If you are thinking of freelancing it is always difficult to know what to charge. Of course a lot is dependant on where you live, the type of work you do and your experience, but to give you a guide of what you would need to charge to cover your living expenses etc Lauren Krause of http://www.laurenmarie.net has kindly created a freelance rates calculator PDF (thanks Lauren).
Input all your expenses into the interactive PDF and you will be given a guide as to what you would need to charge to cover them.
I will also add the freelance rates calculator pdf to the design resources section.
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20 Comments
That’s a very creative solution! I’ve never managed to get that sort of stuff working properly in Adobe, so I’m impressed!
My hourly rate fluctuates though. I have a base rate, which I charge for things like updating a client’s site – then several mid-rates – and then a premium rate, which is for things like PHP development.
I’d also say that probably 60% of the projects I do are charged on a fixed project price. I find that it encourages me to work faster some times, so I end up with a greater margin!
Interactive forms aren’t too difficult. You need to use LiveCycle Designer, which comes with Acrobat Pro, and make sure to name all your fields. I won’t go into everything, but it’s pretty easy and really useful!
I find it interesting that your hourly rate fluctuates. I can understand making the price different for an update vs. a complete creative package, but how did you come up with your prices? That’s what I find interesting. I could never pin people down on how to do this. Sometimes I think it’s because they just guessed!
It’s not quite guesswork – more an evolution into a comfortable bracket, from years of under and over-charging!
I think it’s difficult to have set rates for everything, as in my experience there’s often a need to be flexible… My clairvoyant told me once: “there will be some customers who you will have to halve the price for, and others for who you can double it”.
Hi Lauren
I hadn’t heard of LIveCycle Designer I will have to take a look at that.
I use the same techniques as Paul for pricing you take a guess at hours and then adjust accordingly
I think I understand a little more now. It’s not necessarily that the hourly rate changes, it more that the price for different types of jobs changes. If you estimate one job takes you three hours and another takes you ten hours, then the price is different. If you end up taking more or less time than the estimate, you effectively are making a lower or higher hourly rate respectively. Yes?
What I do (I think I’ve said this somewhere else before) is break everything down. Estimate the number of hours the creative will take (thumbs and then each comp), estimate time for consultation (dialog/meetings with the client), and then how long it will take from comp to final, including revisions and unforeseen problems. If it’s a web job, I may have to include time for hosting setup, domain registration, database connections (which can be a pain!!!), etc. It makes it much easier for me to break everything down to it’s smallest component and go from there. Is this what other people do, too?
“you effectively are making a lower or higher hourly rate respectively. Yes?”
Yes thats right, but of course I always say in a quote that it includes minor amends, extensive amends as an addition.
Some of client like to work differently too, ie I give them a total cost inclusive price others prefer to have a cheaper initial price but pay for amends as an addition.
Very interesting! But how do you freelancers make a living with a profit margin of 10-20%?? I find that it’s worthless to work unless the margin is at least 30-40%.
lol. mistake! didn’t mean 30-40% but 300-400%!
Also what is the difference between Office Equipment and Office Supply? Isn’t that the same?
Hi Sascha
I would say Office equipment is reusable equipment – cost of busing fax, franking machine, printer, laminator etc etc.
Office supplies would be more consumables – things you use up a lot and re-buy pens, staples, paper, ink etc
Ah that makes sense! Thanks Tara! But then again do you buy a new printer every month? Or asking differently: Equipment cost would be 0 unless for example you bought a printer exactly that month? Same with computer, I wouldn’t know how to calculate for it because currently I buy a new computer maybe every two years (to stay moderately up-to-date
)
I suppose you just have to take a guess at a month cost. computer $1200 over 2 years so $50 per month. It is never going to be accurate. Lauren just created it as a guide to show how much you would need to charge in order to cover your costs and make a profit. You then adjust according to how much you want to earn and how much you think you are able to charge.
what a great tool. Thanks for sharing it.
Hi, I’ve wrote a small tool that is based on the calculation PDF (with Lauren’s ok). It does the calculation in a very similar way and has some other features like a project pricing wizard. You can find it here http://blog.hexagonstar.com/downloads/feat/
Hi Sascha it would be nice if you gave Lauren a credit/link for using her calculation PDF as a base.
Oop, I just saw, you already have, sorry.
[...]Every little bit helps – thanks (and keep them coming)[...]
I’m a freelance and for the first time i saw such a calculator.I must try it.I’m a programmer and i take most of the freelance work at elance.com.Thanks for this tool.
Hi Tara
I am glad to have stumbled on your blog today…. Very useful information! Thank you.
I actually used the rates calculator pdf for my calculation. It’s fabulous!
Thanks for putting it up here. I will visit Laurent Krause’s site very soon and show my appreciation there too.
I should be a frequent visitor here from now on
)
Rgds
Thanks Remy