How To Price Yourself As A Freelancer

May 22, 2022 by Matthew Dawn Leave a comment

Pricing Your Services: Newbie To Basics

How to price yourself as a freelancer. An issue many beginning freelancers and entrepreneurs deal with. In this article I will help you with a basic approach. We establish the minimum wage you need to cover life’s necessities and add a couple of key insights. The goal is to provide you with a clear method of you to calculate your freelancer prices starting from your personal and professional expenses. Once you’ve set your minimum income goals, you can build different pricing structures on top. Like higher rates for rush jobs, discounts for projects spanning several months,…

Calculating Your Rate

We begin by setting a baseline. A total of all your personal and professional expenses. Also known as your break-even point. Break Even is when Money in = Money Out.

Grab an Excel or Numbers sheet and note down all your expenses on a monthly or yearly basis. What’s your rent? How much do you pay for software and webhosting? It will take a while and you will probably forget a few things – no biggie. You can come back to it and improve it over time.

Example

Let’s build an example. Jimmy is a beginning freelancer. He lives in the big city where he rents an apartment for 500 a month. Utilities are 50 a month. Jimmy has kept track of his monthly trivia expenses like going out for dinners, drinks, groceries etc. On average he spends 400 a month in trivia expenses.
His living costs are thus 940 a month.

Professionally Jimmy uses a laptop he bought for 2000 that he plans on using for at least 2 years. Coming down to 2000 divided by 24 months = 83,33. His software costs 100 a month. His profession related insurances are 50.
His professional expenses are 233,33 a month.

Jimmy’s monthly grand total is 1.173,33 a month.

WRONG!

Unless you’ve studied some kind of accountancy you notice we’ve skipped a step in calculating the grand total.
Jimmy still owes taxes on his personal income!

Let’s assume Jimmy is a European citizen and pays 50% in personal income tax. Meaning that the state takes half of Jimmy’s profits. Which means that we have to double his living costs if we want to be able to cover them.

940 x 2 + 233,33 = 2.113,33.

What does this mean? Well, Jimmy will have to make 2113,33 euros to cover his basic expenses like a laptop, software, rent, food, drinks and dinners. If Jimmy is able to work 4 weeks a month, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, he will establish a price of 13,2 an hour.

From Living To A Real Wage

The basic necessity is covered. If Jimmy can work every single workday of the year. Each for a full 8 hours, he will cover his basic expenses. Neat, right? Na-uh! How will Jimmy save up money? How will he retire? Buy new equipment? What if he falls ill? Spends a month in the hospital? Wants to take a vacation?

As a freelancer you rarely enjoy the perks that employees do. Perks like paid vacation, an extra month’s wage at the end of the year, an expense account, travel reimbursement, pension saving,… and so on. Our current budget leaves no room for Jimmy to save up money, buy luxuries like expensive gifts for his loved ones or travel!

Adding these expenses is a tad more variable than the previous calculation. How much money a person wants to save or have to spend on extras is a personal matter but it can be calculated never the less.

Recalculating Your Freelance Price

Earlier we established Jimmy’s personal expenses to be 940 a month which we doubled to account for the 50% taxes he has to pay. Let’s add some:

Savings, 200 a month
Extra cash for fun, 100 a month
An extra month’s pay just like employees get, so we’ll multiply by 13 instead of 12 later on.
A month’s extra income as buffer, in case Jimmy falls ill or finds himself without a job for a while.

Totalling his personal expenses to 940+300 = 1.240 a month. Professional is still at 233,33 a month. Totalling to 2.713,33 a month. But this doesn’t yet account for the 2 extra months of income Jimmy wants to add to cover any uncertainties like falling ill or being unemployed for a while. Freelancers rarely enjoy unemployment benefits! So instead of multiplying our monthly cost by 12, we multiply by 14 and then divide it by 12.

2713,33 x 14 = 37.986,62 a year
/12 = 3.165,55 a month

If Jimmy wants to not only cover his basic living costs but also save up some money for a pension or a rainy day like unexpected unemployment or hospitalisation, he will have to make at least 3165,55 a month. A whopping 1052,22 a month more than previously thought! That is a 33% increase if he wants to enjoy similar benefits to a regular employee.

If we do 3165,55 a month / 4 weeks / 5 workdays / 8 hours a day = 19,78 an hour.

This is of course an oversimplified example. Each case if different. Try to decide for yourself what you want like to do. Do you want to acquire a new camera? Is your software not hundreds but thousands a month? And so on,…

Real Freelancing Prices

It is good to know that in the real world freelancers earn a lot more than 19,78 an hour. An intermediate web developer easily earns over 75 an hour. The biggest reason: a freelancer rarely has 100% occupancy. It is a rough life that brings a lot of uncertainty with it. Periods of no work do happen. It is best to combat this by raising your price in order to cushion the blow. Another big reason is market demand. Western web developers are just really sought after. Programmers in Silicon Valley easily earn over a 100.000 USD a year. Almost triple our example! But their rent and other living expenses are also ridiculously high compared to the rest of the world.

Note: Research your country’s taxes. How much do you pay in income taxes? How much is VAT? Which business expenses can you write off? Are there any benefits? Like electric vehicles being a 120% write-off, actually MAKING you money! It gets fun once you realise you can write your date-dinners and flowers for the significant other off as a business expense. Which means the VAT regular citizens pay gets reimbursed AND you can pay with pre-tax cash, halving an already 21% discounted cost. Meaning you only pay 40% of what regular, non-freelancing people pay!

Conclusion

Though an easy exercise, it is a valuable one down the line that you can go back to every so often. Once you have a clearer view of how much your competition makes, how many days a year you actually work for clients and how your costs and investments pan out,… You will have a good grasp on how much you need to make in order to fulfil all your needs and wants.

Now you have finished this article, it’s time to…

Why I read.

January 26, 2015 by Matthew Dawn Leave a comment

New knowledge, actively acquired, helps me point my life into the direction that I want. If luck is the clash that happens at the intersection of preparation and opportunity, then reading is a major way to help me prepare for those opportunities. Even more so, since I’m still young and lack a lot of experience. Certainly when it comes to business and living a good life.

Ever since it became clear to me that I, and only I, am responsible for my future well being, I have made reading an active part of my daily life. My life has taught me that I can not trust a third party system like school, society, government, employer,… to take care of my well being. They certainly can, have and still are doing so, for many people. But not in a manner that seems satisfying to me.

In my opinion, reading is underestimated and over looked by a lot of people. This is part of the reason why it is of such importance to me. By some, it is perceived as boring, tedious and time consuming. Rightfully so. People that look down on the effort that is needed to gain knowledge, do not deserve its full benefits. This is not to say that I think it is correct to look down on them in return.

Another part of my reason, it is by far the best way to learn from people that are dead or out of my reach. The lessons, stories, decisions that leaders from another era have learned or made are often comprised in this medium that allows me to learn from their entire lifelong careers, long after their demise. In a matter of weeks. (I read very slow. Because of dyslexia I silently talk to myself while I read.)

“Collect books, even if you don’t plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library.”
‘Steal Like An Artist’ by Austin Kleon.

Sharing knowledge? Sounds good.

For the last two years I have spent a large amount of my income on books. With a small private library as the result. Having books waiting on shelves to be read or re-read seemed like a waste. Certainly since I view their contents as highly helpful to other people as well. So I did the following.

After I had read a book, I would propose it to someone in my social circle. If they showed interest, I would lend them the book. Hoping reading it would have a similar effect on them as it had on me. After 10 months I stopped doing that.
I had handed out less than 10 books to people I knew and only one person had read theirs to the end. Most, never opened their books. It felt like a disappointment every time I found out. I knew the effect the book had on me and knew that those people would not experience it.

Now, I have learned that it is not possible to give people something and help them, if they do not reach out for it themselves. It is as if each person is a ship in the ocean with their own course. Blowing in their own sails as hard as they can, to go their own direction. Me handing them books is like blowing into their sails from a large distance, it has no effect and if noticed, merely irritating.

“How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?
Only one but the light bulb has to want to change.”
-A. Joke

The big picture

Another benefit of large amounts of reading are the meta-subjects that slowly become clear. All books are part of a larger whole. Each one contains a small part of that. (Creativity is closely linked to the following metaphor.)

It’s like the dots in a children’s color book or the stars across a clear night sky. Mankind has been connecting those dots and stars for ages. Creating new ideas on top of the old ones, continuously recycling in order to create something new. The fact that every dot known to man is already connected to something else, does not stop the process. The amount of connections is infinite, so are the dots.

The more I read, the more dots and connections appear. Several ideas, paradigms or concepts reoccur in several books. Although explained in different ways. By accumulating the material that I consume through reading, I expose and discover those dots and connections that become general truths in my life.

Starting out and getting good books.

Starting out is simple. I pick up books that I need to achieve my goals.
When I was thinking about starting a clothing line, I bought a e-book called ‘Thread’s not dead’. When I asked myself if I was leading a good life i.e. being a good person, I bought ‘Letters from a Stoic’.

I can give many examples like these. The real trick is not buying and reading a book. It’s choosing which book I invest in. Each book that is part of my collection has been recommended to me by others who’s opinions I trust. This network of recommendations is entirely made up of online personalities since I lack that specific expertise in my immediate circle. Including but not limited to Tim Ferriss, Ryan Holiday, Owen from RSD and Brad Branson. This circle of people is part of my inspiration and gateway to media that I deem valuable. These are people to who’s careers or lifestyles I look up and aspire to. All of them are my mentors and have helped me progress tremendously but I have never met or talked to any one of them. This way of learning forms the core of learning from reference, that is:

– Someone showing you HOW have to do something.
– Doing that something OVER AND OVER again until it becomes natural or fully understood.

A simple case of ‘monkey see, monkey do’. The trick is picking the right monkey to spy off.

Thank you for reading!

If you enjoyed my article and would like some book recommendations, take a look at the picture at the top of the page.

-Matthew Dawn

My First Experience Leading A Team

January 26, 2001 by Matthew Dawn Leave a comment

Above picture features the CFO of Xior (left), Matthew Dawn (right) and artwork by ‘A Squid Called Sebastian’ (the man at the very left).
This post was originally written on April 19th 2014, rewritten in 2015.

Recently I’ve finished my biggest project so far. It required 6 street artists, an assistant, a camera man, seven days and more money than I used to make in a year at my previous job. I was responsible for everything. (Images of final art works can be found HERE.)

Earlier in the year, I was approached by Xior, a Belgian project developer that specialises in student housing. They have bought an old hospital in the center of Antwerp and reshaped it to house 207 students. Besides applying the standard dorm upgrades, Xior also invested in improving the living conditions of the residing students by getting them biljart, mini soccer and ping pong tables. Even the old helipad had to make room for a roof terrace. But the white walls of the interior still made it feel like the hospital it once was, instead of a cool place for students to reside as it was supposed to. They wanted to spice it up and give it a youthful appearance. That’s where I came in.

To be honest and provide a clearer picture, I have to clarify that this project never was what the client initially asked me to do. I was invited by the Xior to check out a wall at the courtyard of their latest building. They were interested in having it decorated with a mural. When I arrived at the location and received a tour through the building I told them that it had much more potential. They were open to suggestions so I made a quick pitch there on the spot, explaining how I would invite several artists to come over for a week and paint the entire building top to bottom. My enthusiasm must have peeked their interest, I was invited to come back a week later with a detailed proposition. That was one of those moments where I felt I was getting into something I wasn’t ready for.

Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.
-Oprah Winfrey

Work with A players.

The first thing I wanted to do when preparing my pitch, was getting the best artists I could. I had spend some time at gallery openings of well known Belgian street artists and saw a lot of their work in the country or online.
I reached out to them, proposed my idea and asked them if they wanted to join me. Every one of those 5 artists that I admired (I had met only two of them once before) said yes.
Having these people on board was important for two things. One, it would guarantee a great end product for the client. Two, it would put tremendous stress on my performance. Both on my organisation of the project and on the art I would produce.
There was no way in hell that I would allow myself to slack or cut corners when I have people, that are in every way better than me, counting on me and would be judging my artwork. It was just not a possibility. Even if I did, I knew I would later see it as a failure and beat myself up for it for years to come. It was a way to force myself to deliver the best that I could in every single task.

At the same time when having those highly talented people, put weight on my shoulders, it also lifted some off. With this being my first big project, I couldn’t afford to run into unnecessary risks by taking on people that didn’t know what they were doing. The artists that I hired have done similar things before and could handle problems on their own if they were to arise. Independent and skilled was the key profile.

You can’t tackle it on your own.

Everyone that starts out with their own business or starts freelancing, will have experienced this. Thinking that you can or should do everything on your own.
Starting out with this project, I had the same thoughts. My problem was that I wasn’t giving enough attention to all the small side jobs that I was signing up for. Things like, getting breakfast, lunch and dinner for everyone. Calling up journalists and doing interviews, pushing the PR. Checking up with each individual artist to see if they had everything they needed and if necessary go into the city and buy extra supplies.
I underestimated all these things by themselves and certainly as a group.

When the start date of the project came closer and closer, it started to dawn on me that this might be too big a project for just one person to run. On top of that, I was also supposed to create the same amount of art as the other artists.
So I asked a friend, an art student, if he was interested in helping me out with those things. The benefits for him were that he got to meet the artists, learn from them, ask questions and gain some experience. Since I didn’t want to be one of those people that promises experience in exchange for free work, (lame-ass trick by the way) I also decided to pay him. At the time I was doing it more as a favor for him and not so much as a way to lighten my workload but during the project he turned out to be extremely helpful.
He was my extra set of eyes and ears on the project. Often reporting to me in the evening with all of the problems he had solved, problems that I had never even been aware off. I had given him my trust and freedom to make his own decisions and solve issues in anyway that he saw fit. I’m extremely grateful for him doing so and actively looking for ways to improve the project.

(Since this was my first time in a leading position, the only reference that I had for knowing that allowing others to make their own decisions instead of coming to me (being the leader) for solutions, is because I read about it in books. I advice you to check out my other post: Why I Read.)

A sense of achievement beats everything.

The project was pitched with a five day duration. (The time that the artists would actually be painting.) I showed up two days beforehand and left two days after it was done. Although I was the leader on this project, reeled the pitch in, hired everyone else and was responsible for everything,… I didn’t want to create a feeling as if I was better than anyone else. My purpose was to serve my client and make sure the artist had everything they needed to do their jobs properly.

In order to avoid a ‘prima donna’ vibe or running the risk of an inflated ego, I took care of the small dirty work when I could. That meant setting up the gear alongside my right-hand-man two days before the others arrived, also breaking it all down when everything was done. (Luckily everyone stuck around for the clean up and did their part!)

The five days when we were working, were exhausting! I got up at eight or nine, at that time my right-hand-man would have already taken care of breakfast. I prepared for the day, discussed with the crew what was gonna happen, whether or not press would come over for pictures and interviews that day, … Then we worked ’till eight in the evening, went out to have dinner and partied ‘till two or three in the morning.

Once friends and family saw the pictures in the papers they’d tell me how tired I looked. I can tell you that I certainly didn’t feel that way. I was energised and focussed throughout the whole day, every day except for perhaps the last one.
The entire time I couldn’t believe I was working with these amazing people. A year ago, I only knew their artworks. Now we had become friends and we had shared this amazing experience of doing what we love and having complete creative freedom. It gave me a sense of achievement. It’s what kept me motivated, focused and awake throughout the entire project. A feeling I often miss when I’m having an off day.

To close this post I want to share with you the final video we made for the project. I hope you enjoyed this post!

-Matthew Dawn

TINYPINK 2018

May 9, 2000 by Matthew Dawn