How To Get A Great Rate As A Professional Creative

This article was adapted from a recent post of mine that seemed to resonate with many.

My first gig as a composer paid me 100 dollars for 1 minute of music. This year, I've charged nearly 20k for just 30 seconds. How did I go from A to B?

Here are some things I've learned about setting rates...

1. Your ability to price is mainly tied to your brand.

Brand is a lot more complicated than just your logo and snazzy website - it is everything that is associated with you as a person, not just your work.

Trust is the most profitable aspect of my own brand. People will pay several times the price of a viable substitute if they trust you.

Imagine that you're a creative director working on a campaign that costs a million dollars or more. Whatever it is you're charging, it'll probably be a small fraction of that. No sane person would want to save a few thousand dollars by hiring someone they don't know if they've already worked with you before and like the results you've produced.

Trust is hard to build, and easy to destroy.

Outside of initial collaborations, you can build it in many ways: Every promise you keep adds to the bank. Help as many people as you can - when a community speaks well of you, you can build your reputation in your sleep. In addition - sometimes just being around and visible on social media in a way that enriches the experience of others can help to build trust a little at a time, but at scale.

Be visible, be humble, have integrity - over time, it'll build.

Of course, there are other aspects to this - working with big clients brings you prestige and legitimacy, making you more desirable. But this is just a different manifestation of the same concept - trust. Your work has been validated by authoritative voices, giving you an air of reliability and professionalism.

2. Just ask for more money.

If you are a creative professional, and good at your job, I'll bet you have some level of imposter syndrome - you don't think you deserve the success you're getting.

Whether or not you deserve it is irrelevant. The money you ask for should not be tied to your self-worth. It should be tied to value.

My point is - you're probably just asking for too little.

In the past couple of months, I've hired a few people and been completely shocked by how little they charge considering how highly I regard them as colleagues. So I doubled what they asked for.

Ask for more. I remember going from 100/min to 200/min, then 400, then 800, then 1300 (this was exactly the progression, by the way). What struck me was the complete lack of objective standards for valuing custom music work - it’s quite arbitrary.

In the game of demand and supply, you have to find the sweet spot: Charge too little, and you suffer. Charge too much, and you won't get the job. Charge just the right amount, and you'll be able to build your business, grow your savings, and dedicate the mind space to create some truly remarkable work that will please your clients and serve as a springboard to your next job.

Just ask for more - if they can't afford it, or don't want to pay, they'll tell you. Then you can negotiate, or dodge a bullet. Either way, you'll have learned something valuable.

3. The price of your work is not set in stone.

This is not some sort of "fire and forget" situation where you draw up a rate sheet and then that's that. You are not selling a replicable product that you can mass produce with predictable manufacturing costs.

You are creating a completely unique product each time, and so there is really no reason the price should be the same from project to project.

The value to the client changes from project to project as well - sometimes you're working with a new startup or indie studio, and other days you're working with a tech unicorn. Why charge these folks the same prices?

Price for the job.

Price for the value you create.

The incremental business you might create for a mom and pop shop with a little jingle looks very different from the sort of impact you'd expect to have with an ad playing on national television. If people stand to gain much from collaboration with you, and if you are able to honestly articulate the economic upside in terms that a client would understand, they will be less likely to balk at a stiff fee.

4. Walk Away. Just Walk Away.

You will often encounter situations where someone offers you a rate that you know is unsustainable and/or disrespectful. Often, these are the types of clients that also end up being nightmares to work with.

They can be demanding, and you can bet that when their budget increases in the future, they'll go with someone else because they'll have gotten used to thinking of you as having low value.

So, when something like this happens - just walk away. You don't even have to explain yourself. A simple "Thanks for asking but unfortunately I won't be able to take on the work at this time" will more than suffice.

There are 2 reasons for this.

Firstly, you will not make enough money for the stage of career that you are at - that should be a good enough reason to turn it down.

Secondly, the more of this type of work you take on, the worse it will be for your mental health and self-respect. The amount of anger and resentment and exhaustion you will experience as a result is not worth doing the job just to be agreeable.

Walk away.

Assert your value.

When you do - you will believe it too. And when you believe it, you'll be better able to quote a high number with a straight face. It's not just words, it's a matter of confidence and self worth.

5. Network To A Critical Mass.

Every single job I've gotten that pays significantly has come to me as a result of a relationship built over years. I recently closed a great job that came out of a 7-year relationship. Many other jobs I've done have come out of 2-3 year relationships. Others have come from casual networking on LinkedIn.

Since this is one of the most difficult things for creatives to get right, I've written an article about it here.

I happen to be reaping some rewards for my efforts over the years, but what if I hadn't been doing that before? What will happen in a few years if I decide to stop what I'm doing right now?

Nothing good, that's for sure.

I cannot overemphasize just how important it is for you to constantly be meeting new people, reaching out, going to events, getting a coffee, hopping on a call, and so forth. You will almost certainly not be receiving any immediate reward or validation for doing so, but that's not the point - it is an extremely long game.

And don't just network with other creatives like yourself - it might be easier to do and feel comfortable, but they're not the ones who'll be hiring you. Network with people from everywhere and from all walks of life - you'll reap the rewards later in the form of higher quality jobs and opportunities.

Conclusion

Charging the right amount is always going to be a tricky thing. There are different thresholds for everyone at different stages of their careers. These are some of the principles that have helped me over the years and I hope they're useful for you too!

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