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7 Pricing Resources to Help You Set Your Freelancing Rate

by Laura Spencer

on May 13, 2013

in Freelancing Basics Marketing

Learn how to earn $125 or more per hour as a freelancer – Free Test Drive

One of the biggest struggles that all freelancers face is deciding what rate to charge for their services.

For one thing, it’s hard to know what the market rate is because there’s a lot of conflicting information out there. And also, many freelancers are afraid that if they charge a reasonable rate for their services they will lose potential clients.

Well, help is on the way. This post will give you some tools and pointers to help you determine your freelance rate. If you like this post, you may also find these posts helpful:

7 Pricing Resources

Here is a list of pricing tools, many of which are free, to help you decide what to charge for your freelancing services.

Keep in mind that most of these tools are designed to help you calculate an hourly rate. If you want to charge by the project, simply estimate the number of hours you think you’ll spend on the project and multiply it by the hourly rate.

In no particular order, here is a list of seven freelancer pricing tools:

  1. Freelancer Rate Calculator at AddedBytes blog. This is a helpful free tool for UK freelancers since it is based on the pound. It also lets you set a tax rate, which can be very important. You can also download this tool in spreadsheet form.
  2. Planscope. This multifunctional tool allows the client to work with the freelancer to determine a budget for a project, among other features. It is not a rate calculator, but this could be helpful for larger projects. However, the tool is not free. The tool also includes other project management aspects.
  3. Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator from All Freelance Writing. This free tool lets you start with what you want to earn and backs you into what you need to charge per hour. There is an advanced and a simple version of this tool. It is intended for freelance writers, but others may also find it useful.
  4. MyPrice iPhone App. You can download this handy free app to your iPhone, iPod, or iPad so that you can quote prices when you are not in the office. This app gives you a huge number of parameters such as being able to set your industry, experience level, and so on. The new version also lets you access their freelancing tips.
  5. The FreelanceSwitch Rate Calculator. This is a well-known and well-respected freelancing rate calculator from a popular freelancing blog. In fact, this was the first rate calculator I ever found. There’s no cost to use the calculator.
  6. Freelance Hourly Rate Calculator from Jo Waltham at Micro Business Hub. This free tool calculates rates in pounds, so if you are in the UK you may want to look at this. You will need to enter your email address to get the results. Pay special attention to the assumptions that the calculator uses.
  7. Hourly Rate Formula for Web Designers from Jennifer Kyrnin at About.com. While this is not a rate calculator, this post explains a formula that Web Designers and others can use to set rates. Be careful to read through the whole post before applying the formula.

You may find that one, or more, of these tools is helpful for your freelancing business.

More Pricing Pointers

As you set a rate for yourself, remember to consider scope creep. Nearly all projects have some scope creep. The larger the project, the more likely it is that there will be a significant amount of scope creep involved.

It’s a good idea to include a clause in your freelancing agreement about how scope creep will affect the price of the project.

Don’t forget that not all projects are the same. Some require more effort and are more challenging. It is perfectly acceptable to charge more for a difficult project than for a simple one.

Also remember, just because a calculator has come up with a rate that doesn’t mean that you are stuck with that rate. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what to charge for your freelancing services. And of course, you can choose to change that rate at any time.

Your Turn

Do you use a tool to price your freelancing services? What tool is it?

Share your answers in the comments.

Image by Digital Sextant

Learn how to earn $125 or more per hour as a freelancer – Free Test Drive

About Laura Spencer

Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 20 years of professional business writing experience. If you liked this post, then you may also enjoy Lauraâ??s blog about her freelance writing experiences, WritingThoughts. Laura is also on Google+.