How to Charge Your Clients for Creative Work
Okay fellow freelancer… I know you’re sitting there, wondering, “What on earth should I charge for my services?”
If you’re new to the freelance world, chances are you’re severely undercharging for your work.
There’s a reason why, as a brand new copywriter, I was able to secure consistent $5,000+ months shortly after I made my career switch. It wasn’t because I was signing dozens of clients: it was because I was charging what my services are worth.
There are a couple of things to consider when charging your clients for creative work, whether you’re a copywriter, a designer, or whatever.
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Various Things to Consider When Coming Up With a Price Quote as a Freelancer
No one thing is going to help you magically come up with a number for your clients. There’s a sliding scale for each of these points below, and all together they’ll help you come up with a number:
Your level of expertise.
How long you think it will take you.
How much materials or software will cost.
If you need to live off of this money.
How much others in your industry are charging.
Even if you’re a digital service provider, any expense you have for your business (even if it's for computer software or an invoicing service) needs to be factored into your cost of your quote.
What Is Your Level of Expertise?
Notice how this heading doesn’t say, “How long have you been a professional in this field?”
Your level of expertise can come from a formal education, a DIY education, direct experience, parallel work experience, or a combination of all of the above.
It’s SO important to remember, especially for a lot of the folks I talk with who are new to freelancing: You may be new to your field, but you are NOT a new professional.
What does this mean?
You probably have years of experience in a professional environment, meaning you know how to communicate effectively and you know how to manage your time.
While the work you’ve done in your corporate life may not be directly applicable, it’s probably still related.
The “unrelated” work experience you have contributes to your Unique Selling Proposition—or in other words, what makes you different from the next person in your industry.
How Long Will the Project Take You?
Will the project take you 1 hour? 1 full day? One month?
Will the project have a lot of overhead, like client onboarding and strategy calls?
When considering the total number of hours it will take you, think about time for:
The actual work
Asynchronous communication with the client (emails, etc)
Live meetings with the client
Travel time, if applicable
Administrative work, like sending invoices, creating contracts, and asking for that killer testimonial at the end
Important: I am NOT saying to charge hourly for your work. More on that below.
What Are The Expenses For The Project?
Make sure to build the cost of materials and business expenses into your price quote. If you’re delivering a physical product, factor in the cost of the actual materials, as well as the time and gas driving to and from the store.
If you’re working on an online-friendly project like copywriting, you need to think about your business expenses:
Your website hosting and domain
Your monthly cloud storage fees
Subscription-based software you might use to run your business, like Calendly, Zoom, Planoly, HoneyBook, etc
Your actual computer
So yeah. Not every client is going to directly pay for these items, but you need to work a portion of these expenses into your quotes by padding it a bit.
Do You Need to Live Off of Your Freelance Income?
Bless you if you’re a freelancer for kicks. My guess is that you need your freelance income to pay the bills (or to help you achieve your larger financial goals).
While this may set your prices much higher than folks looking to earn a couple of bucks, this will also subconsciously tell your client that you're serious about your work and where you want to take your craft (that is, if you want to make freelancing your full-time gig).
Factor in all the important stuff: personal expenses, business expenses, and how much you want to be saving for your savings account and retirement (adulting is hard!). Combine that with the income you're already making from your day job or through other methods, and then use that number to figure out how much money you want to be making from client work. Your combined income should exceed your monthly expenses. (Check out the downloadable worksheet for more info on that.)
What Do Your Competitors Charge?
Time to research. In your industry, see who has a good reputation and lists their services on their site. If they don't post prices on their services page, send them an honest email introducing yourself and saying that you're just getting started in the industry. While you can't expect a response from everyone you email, you will at least get a couple of emails in return and can go on from there. Keep your first email short and sweet and work to build a genuine relationship with these freelance mentors as time goes on.
Keep track of who you reach out to, what services they offer, and how much they charge.
Overall, sending respectable quotes for your freelance business comes down to value based pricing.
Freelance Project Quotes: Value-Based Pricing
Having charged clients on an hourly rate as well as a fixed project rate, I know the advantages and disadvantages of both.
But overall, the most important thing is value-based pricing: charging the amount that the project is worth to your client.
For example: a client may want a website designed that will literally take you 3 hours to complete. You could charge your normal hourly rate of $50/hour which would be a very reasonable invoice of $150. However — If you charge them $3,000, that may seem ridiculous, since you're ultimately getting $1,000/hour. But that website will generate something that is incredibly valuable to them: the website allows for them to have a branded web presence for customers to learn more about the company and the products they offer. So the value that you're handing them with their website is quite large, and needs to be charged accordingly.
Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone When Quoting a Freelance Project
Another vague but important thing I've learned along the way: don't send a quote unless it makes you a little uncomfortable to ask for that amount of money (especially if it's comparable with the research you've done).
Write out your proposal.
Stick in the number for the quote.
Do a gut check.
Ready to send it right away? Raise the price.
Feels a little high? Send it to your client.
Closing Thoughts on How to Charge Clients
The biggest takeaways:
Do your research and network.
Think about where you want to take your freelance business.
Think about how you want to be perceived.
How do you charge clients? What advice do you have for pricing? Comment below!
Cover photo via Olu Eletu. Post originally published November 18, 2014, and has since been updated.
