Rate yourself.

Whether you are an agency or a freelancer, the £rate you set for clients is critical to business success.

Setting rates can be a daunting process, sticking with them can be even harder.

Create the rate

The initial development of the Rate Card (the established set of costs per day/hour) is much easier than you think.

Simply, take the overall operating costs of the business and factor in a cost for the £ % of time for ‘unbilled’ time where you won’t be working on clients. Like in any organisation, these are the costs which you need to cover - from there, decide the margin you want to aim for, and bulk up from there.

Naturally, this task is easier if you are a freelancer as your cost base will be much lower - however, this is still an achievable task for any agency team, a bit more manual intervention is needed to work out the costs per role… and the rates to implement to cover them.

Of course, there will always be some nuance involved and things will fluctuate.

A secret sauce tip? Ask other people in your space what their rates are. This is especially handy if you are freelance as it is unlikely you will be competing amongst your pals for work. When it comes to agencies, we all know everyone else - so see who in your team has a gut feel for rates from previous employers.

Costs will always fluctuate, and clients will always ask you to go down a bit - so make sure there is plenty of ‘fat’ baked in from day one so you have a nice price to go from!

Knowing your value

Leading on from the above, people will always haggle you down but remembering what you are worth, and standing firm on this is key.

To have got to the point of setting rates, you will have done your research and now know how much your rate is, and why it is at that cost.

Initially, you might worry your client estimates are high, don’t worry, it is very likely they are in line with everyone else!

Having comfort in wiggle room is fine, but never drop below break even. And if you are comfortable dropping your costs during quieter times, make sure you increase them again when you have a flurry of requests. Supply and demand, baby!

Always remember that as soon as you reduce your rates with a client, you have set precedent and this £ is likely to continue throughout your relationship (unless you can re-negotiate in the future) - this is your dream lifestyle you want to pay for, not theirs!

Need a bit more help diving into your overheads and establishing your rate cards? Speak to char@the-rush.co.uk