10 Steps To Becoming A Better Freelancer
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Get paid what you're worth, work smarter and find balance.
Tom Hirst
Pricing Freelance Projects — How to know what to charge and get paid what you're worth
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Pricing Freelance Projects is the story of how I priced myself to a £100K+ yearly freelance career from scratch. Everything that I've learned in over a decade of pricing real-world freelance work is in this book.
Replies
Brandon Webster
I bought this presale ;D
Tom Hirst
@saevant Thanks so much for the support, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Marc
I dont want soft copy i want hard copy :(
Tom Hirst
@retselcm Thanks for your interest! I've had a number of requests for this, so it's definitely something I'll be looking into in the future. Keep your eyes peeled for update announcements! I'm really active on Twitter if you want to give me a follow there.
AndraZaharia
I'm very cautious about resources like these and I tend to be extra picky. I went all in when it came to Tom's ebook because is an essential read for any freelancer. He makes excellent points and provides tons of truly actionable tactics to figure our not just pricing but also how you built your freelancing business in general (since pricing always triggers deeper questions than just the financials of it). Happy reader here, 10/10 would recommend!
Tom Hirst
@andrazaharia Thank you Andra! I'm super glad that you found value in Pricing Freelance Projects :)
Tom Hirst
Hi Product Hunt! Pricing Freelance Projects is the book I've always wanted to write, born through chance. I've been freelancing as a web developer (WordPress/JavaScript) for the last 11 years. When I began pricing my work, I did so without knowing: - What pricing methods to use - What to charge for my work - How to ensure that I got paid in line with what I was worth As time went by, and with a keen interest in business, I started to study pricing heavily. Through my learnings, experience and experiments, I priced myself to a consistent six-figure yearly freelance career. Since my success as a freelancer, friends and other freelancers started to come to me for advice on their own careers, leading me to start sharing more of my thoughts on social media to help a wider audience. In June 2020, I posted a Twitter thread summarising my experience, learning and knowledge of pricing freelance projects and it went viral. The thread has received 37,100 likes, 11,200 retweets and over 3,000,000 impressions. Freelancers, consultants and entrepreneurs across all industries got in touch to offer their praise for the condensed version of my approach; and many wanted to know more. I’d already thought about writing a book on pricing for freelancers, but this response was the catalyst. I knew that it was time to write this book. I set myself a deadline, dropped everything to start writing and set up a pre-order landing page. The book received 229 pre-orders and generated $4,351 in revenue while I was writing it. Now, Pricing Freelance Projects is here and I'm super proud of it! It's a ~30,000-word book, across 135 pages, divided into 59 easy to digest sections. It covers everything that I've learned in a decade of pricing real-word freelance work. Early readers have given 5-star reviews and I'm humbled at the level of interest my vantage point on pricing has received. I wrote Pricing Freelance Projects because I see skilled freelancers every day who can charge more for their services. I'm posting on Product Hunt in the hope that more of these people get to know about the book. If you have any questions, please leave a comment, I'll be happy to answer! Cheers, Tom
Tom Hirst
Do you consider the value you provide when pricing your services?
Tom Hirst
Follow up to this poll: If you answered yes, how do you determine your value currently? Do you consider your value individually or do you go along with market rate? There's a ton of content about doing this in Pricing Freelance Projects.
Tom Hirst
Do you feel that a lack of confidence prevents you from asking for greater compensation?
Tom Hirst
Which pricing methodology do you use to charge for your work?
Tom Hirst
Retainers are pulling away; interesting!
Tom Hirst
No hourly so far 👀
Ryan Roberts
@tom_hirst For me it's typically a fixed price (budget) based on my hourly/daily rate, the spec of the project and what the client can afford (spec+value). Retainers are for maintenance or ongoing support but I've never managed to get one on a project basis even though in the long run it would benefit many clients.
Tom Hirst
@ryan_roberts1 Thanks for the comment! Are you working out a fixed-price for projects based on your hourly/daily rate multiplied by the estimated number of hours/days you think the work will take? This is a risky approach in my experience as things *always* take longer than your estimate. Do you factor in any % increase for contingency purposes? Retainers can work really well for long-term iterative projects with no fixed-brief in the first instance. The recurring income offers a great safety net also.
Ryan Roberts
@tom_hirst Yes it can be risky and sometimes I just have to take a hit, but for the size of project I work on I've got pretty good at estimating. I have a fairly solid contract that covers reviewing the budget if things are going beyond a contingency. I'm always looking for inspiration and new angles though so I'll check out your book 👍
Piotr Gaczkowski
Congrats on the launch, @tom_hirst! I've been watching your Twitter activity and there's a lot of great content there. Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
Tom Hirst
@doomhammer Thank you Piotr! No problem, I'm just glad to be in a position to help others :)
Kyle Prinsloo
Tom delivers consistent value in this book. He has my total endorsement. Well done man