Workshops

Setting Your Rates

By Karen O’Keefe, WIW Member

Three panelists at WIW's Feb. 15 Workshop_Lisa Daniel, Ken Norkin and Joseph Barbato_discussed how to determine freelancer fees for commercial clients. Their advice? Charge higher.

How much should a new freelancer charge? Much more than most think.

Daniel, a writer, career expert and principal of Writer Inc. urged freelancers to do research and lots of networking. “Start telling people your rates and wait for a reaction. If you charge too little, they will think you aren’t worth it. Have a ballpark figure in mind and then charge high."
Norkin, copywriter/consultant and principal of KN Creative, said he learned the hard way about setting rates. When he first got into the business, he was always, always overly optimistic. “I was a terrible estimator,” he said.

Now Norkin emphasizes the absolute necessity for accurate time-tracking and record keeping. In 2004, he said he earned significantly more than his targeted billing rate by “quoting project fees aggressively and working efficiently.”

According to Norkin, and his colleagues, a freelancer determines fees by assessing his individual situation through the usage of business principles before setting his income objective.
“Price aggressively. The higher you charge, the closer you come to earning your income goal,” Norkin said. "I believe in one rate whether it's writing or copy editing. You get paid for the value of the work you produce, not how many hours it takes."

“Fees," according to Norkin, "should rise over time. If business costs increase or if clients never balk at rates, you are charging too little.”

Norkin also suggests that freelancers send their clients a letter of agreement to be signed by the client and returned to the writer that outlines the writer’s exact understanding of the nature and scope of the project and the agreed upon fee.

Barbato, a long-time commercial writer and consultant and president of WIW and Barbato Associates, made these observations: “Companies pay writers for time, their thoughts, their expertise. . . . . Sometimes writers are timid about asking for their fee. You can't be that way. Know what you are going to charge and ask for it."

Barbato said that factors determining a freelance writer’s rate should include a monthly income goal and an area’s “going rate." He said that "a company will pay more in the Washington, D.C., area than one in a small town in Virginia.”

Writers should assume that they would earn a lower fee whenever an ad agency is involved. Writers will make less with a middleman in place, Barbato explained.
Other significant factors include the writer’s level of expertise and the depth of the client’s pockets.

“In the end," Barbato advised, “arrive at a fee that works for you and the client. Don't let insecurity drive the fee you ask for. You just can't charge enough. Take a risk with a new client just to see what happens.

The good news from Barbato is that “Usually they pay.”

Sign up for the next Workshop online.