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The section on setting your price is bad advice. There's no consideration for covering your business costs, your living costs, taxes, credit card processing co

The section on setting your price is bad advice. There's no consideration for covering your business costs, your living costs, taxes, credit card processing costs, or even what the minimum wage rate is ($15/hr would actually be below the Australian minimum wage, for example). There's lots of Freelance Rate Calculators out there that can give you better direction, here's a few selected semi-randomly: https://motivapp.com/freelance-hourly-rate-calculator https://motivapp.com/freelance-hourly-rate-calculator http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/hourly-rate-calculator http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/hourly-rate-calculator https://hourlyrate.beewits.com/ https://hourlyrate.beewits.com/ There is one redeeming feature in the pricing suggestion (for beginners), and that is it might stop analysis paralysis. It's better to actually get out there & undersell yourself the first time, than to stress so much that you never even get your first client.

taprun 10y ago
The problem with those calculators is that they are based upon your desires, not on your customers. If I needed $40K per year to maintain my lifestyle and I invented a cure for cancer, would I only charge $40k? Similarly, if I needed $100 per hour to maintain my style of living, should I demand $100 to someone who wants to hire me as a doorman? He'd never pay that much.
- SyneRyder 10y ago
  You're right that value based pricing [ie what it's worth to the customer] is a better approach. Both the Freshbooks book Breaking The Time Barrier [1] and Brennan Dunn's website [2] are good resources on those. But they might be too advanced for someone just starting out. You do need to determine what your own base costs are though, at least to ensure you're not going backwards. The calculators I linked to above at least help with starting to think about those costs. [1] https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/breakingthetimebarrier/ https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/breakingthetimebarrier/ [2] https://doubleyourfreelancing.com https://doubleyourfreelancing.com

taprun 10y ago

The problem with those calculators is that they are based upon your desires, not on your customers. If I needed $40K per year to maintain my lifestyle and I invented a cure for cancer, would I only charge $40k? Similarly, if I needed $100 per hour to maintain my style of living, should I demand $100 to someone who wants to hire me as a doorman? He'd never pay that much.

SyneRyder 10y ago
You're right that value based pricing [ie what it's worth to the customer] is a better approach. Both the Freshbooks book Breaking The Time Barrier [1] and Brennan Dunn's website [2] are good resources on those. But they might be too advanced for someone just starting out. You do need to determine what your own base costs are though, at least to ensure you're not going backwards. The calculators I linked to above at least help with starting to think about those costs. [1] https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/breakingthetimebarrier/ https://www.freshbooks.com/blog/breakingthetimebarrier/ [2] https://doubleyourfreelancing.com https://doubleyourfreelancing.com