “expensive” (paid reasonably, with manageable working hours, experienced and fairly confident)…

Related posts:

She snapped. They were basically strangers now, she didn’t understand why he was calling her that name. Only her mother was allowed to call her that. She cleared the table of her files and got up…

A website is face of any business. You will find plenty of designers but have you ever thought either that design is meeting the modern standards and does it really represent your brand / business…

Highest Intent Life Coaching: Most of us in our society know and understand what the word recovery means. There are thousands of “treatment centers”. Each one has their own philosophy about how recovery should be approached.