How To Set Your Freelance Rates

Are you a freelancer? Do you ever wonder how much you should charge? If you charge too much, you will never land a client. If you charge too little, you won’t earn a living wage. Setting and negotiating freelance rates is challenging, so how do you set your freelance rates?

Writing, photography, graphic design, consulting, blogging, logo design, instructing, virtual assistants, and other freelance gigs all require that you set your own rates. The problem is that the range is huge. There are people out there willing to crank out full length articles for just a few bucks, while other writers command thousands of dollars for a single story. Where do you fall in the spectrum?

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The key to setting your freelance rates is to do your own calculations. Don’t base your rates on some random Internet site, forum, or book. Instead sit down and do some math to determine your freelance rates.

The first thing you need to do is to establish your personal monthly budget. How much do you need for housing? Food? Health care? Savings? Utilities? Lifestyle costs? Etc. This is how much money you need to earn on a monthly basis. You also need to budget for freelance costs such as taxes, health insurance, and expenses.  These are the costs you have to pay as a freelance contractor. Add all this up to determine how much money you need to make per month.

To calculate your hourly freelance rate, take your monthly budget and divide it by the hours you plan to work . This should give you a good idea of what to start charging. Remember that you still need to beat the competition and create outstanding work.

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Ultimately you need to factor in your experience, portfolio, talent, and location into your formula too. With a freelance career you get the benefit of a flexible lifestyle and the office-free life, where you are your own boss. Set your freelance goals and see if you can achieve them. With a bit of hard work, freelancing might be the perfect match for you.

Freelancing isn’t for everyone, but if you thrive in an environment where you make your own schedule, run your own business, and set your own freelance rates, then you’ll love the freelance lifestyle. Are you ready to give it a try?