¶ Pricing Strategies for Freelancers
Hello and welcome to Boss Responses. Our co-host for our very first week is the wonderful Jennifer Goforth Gregory. Jennifer brings 15 years of freelance content marketing experience to our conversation. She also shares her experiences and guidance with other content writers, including me, and she wrote the best-selling book, the Freelance Content Marketing Writer.
If you haven't read that, check it out. Jennifer also founded and manages the Freelance Content Marketing Writer Facebook group. I can personally say both are amazing. I'm really looking forward to our conversation today and for the rest of the week, and I hope you are too.
If you're a freelancer, business owner or anyone who deals with clients, you're in the right place. I'm your host, teresa Edmond. I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt, imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asks a question. I wasn't ready for.
I created this podcast to empower you with the Boss Responses you need to grow your business. Each week, my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights. Monday through Thursday, we answer your questions, and Fridays we dive deep to explore how our co-host embraced their role as the boss of their business. Welcome to Boss Responses.
Let's go ahead and jump into the first Boss Responses question.
So the first question is one that I'm often asked by writers, so it's a great way to start. I've been approached by a new client for a project and they wanted to know about rates. I think my rates are fair and I know I've got the skills to back them up, but I'm worried that if I quote too high, the client might walk away.
Super common, Every writer feels this way. You need to work right now, but you're hung up on this more than normal because the imposter syndrome which all of us feel is hitting hard. I know I won't be happy if I quote the project too low, and I want this to be win-win. So what's your take on this? I know you hear this one a lot as well.
One. I always feel so much empathy for this because the imposter syndrome hits me on any big project, especially books. I always recommend that first remove yourself from the equation. That gets rid of the imposter syndrome. Value is the value to the client of your project.
So if you remove yourself from the equation, then you can actually look at what is this worth to the client. So if the client's only willing to pay $200 for a thousand-word blog post, you have to look at that value and see whether or not you're willing to make that compromise. If it is actually worth $1,000 to them, then there's no problem quoting that price.
So I recommend that you consider the client. You need the work. So what are you willing to give up for that, if anything? And I recommend that you don't make compromises. If you work for a client who is low paying and does not respect the value of your work, then they are never going to respect your value as a professional.
They're never going to be a great client, and you could actually spend that time looking for better clients. So go with the quote. Look at the value, Be fair with it. You don't have to gouge people. I have found over the years, though, and I bet you found this too, Jennifer. If I raise my rates, my clients don't blink.
Yep, I totally agree. You have to take the personal part out of it and if you are charging professional rates, you're going to be more expensive too expensive for 75% of the clients, in my opinion. So it's not bad that you're too expensive. It just means that's not your client.
If someone walks into a Mercedes dealership and complains that their prices are too high, that they can get a Honda I like Hondas but they're different. They're different products and the Mercedes dealership doesn't care because they just give them directions to Honda, because it's a different client. So if they're not willing to pay your rates, that's okay.
And I totally agree with you that if you take one that's too low paying, I think it costs you money because you could use that time. If they're not willing to pay your rates, then they're not your clients and that's okay. I tried to go. I'm a terrible negotiator. I, if I put a price, I should feel a little nauseous about it.
It should feel a little high to me. And if I over quote, that's okay, because if you if this is the thing I think if you over quote a little bit, they're going to negotiate down Exactly. If you're way too high, then it's not the over quoted it's, that's not your client.
So if they're only willing to pay a thousand and you quote 1300, they're going to say, hey, my budget thousands at work and you say yes or no. But if they're budget 200 and you quote 1300, that's not your client.
That's exactly right and that's an important thing to remember. Not everyone is the client you should be working with, even if you like them. Yes, because I have accepted clients and I have charged them less because I really wanted to work with them. I felt for the project, I loved it, I wanted to do that, I wanted to write that book.
Every single time by the end of the project, I end up resenting them and the project because I know it was worth more than that and I know that they would have respected me more in the process if I had demanded that respect up front by respecting myself. And that's the big thing. So it's it. That's how we get rid of imposter syndrome.
We respect the fact that we have put in the time and the effort to learn this craft. We have the skills built up and we know how to do this. They are hiring you because they can't or they don't have the time, so they're depending on your expertise for a reason. So get rid of that and charge your value. Any final words? Yep.
The other thing I do is if a client offers a price to me, I always add 10, 15% because they, if you have a client that is not a customer, they can't do that because they likely built in. Can we do X? Because they likely built in some negotiating room? If they didn't, they'll tell you.
And if you get $100 on every post additional, that really adds up over the year. So I recommend always doing that. But my other final thought is run your price by somebody. Have another writer and in car, because if you, if you do it, you're not going to be able to do it, They'll ask you to do it.
If you're not a customer, if you're a person, if you want to go for it, then you're more likely to do it. The third is figure out how you're bravest. I can't do it over the phone, I'm better in email and if someone asks for rates on the phone like and that this doesn't work for everybody, I say I'm a terrible negotiator.
It feels authentic and it works for my personality that I never caught over the Zoom, so I'm gonna email that to you and they're laughing at this point, but I'm real too.
Yeah, that actually. Yeah, it drives that humanity home and it makes you someone they want to work with. I never, ever on my discovery call, give a price. If they even ask what the range is one in that discovery call I wanna know their budget range. I asked them that, so they're the ones giving me the numbers on that call. I'm not giving them numbers.
If they ask, what do you give a ballpark, then I'll say projects like this usually start at and I'll put it somewhere in the top two thirds of their budget range. And then I look at the proposal and I send it out. And I always send my proposals with three rates because I'm usually doing larger projects. I hardly ever do a one-off blog.
A one-off blog, I'm just gonna give someone price. But I give them three rate options. One is very basic, only what you need to finish the job, and then that's usually the lower price range. It usually hits the middle of their budget because I know their budget. The next one is value added.
It's all of this stuff, it's a more complete project and it gives me a chance to show my expertise. And then I always include one. That's everyone in the
¶ Solving Pain Points and Proposals
kitchen sink. So if we talked in that conversation and they brought up a pain point that they're feeling that I can solve.
I offer to solve that in my proposal and it is amazing, it's probably an 80% of my clients will choose that highest paying package every time they're like, oh, not only is she doing what we need, she's making life easier, so have confidence in that.
If it's a bigger project, give them three quotes, so start with the one that is I can do this, but I'm just doing it, and then make yourself really happy with that top one.
Perfect. I agree with all of that. I love that three. I normally don't do the bigger projects, but I think if you're doing that, I think it makes a lot of sense.
All right. Thank you, jennifer, and we'll talk again tomorrow. And thank you for joining us for our first episode of the Boss Responses podcast. If you'd like to learn more about Jennifer and the resources she offers, please check out the show notes. We have links to her newsletters, to her website and to her book.
Also, make sure you join us for the rest of the week, as Jennifer helps us answer more listener questions, and on Friday we'll learn more about her, her business and how she runs her business like a boss.