May 25th, 2007 in Money
The Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator
When you work freelance, you generally have the luxury of setting your own hourly rate - if you bill hourly.
This is tricky for anyone starting out, because you don’t really know what you should be charging. Talking with your peers and employers helps a lot, but isn’t always enough. Particularly if you have a specific budget in mind.
FreelanceSwitch, a fast growing network of resources for freelancers, has created an hourly wage calculator that can help you decide what to charge your clients.
I tried it, and, as fickle as my budget can get, it was very accurate.
For whatever field you work in, try this out, and see if you may be charging too little to suit your lifestyle.
Hourly Rate Calculator - [FreelanceSwitch]
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Comments
Matthew Cornell says on May 27th, 2007 at 9:16 am
I think an hourly rate calculator is a bad idea, mainly because it starts off with a deep assumption that completely limits what you can charge. Check out “Value-based fees”, the book by Alan Weiss. It turns the table by first talking with the client about the value you provide, deferring talk of fees until later; and you charge fees that are *much* higher than a simple (limiting) $/hr…
More at “Books, value, fees, and major changes in perspective”: http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2.....es-in.html
Ron Wilson says on May 28th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
It’s actually quite common for small businesses and frelancers to use a cost-plus approach to setting rates. But common doesn’t mean correct.
Your clients don’t care what your costs are. They’re going to evaluate your fees based on “value” to them and on what your competition charges.
And, I’ll second what Matt said. When you set rates this way, you stand a good chance of leaving money on the table.