This Is How Freelancers Make Real Money

Gabrielle: To all freelancers, raise your prices. This increase is 15% just because. It's a new year, inflation. Like, I don't know. Just like who – what are you waiting on?

Talking about money as a freelancer is difficult. Talking about the money period is difficult.

Ed: One of the most uncomfortable conversations you're gonna have is about rates.

Gabrielle: If you are a freelancer, first of all, raise your prices. I cannot stress this enough. Raise your prices to reflect your knowledge. Raise your prices to reflect your experience. Raise your prices to reflect your passion. 

Kaitlyn: So how I figure out the right price for me, I used to rely on everybody else telling me what they think I should charge, and that to me, didn't allow me to get comfortable with a figure for myself, so I've stopped doing that now.

Ed: Yeah. When I first started out, I did set some goals financially. And, you know, the formula changes. Take your goals in baby steps because if you overexpand those goals and don't hit them or hit them way below the mark, you might be disappointed. So I say set realistic goals.

Kaitlyn: So I'm looking at Upwork, and you could see how much people wanna pay you for a particular job and then what the actual job was. So, I literally just go through the values that I'm working on for a client, and then I close my eyes and I go, “what should I price this at?” And I go up and up and up and up and up. And then something in me will just go, “Yes. That's the number.” And I'm like, “Cool. Okay.” That's the number. And then I price it at that, and almost every time somebody says ‘yes’ because I feel so yes about it because I'm like, that's the value. So, yeah, it's gonna sound weird, but it works every time.

Rob: Whatever industry you're in, if you can solve a client's problem and they can see it and justify it, they will pay you whatever it takes to solve that problem for them.

Ed: I'm not an accountant, but the best advice I can give you is get an accountant.

Farah: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's like now, like, you have to.

Ed: You wanna keep great records for your taxes and whatever is deductible to offset your income these days, that's a constant changing thing every year from the tax laws and and all of those things. So check into that. Treat it like a business. Always treat it like a business.

‍Kaitlyn: Don't connect just your self worth with your rate. You just go, this isn't who I am. This is just a rate. This is cool. And then if they reject you, go for a run. Go and just work it out. And if they say yes, celebrate because you took a chance and did something that was a little bit scary, but paid off.