Ryan Robinson recently published an enlightening graphic for freelancers on his blog. It includes great tips for calculating your hourly rate, which he gave permission to use, here.
If you do freelance work, and you feel like it's always tricky to make ends meet, this information makes it perfectly clear why that may be happening.
Ryan notes,
"What is your time really worth?
When you're a freelancer, it can be really hard to tell. As a full-time employee, your salary also takes into consideration business costs like health care, licensing, taxes, and other business essentials -- but when you work for yourself, you've got to cover all of that and more.
Often, in the interest of netting new clients and seeming like a more attractive hire, freelancers will charge as little as possible, hoping to make up for your low rates by sheer volume. This kind of pricing, which photographer Sue Bryce calls a "survival rate," is extremely risky, because it doesn't take into account the ebb and flow of work, nor does it allow you to grow your business by expanding markets or investing in marketing.
When you charge enough to not only survive, but thrive, says Sue, "you find better prospects and clients. It is that simple."
"You find people who can pay what you need to earn--then you ask them for it," she explains.
Ryan designed a great graphic to help freelancers figure this out. It's a large one, so it appears below in chunks.
How much to you want/need to make?
