How do freelancers price themselves?

The income of freelancers is quite fluctuating, but their salary is determined by themselves. This article briefly describes how freelancers price themselves. Take a look at the article to find out.

Because I have been a freelancer for quite a long time, my friends often ask me: How do you price yourself?

Considering that many people are in the state of active or passive freelance work, if they don't solve their own pricing problems, they will step into many pitfalls later. So I decided to share some of my experiences with you through this article.

Let’s think about this question first: What determines the price?

It is determined by the needs of your core customer group. There are three decisive factors behind this:

1. Pain points.
2. Willingness to pay.
3. Ability to pay.

Regarding the description of "demand", I roughly remember that marketing described it as follows: first there is need, then there is desire, and then there is demand.

Being hungry and needing to fill your stomach is a need, choosing to eat rice, noodles, or meat is a desire, and only when you have the ability to pay can it be called a demand.

The conditions to be met here are that there is a need (usually influenced by a specific culture and personal consciousness), there is a choice, and there is the ability. Only then can it become a complete demand.

1. Demand is the first factor affecting price

When many students first start freelancing, they are afraid that they will not be able to sell their time, so they offer it for free or at a low price of 9.9 to attract users in order to test whether there is demand.

It cannot be said that this approach is wrong, but a better approach is to state in the promotion that after providing your service, users can send you a red envelope of any amount.

By serving a certain number of users, you can see who gives you the highest amount of money and who gives you the lowest amount of money, and then take an average value, which can temporarily be used as the initial price.

Please note! This is the price during the demand verification period. As you further define the service, the price needs to be adjusted.

Why is the first approach not recommended? Because when you set yourself as free or at a low price, it is equivalent to anchoring in the minds of users.

For example, users may think that this service is worth 99 yuan, but you set it at 9.9, which is a 10-fold difference. It will take time and great effort to break this anchor.

For freelancers, the biggest cost is time. Therefore, the core thing we need to do is to sell our time at a high price.

This is the same whether you are monetizing C-end users or providing B-end customer service.

So how do you know the cost of your time?

Here is a method that may not be scientific, but has certain reference value.

Take your last job salary divided by the working days. Assuming my last job salary is 15,000, then the time cost of one day is 15,000/22=681 yuan. Once the income is lower than this number, it means that I am still in a loss state, so I have to work harder and find a way to make my daily income exceed this number.

2. Cost is the second factor affecting price

In addition to direct monetization on the C-end, when you are doing business, you will meet some business people who want to talk to you about cooperation. When faced with how to bid for yourself, many students are quite flustered. On the one hand, it is because they have no experience, and on the other hand, they have no reference.

Here is a method to share: anchor an initial price, and then conduct price testing with similar customers.

When I took advertisements on my own public account, I asked some friends about the prices they charged. Then I referred to the prices offered by them and combined them with the advantages of my own account and continued to negotiate further.

For example, I started with 1,000 yuan per article, and later it was around 2,000-4,000 yuan. As long as there is room for improvement, I will continue to negotiate higher prices. When I meet a well-known partner, I can offer a more favorable price to lock in the opportunity for long-term cooperation.

Why do this?

On the one hand, it is to figure out one's own price potential, and on the other hand, it is to show the "reinvestment rate" to other similar customers through anchoring with well-known companies in order to attract more similar customers.

3. Gaming is the third factor affecting prices

How do I price myself when providing some services to businesses?

Here we have to mention industry data. In addition to asking friends for relevant information, we also studied the upstream and downstream structure of the company, and then checked the information of some service providers to determine the services and prices we provide.

For example, relatively mature private domain agency operation companies generally quote companies in the range of 15,000-30,000 yuan. On this basis, they usually have a project manager + 2 operation specialists, and provide some standardized services.

After understanding this information, I have a general idea of ​​what kind of service can be charged and how much.

4. Industry is the fourth factor affecting prices

In addition to the services we explicitly provide, this sometimes involves leading or participating in certain projects.

In this case, the pricing logic of clearly marked prices is not followed, but rather the logic of sales to large customers.

When communicating with customers, we must repeatedly clarify their main demands. In combination with the goals to be achieved, we need to integrate relevant resources, deploy personnel, and even involve third-party partners.

How much you can sell at this time depends on the blueprint you draw for the business and how big the pie is. If customers think it is valuable, then you can charge more. If customers think it is worthless, then it is worthless.

For the same bottle of mineral water, even if you are very thirsty, you may not necessarily pay 5 yuan to buy it. But if you have to go one or two kilometers to buy a bottle of mineral water for 2 yuan, then you may pay 5 yuan for the convenience. It depends on whether you care about the low price or the convenience itself.

5. Value is the fifth factor affecting price

Finally, let’s summarize the five factors that affect prices: demand, cost, game, market, and value.

In actual situations, taking out one of them alone can help you complete pricing, and when faced with complex situations, you can also use them in combination.

Author: Zhizhong

WeChat public account: Shixian Operation