Still on vacation, so just leaving vapor trails….
We talk endlessly about asserting our worth, realizing our skills are valuable, marketing to clients who value those skills, etc. That begs the question: What are you worth?
Maybe a better question is this: How cheaply will you work? What conditions have to be present in order for you to accept that price? What rate is too low?
I’ll start: my lowest current rate is $50/hr. It’s for a project that takes me probably an hour to complete – some days more, some days less. The rate is per-piece, but it’s priced at $50/hr. It’s small, but it’s not taxing. In fact, it helps me keep up-to-date on the industry while earning some cash.
You? What’s your lowest? How do you justify it? What low-paying job have you taken in the past that didn’t work? Why?
ah .. knowing your worth. A topic worth exploring
The local community where I teach writing pays adjuncts $44/hr.
How do I justify it…..hmm…. I just like it I guess.
It's funny, because it's easily my lowest paying gig, but for some reason it's the one thing I do that people clamp on to…it brings the most respect (locally).
Probably 'cause it's something people know and understand, and freelancing has all these question marks for them.
Allena, is it because they also pay your taxes? If you're getting a W2, that changes the picture entirely. If not, hey, look how fantastic that looks on your resume. There's that benefit.
My lowest payer is my column.
I original started it to prove I could handle the grind of a weekly column. My then-neighbor was the editor of a small local weekly and was looking for more locals to write columns. The catch? They only pay their contributors $20. That's truly the only con.
The pros:
I can crank out a 400-500 column in less than an hour.
Because I either write my opinions or re-purpose my own interviews and press materials from my real assignments, there is little if any research time.
Total creative freedom.
If I want to, I can skip a week here or there, with zero guilt.
I'm free to re-sell the work outside of the newspaper's area of circulation. The editor even encouraged the idea of self-syndication.
Tomorrow's column is a favorite. It's all about Glee.
My low-paying stuff tends to be package deals that I've done for people who couldn't afford more. I'm not talking about big non-profits – they can afford me – but tiny start-ups or mom and pop type places that needed some good materials. If I break those projects down into an hourly rate… yikes, I don't want to think about it. But I still feel good about it, because it's always been work that I've enjoyed doing in each case and I like helping people.
well… my bottom line is higher than yours, except, of course when I'm feeling really broke.
I just quoted a super-low price on a translation project yesterday (I do French translations.) I did that because I don't have any clients or referrals built up yet for translation, and this would be my very first paid project–and I really want it. The project is a fairly long press kit for a major company, and having it in my portfolio would be the real value for me at this point.
The interesting thing to me, as a newbie freelancer, has been pricing my first couple of writing clients. If I quote too high, and I could lose a valuable opportunity to build up my portfolio. On the other hand, a quote that's too low could earn me a reputation of charging really low prices, and that's the last niche I want to build myself into. An interesting conundrum.
Ha! You are so going to hate my answer to your question. I have read you long enough to know that agreeing to low pay is a huge no-no………but, I have NEVER been offered money for my writing, nor have I put a huge intentional effort into exploring that idea. I have a full-time job already.
Here's the part you will not like…I got super excited to the point of giddyness this week because I have been hired by an online gift store to write as many articles as I can for them for $10 a page! Yes, $10 is not much but it is building my confidence & I can write 2 or 3 articles in one sitting & make $40-$50 in one shot sitting on my couch in the evening after work!
I would go as low as rendering my services for free if a friend asked me. Just do not give me the feeling that I had to do it. 🙂
The lowest rate I charge is $73 per blog post for one of my very old clients. The way I'm able to justify not raising their rates is that they're insanely quick posts to write (20-30 minutes each) based on my area of expertise where I'm the source (little to no research for these), and that means the hourly rate stays in line with most of my other projects. Once the hourly payout is out of my norm or not meeting my goals, that's when I have to up the rates. The client also places regularly monthly orders so it's about as close to "guaranteed pay" as you can get without giving up the freedom of freelancing.
Lori– nah, they have me under IC. Now if I was regular staff, that would be different, and I'm working my way there hopefully. But good point- taxes, retirement, etc.
If you don't count various mad scientist experiments that sometimes pay off big and sometimes pay very little, I think your $50/hr. figure is about right. Honestly, a lot of it depends on my schedule and availability for any given week, though. Sometimes, I'll pass on stuff I'd otherwise take and vice versa.