Setting Your Freelance Price List

If you are a freelancer, then you know that more than half of your work has nothing to do with clients. You have to set up your website, prepare advertisements, make phone calls and design professional documents. The clients only come after you have established your business in your home, and even then, your work has not been completed. Since you have no employer other than yourself, you don't start making money until you are contracted for projects.

When you set your price list, you will not only be thinking about the time and energy you will spend on a particular project, but also your overhead, business time and business expenses. These two factors don't concern your clients, but since your sole source of income is via various projects, those costs translate into the prices for your work.

If you are just starting out in the freelance world, you have many tasks ahead of you. The first, of course, is setting your price list, and determing how many projects you can take on at once. If you simply jump into the business without a thought to other circumstances, you will either end up with too much work to complete, or no clients because your prices are too high or too low.

Should my prices reflect those of other businesses?

It is important to do research on the industry standard for your particular business. If you are a freelance photographer, how much are other photographers charging for their services, and how much do companies charge for the same thing? You can search your industry on the Internet and come up with a list of websites owned by other photographers. The price lists on those websites can give you a jumping-off point.