The Ruby Freelancers Show 006 – Setting Your Rate

Podcast: | (Duration: 1:04:20 — 88.4MB)

Doubling your rate and doubling your business
Exchange of value
Communication counts
Rate setting is about perception
Experiment with your rate
The “gasp technique”
Sales confidence
You may be able to charge more if you can get it done quickly.
Freelance Switch Rate Calculator
Take your yearly salary and divide by $1,000
Rate based on your cost
The cost of employing a person is something you have to cover
“Do the hustle” – Obie Fernandez
What is the minimum that Rails developers should be charging? $100/hour? $150/hour?
Talk to people who do what you do and see if they tell you to raise your rate
If they want you to subcontract to you, you might be too low
Look for subcontracting opportunities if you’re willing to lower your rate and pass off the marketing, etc.
Do you lower the rate or negotiate if the client wants lower?
Correlation between your rate and your value
Don’t give discounts, negotiate your rate
If you speak first, ask for $20/hour more than your normal rate so you can negotiate to what you want
Put your price out there to filter requests
“We fix $5 haircuts.”
Rescue work
Fixed bids
Estimate, add padding, multiply by rate, and round up
Bid on putting in a bid
PERT methodology

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

March 11, 2012 at 1:47 pm: Great show! Another way to work with clients that might think your rate is too high (or that have a low budget) is to adjust the scope of the project. That allows you to start the working relationship and often times, by the end of the project, they will realize that you are “worth every penny”.

August 30, 2012 at 10:49 am: Brad:

That’s exactly what I do. Reduce the scope and the value they will get from the project so their investment is less money. Depending on how you reduce the scope, you can sometimes do another round later once there is trust and you’ve demonstrated your value.

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