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March 11th, 2015
Stuck on Pricing Your Work? Ask Better Questions
One of the questions that freelancers, creative entrepreneurs and micro-business owners like us can get stuck on is “How do I price my work?”. In fact, sometimes a few google searches can take you straight from that question to asking “What the heck do I even need to know so I can start pricing my work?!”.
There are no two ways around it, pricing your work is complicated. Not because it’s unknowable, but because it’s a loaded topic. It makes you think about what you’re “worth” and brings up all kinds of feelings about money. And I bet they’re not Scrooge McDuck’s feelings.
But if you consider a few key things, you can make sure your pricing catches your customer’s attention in a good way, and that you have a business that carries you toward your goals and dreams.
Today I’ve put together a few questions that are worth asking when pricing your work that can help you make sure you cover all angles when you’re working this out. You can use it for new products and as a way to check in with what you already offer.
But this isn’t just about earning less than you’re worth. Pricing your work intentionally can have a huge impact on your life.
When I started working as a web designer, I charged $350 for blog designs and $650 for a website designs. The pricing was based a little on time and mostly on how my partner and I felt we were worth. I was self-taught and designing part-time, and any money I earned seemed like an exciting vote of confidence. (It still does!)
It was exciting to work for myself, so when my freelance work and other online income added up to a part-time income, I quit my day job and added more design work to fill in the new availability in my schedule.
But I didn’t adjust my pricing.
My business has never been a hobby. I needed to make sure I could help with our monthly bills and mortgage payments. Due to my prices being too low, I accepted many projects and needed always to be working. My overconfident and optimistic outlook on pricing quickly had me taking on too many projects, and feeling like I never saw my husband.
I soon realized that I couldn’t double my output without needing more time to recharge. And work on my business. And adjust my prices to course correct. But, I already had accepted a waiting list of clients expecting to pay my bargain basement prices.
Five years later I wish I could travel back in time and hug that younger version of myself.
Well, hug her and then make her spend an afternoon with me so we could take her enthusiasm and great ideas and turn them into a business that pays the bills and supports her sanity!
Since I got serious about business and pricing, the changes have been profound.
Using the same skills I had when I started, in the last three and a half months, I’ve made over $36,000 USD in sales.
That’s what I made in my first year of working for myself. I had to pinch myself when I saw it.
And I’m doing it by working less, having a great life I look forward to every day and genuinely helpful people who want to build amazing online businesses and to learn how to create a healthy business for themselves.
I’m not saying that there’s a shortcut to success (it’s taken me years) but there are potholes you can avoid that will make your journey more direct.
Want to dig into pricing? Get your free worksheets!
To help make pricing easier, I’ve made you a book of worksheets that helps you ask & answer strategic questions about:
- What you should take into account when pricing your time
- How to tell if your idea is in a tested & true area for business.
- How the journey your customers are on should affect your prices.
- What experiences you’re creating for your clients & how that
DOWNLOAD YOUR
FREE PRICING WORKSHEET
And learn more about how to make marketing your business uncomplicated.
Pricing your work means you have to get comfortable with people attaching a dollar amount to your ideas. No matter who you are, you’re going to have feelings about that, especially at first.
But what you learn as you work through pricing becomes part of your superpowers. And that helps you become a badass business version of your sweet self.
Dayum, girl! That income is amazing!
Thanks for commenting, Ashley! I’ve never shared exact sales numbers until now, but I feel like it’s a helpful thing to share because it speaks to how profound the change has been once I worked on getting my pricing, and then my business model in order. It’s why I want to help other creatives with this stuff, because it can be so much easier & more rewarding. And ultimately, if we’re not stretched thin & stressed out, our clients get much better results!
I just wanted to pop by and say thank you! I’ve been (quietly) enjoying all of your emails. This one is the best, with freelance designing hopefully in my future. :) I’ve been hearing a lot about value based pricing from Sean Wes, and it seems like it’s really awesome, but at the same time a totally scary thing to start doing! You rock. :)
Thank you for stopping by Michelle, I really appreciate it! And I can’t wait to see your freelance work :) Value based pricing is a really important idea that more people need to hear about. What I like about this workbook approach is that it lets you make sure that you’re covering your costs so we can stop undercharging, and then you can play with the profit margin you’d like to make. That lets you explore different value based price point while making sure you’re not guessing or low balling. Small steps add up, keep it up! :)
This is great! I can’t wait to use these for pricing any prints I end up making and even my marketing/consulting work! I like that you talk realistically about $.
Thank you for taking the time to comment, Britt! It’s great to hear your perspective because money is a hard topic and I haven’t talked about it much before. I just try to be candid and forthcoming and to share my experiences whenever I can. If you ever have a question you need answered, don’t hesitate to reach out! :)
This is fantastic, Kyla! Thank you so much for being so transparent and honest. I really appreciate posts like this, and the ones that Erin Flynn does with her monthly income/expenses. As someone looking to “make the jump”, it helps me measure where I’m at and when/if I’m ready.
Another thing I’m not sure people take into account when they price their work is that *under-valuing your work de-values the work of everyone in your field*. I have discussed this at length with a friend who is a photographer, and it’s really true. You owe it to yourself and everyone in your industry to price your products/services fairly and competitively.
Absolutely, that’s such an interesting argument. It’s easy to get stuck on what we feel we’re worth when you’re pricing, but concentrating on others is a great way to circumvent that! And there’s a lot to focus on, from the value that we create for the people we help, to what impact that pricing will have on your industry.
I know that for myself, when I was massively undercharging I really didn’t have much information about the industry because I was self taught and very new. Yet another reason that it’s important to find your people and connect with them! Thanks for commenting Mandi!
Bravo, Mandi! I wish more people got this. In my industry, so many writers work for free that it devalues all of us. There are tons of companies who think they can pay next to nothing for a writer’s time, and sadly, they’re right!
Even look at Huffpost. They make millions every year, but can’t afford to pay the writers who drive traffic to their site and got them where they are? Really? Even a token $50 per article would be nothing to them.
Stuff like that drives me crazy.
Wow, absolutely. I came across an interesting post the other day about how exposure is not a form of payment, and that’s exactly what HuffPo and many of those sites are counting on us thinking. Design and writing have other parallels too, and a big one of which is the prevalence of spec work and contests that normalize the idea that our work is worth next to nothing. The AIGA in America and other professional organizations have made a huge efforts to bring attention to companies having logo design competitions etc. I haven’t heard of copywriting competitions, so maybe it’s happening in different ways in writing. But there were many times I was asked to write and copy edit when I worked in small marketing departments, and I would get puzzled reactions when I said that I wasn’t qualified or trained to do that. I mean, come on! Just look at my comma usage! It’s the wild west over here!
It’s so important to know your worth and to stick to your guns – and I’m proud of you for doing that.