Pinney notes that when starting out, he was caught in the middle, afraid that clients would consider his rate too high and his peers would scold him for it being too low. “It’s a real minefield,” he says. While it’s understandable to worry that a client will react badly if you quote a higher figure, Pinney says he’s never actually had a combative experience—instead he’s found that “people appreciate the candor.” Willard Foxton concurs. He is the creative director of London-based podcast company Novel; he pays day rates to a variety of professionals for writing, researching, editing and consulting work.
“I can only remember one situation where somebody asked for a day rate that was so extremely out of whack,” says Foxton, “They were asking for about 15 times what we normally pay.” The figure would’ve taken the project’s overall budget from the thousands to over a million. In short, Foxton says, “You have to be asking for really crazy money,” to shock a project manager.
Freelancers may also worry that clients secretly hope to pay as poorly as possible, but Pinney has found this isn’t really the case—indeed, when he himself hires people, he’ll let them know if their rates are too low. As does Foxton. “Recently somebody offered a day late and we said, ‘No, that’s too low!’” he says. Novel have a policy of never paying less than the London Living Wage but usually pay more, trying to ensure freelancers have parity with full-time employees.
If a freelancer comes back to Foxton and asks for a day rate that he cannot afford, he is open to negotiating in other ways. “I’m not sitting there saying, ‘I want 8 hours a day guaranteed for 10 days,’” he explains, “What I have is a job that needs to be done and an amount of money to spend on it. If that person can do a great job in two days, we’re all winners.”
Source: WePresent | How to price your work as a creative freelancer
