Inauguration Day – a new beginning. Much like New Year’s and our penchant for resolutions, today’s a day where we ignore the harsh realities and try to find that silver lining among numerous clouds. I sit here hopeful, yet people being people, I know it won’t be long before the political maneuvering will hit full throttle and attempts to change for the better (or worse – but any attempt is better than inertia) will be drowned out by the power plays, the mud slinging, etc. ad nauseum. It makes me want to shake people and shout “Grow up already!” Playground games and politics bug me no end.
Nevertheless, we writers are steeped in a new economy. We knew long before the word “recession” was allowed to be acknowledged that things had changed for the worse. Ironically, those changes have made it easier for some of us to find work. I worked my best year last year. Will that repeat itself this year? Time will tell. I’m nervous. Each layoff and corporate failure may pour immediate work into our laps, but there’s a point where the work will dry up because of good old supply-and-demand.
I’ve heard one or two writers actually admitting to rethinking their rates in order to gain more work. Is that wise? If so, how low would you go in order to accommodate a client and secure business? If not, why should we stay at our current rates? And if you’re raising your rates, how tough a sell will that be in this economy?
I’m standing firm for now. My cost of living is still rising. My kid is still in college. My bills are still coming in. Will I lower them in the future? That depends.
My opinion is you should lower your rates only if you can justify it. If the workload is light or if it won’t take you long to complete it or it leads to more work (that pays better or the same), do it. That’s going to require a bit more examination of the project and the goals and how you and the client are communicating. There’s no reason why you should lower your rates and then find out the job entails a lot more than you expected, or that the client is too scattered to make your price worthwhile.
Thoughts?
8 responses to “Would You Settle For Less?”
I commented on this on Peter Bowerman’s blog. I think it’s a slippery slope, because once you lower your rate, the client is going to fight you when you raise it again when things get better.
I think it’s got to be on a case-by-case basis. If you know your client’s going through a rough patch, and you’ve had a positive, reliable relationship with the client in the past, I think it’s okay to consider it on a project basis, and make it clear in the contract that this rate is for THIS PROJECT ONLY.
The work is out there, especially with all the downsizing and unemployment. Our bills aren’t going down, our cost of living isn’t lowering — if the bills went down, that would be one thing, but they don’t, so I think it’s important to charge for value.
Once you start practically giving away your work, you are telling clients it’s okay not to value your expertise and skill, and you are sending a message that you’ve been overcharging them in the past.
I think there are exceptions to be made, but, overall, if your rate is reasonable — stick to it.
Stand firm, IMHO. Imagine trying to raise rates back to normal when the economy is better. Yikes!
I’m with you, Lori — standing firm. So far, though, I’ve lucked out — my biggest client hasn’t suffered at all in the economy, so they’re still sending me tons of work!
I think if writers find their workload is suffering in the current economy, a better approach than lowering rates would be to offer an additional service for free as part of the package price. Dangle a carrot — it doesn’t have to be time-consuming or extremely valuable, and it keeps you from having to fight clients later on in order to bring your rates back up!
I’ve lowered my rate for one project I really want to do… then I changed my roll from writer to coach… suspect I’ll come out ahead and I also am taking 10%, something I rarely do.
But, as I said, it’s a project I really wanted to do.
On the whole, however, I’m not budging… might even raise my rates a bit.
ot – I’m so grateful for the change in administration!
I don’t know that I’m lowering rates this year. I am however considering not selling off some of the articles I have in the works and instead use them for my own upcoming projects (more writing for myself you could say). I’ve already decided to use one of the pieces I’m working on for myself. Who knows where I’ll be with the next one.
I’m going to take an unpopular stance here and admit that I am sometimes willing to accept less money than I normally command. Not because I desperately need the work (I don’t), but because there are other factors in play.
For instance, if someone offered me a regular gig writing theater reviews (my other love) and I sensed that the editor was low-maintanence, I wouldn’t quibble over the pay. There’s something to be said for work that is a) regular b) uncomplicated and c) feeds a personal passion. But I’d know that in order to compensate, I need to take other higher paying gigs that might not be as interesting. That, to me, is a worthwhile trade-off.
Like Susan, I will take less for certain projects — something I really want on my portfolio, for instance, or a project I know will be unusually easy to complete. However, this is the exception, not the rule.
Something that hasn’t been brought up here, but bears noting — if you lower your rates overall in order to increase your workload, you could very well end up doing more work for the same amount of money!
Bingo, Katharine. Exactly the point I wanted to make but my brain wouldn’t churn out. :))
Susan, I agree with you, too. Yours is not an unpopular stance – if I come across work that’s easy and the rates are acceptable (not as high), I’ll take it. What I won’t do is the moment the client hesitates, slash my rates just to score the job. I don’t see how showing too much accommodation at the beginning will ever serve anyone’s purpose.