How to Feel Comfortable and Confident with Your Rates

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Deciding what to charge for your services is just as difficult as finally narrowing down your service choices. You want to be sure to charge enough to cover your expenses, plus provide a decent income for your family. There are a few good methods that you can use to determine your fees.

11-price-tagOne popular method is to find out what other people are charging and charge that. It’s easy enough to search for your competition, find three to five others, average what they are charging and there you have your fees. Another method is to instead, figure out how much money you need coming in, how many hours you have per day, week and month to work, (billable hours) and then charge that much. Both are legitimate ways to decide upon your fee.

Another way is to not charge an hourly rate but instead charge “package rates”.  This method can actually work in your favor if you are the type of person who gets faster as you learn how to do something. This way you don’t get penalized for being fast. However, it can also end up being a problem if you’re not clear in your contract with expectations of the service with no limits placed on the client as to how many times they can edit something.

Many service providers offer a combination of fee for service and hourly rates. This seems to work best for most service providers. But, again it depends on what services you will provide. Most people want to pay a set rate for graphic design, writing is usually billed on a per-word or per-page basis, with data entry tasks either by the word, line, or hour. Ultimately, you need to charge what makes you happy and find the clients who are willing to pay you for your hard work. This is your business.

1 thought on “How to Feel Comfortable and Confident with Your Rates”

  1. Thanks for the advice, will surely look into it. Pricing is very important and knowing what works best and what the competion is offering is a must.

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