Test post: How To Price Yourself As A Freelancer

I want to share a story with you. The story is of two designers. Both designers make roughly $6,000 per month. Both designers have equal skills and capabilities. Both designers have a similar portfolio and quality of work. Yet there is one massive difference between these two designers.

One designer is working 60+ hours per week while juggling a ton of clients. The second designer is working 20-25 hours per week, while handling just a few clients.

Both designers are similar, but one works significantly more than the other. How does this happen?

The difference is in the pricing

I know this because those two designers are both me. The first designer was me at the start of my freelance career. I was handling my pricing in all the wrong ways and working around the clock on many different clients to make a good living.

The second designer is me, but six months later. I implemented new pricing strategies into my freelancing career and my life changed as a result of it. I was the same person, with the same skills and quality of work, yet I cut the amount of hours I worked by a third.

My goal with this post is to share with you some of the changes I made in how I priced myself. These changes helped me earn more income in less time. If you implement these changes then they can help you do the same.

With pricing, it’s not just about the money. It’s about quality of life. As you see in my example, I still made the same income. I simply worked less hours, which gave me more time to enjoy life, to write and create meaningful things.

You can use pricing to increase your income and decrease the amount you work. So the question is: how to price yourself as a freelancer? Let’s get into it!

Most freelancers start off with an hourly rate

I started out my pricing like most freelancers. I charged an hourly rate for the time that I worked.

A client would come to me and I would either estimate the number of hours that a project would take, or I would utilize the time tracking software inside Upwork. This would literally track my computer activity as I worked on the project.

When getting started, this isn’t a bad way for freelancers to price themselves. You are compensated for the time that you work. If the client’s scope creeps up or the project takes longer than anticipated, then you are compensated for that additional time.

But ultimately, this method of billing is limiting. When I started pricing myself hourly I started with an hourly rate of $30 per hour. Over time, I kept raising my rate from $30 to $50, $60 and higher. Yet somewhere around that $60 per hour range I noticed a major shift in my mindset.

At $60 per hour, I was beginning to start working with higher quality clients who had decent budgets. Yet I was still compensated hourly. This all culminated in one specific project that completely changed my mindset on pricing.

Clients don’t care if it takes you 20 minutes or 20 hours to complete the project. Clients care that the work is done and it is done well.