What is Your Value?

If you're a freelancer, (writer, web designer, artist, house painter) you know how long it takes you to complete tasks in your field. In other words, you know the general value of each task.

But do you know your value?

When you work for yourself it's important to charge your client accurately. But it's a finely tuned skill learning how to do so fairly- for both parties.

How many times has a potential client asked you "what's your hourly rate?"

And when you answer, how often has the client told you that's too much? That their nephew only charges $75 to set up a website, or the last housepainter did the entire apartment in one weekend for $100 and free beers.

This is due to the fact that the value of work we freelancers perform cannot be summarized at an hourly rate.

As we gain experience we can do our jobs more efficiently in less time. And if we price by the hour we would cheat ourselves out of money since we're taking less time to do the work.

By knowing your value you will correlate the price you charge with what you deliver, not by the number of hours it takes you to complete a project.

Heres two examples with Daniel being a professional freelance copywriter:

He quotes the client $500 to write an article.
He quotes the client $500 to write an article that takes him two hours to write.

In both examples it takes two hours to write the article. But in the second the work is downplayed as the client focuses on the time thing. Who would pay $500 for two hours of work? ~ he's thinking as he reads the second one.

When it comes down to it, an experienced writer has the skills and knowledge to create gorgeous copy that has everything the client is wanting in just an hour or two. The client receives the same work in both those examples, but in the first the price is connected with the result, where the second associates the price with the amount of time it takes to create the article.

The next time you're asked what you charge, attach cost to value instead of time by removing the element of time.
That way they know they are paying for your expertise and skill and knowledge that you will deliver something of value.

How to charge by value

Your client will never know how long a project takes, only you will ever know. On top of that you will pad your schedule and use the under-promise and over-deliver strategy.

Break down tasks and deliverables separately

If you're a writer, create a page that looks like this:**
About Me web page: $100
500 word article with little research on my part: $300
500 word article with much research: $400

If you're a house painter it might look similar to this:
Three small rooms, one coat same paint: $300
Two medium rooms different paint: $350
Three small rooms, accent paint trim: $400

Be sure you break each down to what is the final product delivered to the client, not how many hours it takes to complete.

Add a timeline to each deliverable

Every project has a timeline. Do not base your timeline on how long it will take you to complete the project, rather when you will turn it in complete to the client.

Figure out how long each project takes you

and then triple it.

If you know a 1500 word article about boring machines will take you a week of research to compile, triple it and promise it to the client in three weeks.

Do this because things can always come up to delay the project. Life happens. Padding the time will ensure it's never late and your clients are always happy.

If you complete the project early sit on it until a day or two before the day you promised the client.

Under-promise and over-deliver

Laborers charge hourly, leaders charge by the value they deliver.

The value of your work is more than how many hours you log. It's the collection of all you have learned, the effort you've put out training yourself to focus, research and produce, your unique creative approach and mastery of time management that adds up to great experience.

How do you price your work? How will charging by value change your freelancing outcome? Share in the comments below!