How To Negotiate Freelance Pay For Non-Negotiators
A fundamental skill to learn for any freelance work is pay negotiation. If you don’t get good at this you can be sure not to get as much as you should.
Andrea Dickson at Wisebread has written a great article for those of us who aren’t entirely comfortable haggling a better wage for work. She in particular writes for women, but the sentiment goes for all freelancers.
You have to get comfortable asking for more.
When a manager at a local tech firm interviewed me for a new job, he asked me how much I wanted to be paid. I stammered a bit, and said something like, “Well, I guess $22 an hour or maybe… yeah. Like, $22.” He stared at me for a few seconds, and then said, “I’m going to put you in at $35 an hour.” That’s what my skill level typically brought in, and it’s what I should have been making all that time. But I didn’t know enough to demand that much, so frightened was I of being unemployed.
Andrea also states 8 rules for those new to pay negotiation. Well worth checking out for anyone who has to set their own rates.
Earn More Money by Demanding It - [Wisebread]
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Comments
Shawna R. B. Atteberry says on August 27th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Thank you so much for introducing me to Wisebread. It’s a wonderful site.
Andrea D. says on August 29th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Thanks so much for the linkage! It’s really great to have your readers sharing their thoughts on the topic.
billny says on November 30th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Make sure they pay you. The best thing to do is get an account with freelancepay.com, there you can have money escrowed and if they don’t pay you, you can file a claim and usually get your payment. It’s a safe site to find people looking for freelancers also. Good Luck.
billny says on November 30th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
and if they don’t pay you bash them Good Luck.
Nicky Mares says on February 24th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Cheated by Client Story
The work done for this project may be seen at http://nickysworld.net.
I was hired for a straightforward case of web design; this person approved of
the work; she discussed ongoing maintenance and requested that I
upload the site and supplied the account info in order for me to do
so. The agreement to maintain the site was made on my part only in
exchange for the unused disk space on the server, and free of charge;
basically an act of good will and the best intentions on my part; she
also requested to pay half at that point, half after upload; here is
when things got interesting. Although my policy is work first, pay
later, upload last; on the assumption that I would be maintaining the
site I foolishly thought I could trust the her.
This person never paid half first but I went ahead and uploaded the
site. Agh. A few days later she informed me that the site was “funky”
and had reverted seemingly by itself to its previous state, which was
a generic template that she had made using the template builder
provided with the web host. Hmm. This time she made a $50 payment,
which was 1/2 of the ‘half first’ or 1/4 of the total payment;
requesting me to again upload the site, and informing of the new
password to the account, which had inexplicably been changed. Ok-? In
an effort to be helpful I stated the obvious in asking this person
whether she had used the template builder, which still had the old
copy of the template stored, which the client denied as if being
accused of something.
It was only a few days later when no further payment or instructions
appeared from the client that I realized what was happening. Ms.
Menage had waited for me to upload the site, then promptly changed the
password to shut me out. The client then stupidly attempted to use the
template builder to modify the new website, inadvertently reinstating
the old one by mistake. I sent a two-page email, which went
unanswered, patiently explaining the differences between the template
editor and alternative means to edit the site, something I had
contacted her about two weeks earlier, requesting to set a time when
we could put our heads together to implement a customized solution; a
request that also had gone unanswered. I then wrote another two emails
over the course of two days patiently explaining my position in our
agreement, all the things I had done and were willing to do for the
benefit of her website, and explaining that the agreed upon fee for
the site was more than $50.
After a few days this person responded. This time I had apparently
crossed the line and been irrevocably disrespectful in some way with
my ’smart comments’; and no further pay would be forthcoming. Two
separate conversations are presented below.
Sadly, it is apparent that THIS CLIENT NEVER INTENDED TO PAY ME. It is
unfortunate that so many take advantage of Craigslist’s open market
system to cheat and connive their way through the system. Thank you
for taking the time to listen.
On 2/17/08, I wrote: (this is a small part of a 2-page letter)
Okay. Please don’t confuse content management with that Globuild
template builder they have got up on there. Templates are very limited
in that they can only allow you to change pictures and stuff around
within the look and style of a premade layout.
——————————— (etc.) ————————-
Because this is kind of starting to drag on and it seems we haven’t
been communicating very well and time has been getting wasted. I have
been trying to do everything you wanted me to do but when I asked you
a couple of weeks ago if we could set up a time to hook you up with
the content management you never got back to me; then last week you
On 2/17/08, Tanisha Clayton wrote: (apparently replying to a
completely different conversation)
> no. Any what else is new with this?
On 2/17/08, I wrote:
What part of what I said are you saying no to? I don’t know what else
is new with this because I don’t know what you are expecting me to do.
On 2/19/08, Tanisha Clayton wrote:
I dont even remember what this email was about. What’s with the bad
attitude? I spoke with Danielle and she says that you are very rude.
On 2/18/08, I wrote:
> Please complete payment for the site this week. You have my ongoing full support for minor issues such as technical problems with Globat, in addition to the number of pages in the Cover section, ad placement, and anything else relating to content management; in exchange for the extra space on the server I will be here to continuously support and update the site. But this is dragging on for too long and I really don’t know what more you expect from me. Please don’t dole out payments at me $50 at a time like that. This is a business and I am worth more than that.
On 2/19/08, Tanisha Clayton wrote:
I know that and I really don’t need all the smart comments. For all
that you can keep the $50 and take down the site. you and I both know
why I asked to only pay $50 and further you saw for your self that
something was funky with the site. Now that it’s up I have no problem
paying the remainder balance. The problem that I have is the smart
attitude further irritating me is the fact that I just got my email up
and running only to see emails like the one below.
And my “rude” email to her referral, Danielle:
What changes will you be wanting to make on a monthly basis? I assume
you said something about having monthly specials on there so we can do
that. I can start by suggesting that we put your slideshow from your
myspace page on to your brands page, instead of having “To view
current collections click here” link to your myspace page - that seems
kinda unprofessional. Also having “for map and directions click here”
link to Msn Live Maps is pretty sad especially since it is only
showing a map of the entire western half of the U.S. on my computer
when I click on it. I really hope you didn’t have to pay your previous
webmaster to create this for you.