What do you do if you're a freelancer trying to secure fair rates in a cutthroat market?

Research, evaluate your value in the industry/marketplace. Provide portfolio, present your experience and the unique value you can bring to the clients/community. Know your value, worth and be confident about it. Justify your rates based on your value, worth and confidence. It is all about bringing good experience through your skills which will eventually show your value, worth and confidence. #KnowYourWorth

1. Research market rates: Understand the going rates for your services in your industry and location to ensure your pricing is competitive. 2. Showcase your expertise: Highlight your skills, experience, and unique selling points to demonstrate the value you bring to clients. 3. Communicate confidently: Present your rates with confidence and clarity, emphasizing the quality and reliability of your work. 4. Offer value-added services: Consider including additional services or perks to justify higher rates and differentiate yourself from competitors. 5. Negotiate strategically: Be prepared to negotiate but stand firm on your worth, seeking mutually beneficial outcomes for both parties.

It's less important to know what the typical market rate is. It's more important to know that you are worth what someone wants to pay you. What this means then is that you need to hunt a little harder for that client who will pay better rates and leave the haggling for your competitors. In my country websites sell for as low as R990/year. My company would sell a website for 20x that. We don't try to sell to people who want a R990 website. Sure that R990 guy has 20x more clients but they also have 20x more problems. Find people who want to pay for the value they receive, don't undercut yourself "because that's what the market rate is"

1. Research market rates: Understand the going rates for your services in your industry and location. 2. Showcase your value: Highlight your unique skills, experience, and track record to demonstrate why you're worth the rates you're proposing. 3. Negotiate strategically: Be prepared to negotiate with clients, emphasizing the value you bring while also being flexible and open to compromise. 4. Build a strong portfolio: Showcase your past work and client testimonials to establish credibility and justify your rates. 5. Network and leverage referrals: Cultivate relationships with existing clients and industry contacts who can vouch for your expertise and refer you to new opportunities.

Something I learned that has stuck with me when articulating our value is: You don't beat competitors on their strengths, you have to beat them on their weaknesses. Their strengths make them good enough for the market - just match that. For our software dev, 99.99% uptime is good enough for the majority of clients. Being able to fix bugs before clients report them starts to set us apart. Or having automated testing built into the project from the start builds our USP. Or just not disappearing on clients sets us apart.

Focus on Value: Emphasize the value you bring to the client rather than just the cost. Create Options: Offer different packages or services to provide flexibility. This can lead to a win-win situation where the client feels they have options while you maintain control over your rates. Silence is Powerful: After stating your terms, remain silent. Let the client respond first, as they may offer a higher rate or better terms than expected. Use Time to Your Advantage: If the client is eager to get started quickly, leverage this by negotiating higher rates or expedited payment terms.

Having tactics is great but understanding the overall process of the negotiation is what ties it all together. You can find lots of tactics on Google, and find an overall process to structure the negotiation. Being able to control the flow of the conversation is powerful in itself. It will show your client that you know what you are doing and establish a position of strength.

Pro-actively manage scope creep! ?? Often it’s ‘all the other things’ we get asked as freelancers after a project starts that make the difference between a fair and balanced arrangement, and a situation where the ask goes over and beyond what can reasonably be expected. So, to be able to offer a good price at a reasonable time investment, define the scope clearly upfront and flag any deviations early. As you learn more about the company / project you might even see better ways of delivering on the objectives and can propose an adjustment to the original plan. Win-win!

Freelancers can stand out and secure fair rates by prioritizing relationship building. Focus on making strong connections with clients based on trust , reliability and the quality of your work. Emphasize your unique value proposition and demonstrate why your rates are justified.

Building trust will get you the work. Delivering on your commitments will start establishing the relationship. Being there for the client when things go wrong will solidify the relationship. I have learned that when things go wrong that's when clients need us the most and if we handle the situation and take care of them then it really puts us on a strong footing. When things get tough, don't defend, don't justify, just apologise and get on with the solution.

Know your values, worth and beliefs. Always stand firm on why you are worth the prices in terms of your services/value which you can bring. Negotiate based on your abilities, value and creativity. Negotiation is an art itself. A freelancer can be as good as a non-freelancer. At the end of the day, whoever can bring worth value, efficiency and productivity wins the negotiation. All the best in negotiating!