Working for yourself is great but how do you know that you are billing your clients an amount that accurately reflects your worth?
Many people, especially when they are starting out in business, find it hard to set their rates correctly. Today I found a brillant report that helped me to assess my rates and make sure that I am charging a rate that is correct for me and for my clients.
If you are a freelancer then check out the freelance salary survey.
If you are impatient, the salary information by job title starts on page 15
of the pdf.
As well as the salary information there is also lots of other interesting
facts and figures. For example men get paid, on average, 12% more than
their female freelancing counterparts.
While flexibility of working life is an obvious bonus and attraction to
going freelance or working for yourself the downside is that we have less
security, in this survey 32% of freelancers had a notice period of one week.
While there is plenty of food for thought in the survey it is also a useful tool to make sure you are on the right track with your billing.
I found this survey on a day when I was sitting down to work out a quote for
a client so I was glad to see that my hourly rates are reasonable and
realistic. Something clients don't always realise when they first hear
the amount.
Mind you if they have
never commissioned writing or marketing work before how are they to know what
the going rate is? When I can see that they are nervous at the figures I
try and put it in perspective for them.
For example, if I am writing a website, I ask them how much an average
client is worth to them. This shows that if they get x new clients from a
website I write it will have paid for itself. Or ask them how much
they charge for their time and point out that in paying me they get to free up
their time to earn more money.
It is all about demonstrating the benefit to them. I get paid once, but the work I do for them should keep on paying them.
That link again for all you freelancers to make sure you are getting paid what you are worth - freelance salary survey.
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