Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig?

Re:Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig? by patio11 on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @01:26PM (#2383506)

One way: have you ever delivered something which someone would pay $X,000 for? If so, then you are good enough to deliver something someone would pay $X,000 for.

I think many people get hung up on skill though. Clients pay for many, many things. Skill is only one of those things, and it doesn't dominate, either. Clients can also pay for:

  criticality of work
  urgency of work
  guaranteed availability
  hard-to-find expertise
  communication skills
  perceived attentiveness to needs
  lower perceived risk
  corporate politics
  measurable results
  warm fuzzy feeling

Of these, if you could only have one, I'd probably go with the ability to give clients the warm fuzzy feeling. You will never go hungry if clients get the warm fuzzy feeling from working with you.

Hat tip to tptacek, who taught me the importance of some of the above.

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Re:Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig? by juddlyon on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @02:06PM (#2383693)

This is totally in line with my experience (own a web design/dev shop). We talk about the "warm fuzzy feeling" in terms of making other people look good.

- make your clients look good to their stakeholders

- make someone look good to their manager

- make an exec look good to their board

- make the firm subcontracting to you look good to the end-client

- make your teammates/collaborators look good (and help them save face when they screw up)

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Re:Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig? by mdolon on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @02:08PM (#2383700)

Also, ask someone else how much they'd pay for your work. I found that since I make websites myself, I tend to value the work a lot less because it seems easier to me. In reality, the work is very valuable to people who are not capable of doing it themselves, so they're usually willing to pay more for it than you are. And as usual patio11 is spot on in regards to those qualities, having strength in those areas can give you a powerful edge in winning over clients.

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Re:Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig? by leon_ on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @02:24PM (#2383773)

I want to learn the arts of warm fuzzy feeling. Please elaborate :)

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Re:Poll: How much do you average per freelancing gig? by blaisco on Tuesday March 29, 2011 @03:18PM (#2383980)

A good place to start would be this article: http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html

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