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The easiest way to raise your rates is to raise your rates. Totally not joking. One of the reasons tptacek and I go on the war path about this is that us geek

by patio11 14y ago

The easiest way to raise your rates is to raise your rates. Totally not joking. One of the reasons tptacek and I go on the war path about this is that us geeks seem to be culturally abominable at properly pricing things. I mean, half the comments on the $1,000 an hour rate are people who a) are geeks selling services and b) want the geek to lose. There are other ways to raise your rates: 1) Specialize in a particular thing which is in-demand by... 2) ... savvy clients who receive a high, easily quantifiable value from it and ... 3) ... has limited competition available. But even HNers who do, e.g., commodity PHP web development could probably get 50-100% more just by turning down anyone who doesn't pay 50-100% more.

reubenswartz 14y ago
Great advice. Another way to think of it is to look for areas that companies often have teams of people working for weeks (or months) to solve a problem that you can solve in a fraction of the time. If they are spending $100K to not solve the problem, asking for $120K to solve it in two months is a good deal for both sides. You can never get more than your perceived differential value, but buyers will be happy to pay you far less if that's OK with you. ;-)
codegeek 14y ago
I completely agree with all the points. The key is to find a specialized/niche domain where demand is high but competition is limited. But in some cases, you can just ask for a raise and it might work. It is very common that lot of people are afraid to ask for a raise thinking they won't get it.
nicholassmith 14y ago
I think it's the fear point of 'if I do this and put my prices up, what happens if I get no clients'. Which of course is a reasonable thing to be scared of, and if it doesn't work then drop your prices back and work out what you can do to be more valuable.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
xiaoma 14y ago
Any thoughts on how to land the jobs to begin with? So far the largest gig I've landed was actually due to my comments about the hiring market if you're not at the top end. 3) is definitely the hard part. People all over the world realize there's money to be made and have joined into the labor pool for programming, design or pretty much any sort of creative class service. Some of those people are unskilled, but others are on par with workers in expensive countries.
aymeric 14y ago
Hi Patrick, I have actually experienced with my own rates over the course of a year, and found that there is an upper limit where clients don't call back after the first project because it is too expensive. I think the nature of the work you do is as important as your public credibility when it comes to rates. For example, if a lead comes from someone recommending me, I can easily charge more.
- aymeric 14y ago
  experienced -> experimented

by patio11 14y ago

reubenswartz 14y ago

Great advice. Another way to think of it is to look for areas that companies often have teams of people working for weeks (or months) to solve a problem that you can solve in a fraction of the time. If they are spending $100K to not solve the problem, asking for $120K to solve it in two months is a good deal for both sides. You can never get more than your perceived differential value, but buyers will be happy to pay you far less if that's OK with you. ;-)

codegeek 14y ago

I completely agree with all the points. The key is to find a specialized/niche domain where demand is high but competition is limited. But in some cases, you can just ask for a raise and it might work. It is very common that lot of people are afraid to ask for a raise thinking they won't get it.

nicholassmith 14y ago

I think it's the fear point of 'if I do this and put my prices up, what happens if I get no clients'. Which of course is a reasonable thing to be scared of, and if it doesn't work then drop your prices back and work out what you can do to be more valuable.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

xiaoma 14y ago

Any thoughts on how to land the jobs to begin with? So far the largest gig I've landed was actually due to my comments about the hiring market if you're not at the top end. 3) is definitely the hard part. People all over the world realize there's money to be made and have joined into the labor pool for programming, design or pretty much any sort of creative class service. Some of those people are unskilled, but others are on par with workers in expensive countries.

aymeric 14y ago

Hi Patrick, I have actually experienced with my own rates over the course of a year, and found that there is an upper limit where clients don't call back after the first project because it is too expensive. I think the nature of the work you do is as important as your public credibility when it comes to rates. For example, if a lead comes from someone recommending me, I can easily charge more.

aymeric 14y ago
experienced -> experimented