If you want to be a successful freelancer, then there is one thing that you need to get down pat.

Let me share a personal story that illustrates my point.

“That’s What I’m Looking For…”

I used to do some web design work as a freelancer. One time, I was working with a client that ran a small business.

We spent some time talking through the options and looking at his current site. Things were going fine, but it wasn’t like we were really hitting it off and I didn’t get the impression that I was blowing him away with what I was saying.

Then I looked at a particular section of the site and said,

Now, I don’t want to say you’re wasting the web pages that you’re using here, but you’re definitely not using them to their full potential.

He jumped up and said, “Now, that’s what I’m looking for out of you!”

From that moment on, everything I said was like gold and we struck up a nice little deal. Continue Reading

In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, we look at moving from full-time to freelance. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you want answered, send an email to askfreelanceswitch@gmail.com.

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Credit: by Yuri Arcurs on Photodune

In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, we look at several questions from the same freelancer who is working with a tough employer. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you want answered, send an email to askfreelanceswitch@gmail.com.

I am a web developer (who sometimes gets lumped in as a web designer, as I can kind of fly front-ends) and I have been working for a very small (me + the owner) graphic design company. I have been having a number of issues with him, due probably to a combination of me being new to freelance contracting on a mid-to-long term basis (I have contracted on ad-hoc work before). I would also suggest the problem is due to his inexperience at moving away from design and becoming a project/business manager and having had little experience working with freelancers.

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Setting your rates as a freelancer can be a tough decision. You have to determine what amount you have to earn each hour in order to not only pay your bills but have a little extra left over. You have to decide what your work is worth. You have to decide what clients will be willing to pay. And once you’ve spent all that time and energy figuring out your rates, a client will come along and want to negotiate an entirely different rate.

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Photo by fuyoh!.

The following is a short story from my web design freelancing experience that took place in the earlier days of the Internet around the year 2001.

A customer that we’ll call Jack said he wanted a web site with tabs along the top of the screen like Amazon. The problem is that his site did not lend itself well to this model because it was very small and was meant to drive people to call him for his services. It wasn’t that I couldn’t create a site that resembled Amazon, it was more that his true needs were for an easily navigable web site.

He associated Amazon with easy navigation, good style and a professional look. So what he was really looking for deep down was not a specific type of navigation bar, but these three simple things: a website that was professional, easy to navigate and stylish. After I understood his true needs and explained to him that I could arrange for those needs to be met without an Amazon-copycat design, he was delighted. The client ended up doubling my quoted rate because he was so happy with the results!

So what should you do to eliminate the problem of the customer who says one thing but means another? Continue Reading

Photo by N_Creatures.

I had a client meeting this morning. This means I tossed on my best khakis, grabbed my portfolio and darted out the door feeling the rush of new business possibilities. Having already spoken to this potential client on the phone, I knew it wouldn’t be an easy sell. He had a tall order of information he wanted me to bring along. But I knew I’d be all right—I spent the night before updating my portfolio and working on rates for him.

Rates. I knew that would be the kicker.

While this new client will probably be a wonderful one, I did struggle to devise a set pricing scale for him. Why? Because he wanted a set rate for projects. Meaning one lump sum for website content. Another for brochures. One fee for a press release. And so on. Although my rates don’t vary too much, I usually give clients who want ongoing work a rate range, which gives me some flexibility in my pricing. Not this guy—he wanted one-rate fees for different projects. Continue Reading

Photo by apesara.

Part of your success as a freelancer depends on how pushy you can be. No, really—it does.

What I mean by that is you may get clients who are mum on what they want out of a project. Instead of wrapping up an unproductive meeting with such a client and going off the top of your head when creating the material they’ve requested, it’s vital to learn how to ask the right questions and probe them for the information you need.

Not only will you get more specifics to help you design more in tune with what they want, which will save you the grief of their dissatisfaction, but getting client specifications out in the open will save you time—and them money. (Especially if you work on a project-based fee.)

Here are some tips to help you get exactly what you need from your clients to produce work they’ll like. Continue Reading

Image by brunkfordbraun.

This post is part 1 of 5 in our four-author series on perfect pricing and rates.

I’m going to teach you how to raise your rates by 25% right now — and get away with it — all by using the ancient arts of negotiation and knowing your price.

I can vouch for the power of these methods: by learning a few simple negotiational tricks and analytical frameworks I’ve been able to more than double my rates in the last six months — an increase of not 25%, but 100%.

Premise 1: You’re probably under-valuing yourself

Let’s take a look at the graphic from our Freelance Switch survey showing the average hourly rates that freelancers charge.

For each of those numbers, there are plenty of freelancers charging less and plenty of freelancers charging more. Let’s forget about everyone else for a moment and focus on those freelancers charging rates significantly higher than the average. Some of them will be specialists in a lucrative niche, no doubt, but most of them will be comparable in skill to you.

Here’s the honest truth: the differences in skill between you and high-end freelancers are probably too minor and technical for most clients to notice. Continue Reading