Getting your pricing right for a freelance project is important not just from a cash flow perspective, but your project pricing can also impact your overall financial well-being, not to mention your brand positioning. Pricing can telegraph a lot to potential clients, so it’s best to avoid undercharging or selling yourself short.
Furthermore, when pricing your freelance project, there are more things to consider than just the actual hours worked on the project that will impact what and how you charge.
Here are 6 additional factors that are often overlooked.
1. Research
Will your project involve any research? For example, if you’re a freelance writer, you’ll likely need to undertake some research before putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
For some writers, especially those specializing in SEO and copywriting, the research element generally represents a significant part of the project.
A lot of time, thought, and energy go into research, not to mention expertise, so ensure this is taken into account in your quotation.
2. Revisions
Depending on your craft and profession, your project may incorporate revisions or alterations.
Will you charge for these separately or include their price within the overall project? You may decide to charge for all of them or allow a set amount for free.
Revisions and ad hoc changes can add more time to a project and lead to project scope creep, so ensure you’ve anticipated them beforehand (and at least stipulated your policy in your written agreement before you commence the project).
3. Cost of tools and materials
It may turn out that you need additional tools, materials or resources to successfully complete your project.
You may even need to hire someone, outsource some work or delegate tasks to another freelancer in your network.
And don’t discount the fact that you may need to invest in additional software or a more tangible tool to complete the work.
Likewise, are there any end-of-project costs, such as delivery fees, that need to be factored into your project pricing?
4. Client meetings
If you’re working on a large project with numerous moving parts, there will likely be updates and progress meetings. These could be brief, off-the-cuff catch-ups or something longer in terms of duration and intensity. It could even involve meeting up in person, not just online.
Some meetings may be more social in nature, such as team-building activities, so it’s worth considering whether to charge for these as well.
If you have to travel to a meeting, you’ll need to take into account the cost and time taken for travel. It’s better to decide upfront on how you’ll accommodate these meetings in your pricing.
5. International clients
If you have global clients, you’ll need to consider whether there are any issues regarding acceptable payment methods in their jurisdiction or any currency conversion issues. This, too, may affect the amount you charge.
Fortunately, Invoice Ninja, a leading free invoicing software for small businesses, supports a wide range of languages and currencies. You can set different languages and currencies per client.
Furthermore, Invoice Ninja provides multiple payment gateways. A payment gateway is the tech that allows your clients to pay you securely and swiftly online. Multiple payment gateways offer your clients more options for paying your invoice. Our payment gateways include Stripe, PayPal, GoCardless, and more. Plus, our BTCPay Server integration means you can now receive Bitcoin payments directly to your wallet with no fees.
Try Invoice Ninja for free here.
6. Your process
Your process, or how you go about dealing with clients, will be unique to you, so it’s worth considering all the steps you take, including the unbillable hours spent on tasks such as pitching to clients and onboarding and offboarding them. Once you think about this, you’ll likely find that you do a lot more behind-the-scenes work that contributes to the finished package.
Your experience, drive, energy, and expertise are also important factors to consider when pricing a project, as you bring all these unique, valuable assets to the table.
At the end of the day, your pricing should support your freelance income goals. While other factors, such as market rates, unbillable hours, time off, and your expenses, will also significantly influence your pricing, the above considerations provide some additional factors for you to consider when pricing your freelance project.
