“How much should I charge” is a hard question because it is the second question. The first one is “what do I need to earn for this to be worth doing”, and it has an answer you can actually calculate.
Start there, then work outward.
Work out your floor first
Your floor is the number below which the work costs you money. It is not the same as your dream rate, and it is usually higher than people expect, because a working day is not eight billable hours.
Count honestly:
- the hours you can realistically sell in a week, after admin, quoting, travel and unpaid revisions
- what you spend to do the work: software, equipment, materials, transport, workspace
- the weeks you will not be working: holidays, illness, quiet months
- money set aside for taxes, which depend on how you are registered and are worth confirming with an accountant
Divide what you need to earn by the hours you can actually sell, not the hours in a week. That number is your floor. Anything below it is a hobby with extra steps.
Then price the outcome, not the hour
Your floor is for you. It is not what you have to show the client.
Clients rarely want to buy hours. They want a finished thing: a logo, a repaired fence, a translated document, a working website. When you can predict the work well, price the whole outcome. It is easier to say yes to “300 EUR for the whole job” than to “35 EUR an hour, maybe 8 hours, maybe 12”, because the second one asks the client to carry the risk of your estimate.
Pricing the outcome also rewards you for being fast, which hourly pricing quietly punishes.
When hourly is the honest choice
Hourly still fits some work, and pretending otherwise leads to bad quotes. Use it when:
- the scope genuinely cannot be known in advance, such as diagnosing a fault
- the client wants ongoing availability rather than a specific deliverable
- the work changes direction often because the client is still deciding
If you quote hourly, give the client a ceiling: “up to 10 hours, and if it needs more we agree that in advance”. People fear the open meter more than the rate.
What to do about “price on request”
There is a real reason to use it. Some jobs cannot be priced without seeing them.
The mistake is using it as the default. When a reader compares five listings and only one gives a number, the one with the number gets the message, even when it is not the cheapest. A starting price does the work: “from 150 EUR” filters out the people who were never going to hire you, which is exactly what you want it to do.
If you keep “price on request”, write the next line: what you need to know before you can quote. Size, quantity, deadline, location. That way the first message contains the answers instead of just “how much?”.
Your first jobs are not your price
Early on it is tempting to quote low to win anything at all. A small discount to build a portfolio is a reasonable decision, as long as you know it is a decision and not a habit.
Two things to protect:
- Say it is an introductory price when it is one. Then raising it later is a return to normal, not a betrayal.
- Do not do unpaid test work. A serious client will accept a small paid first job instead, and the ones who insist on free work rarely become good clients.
Raising prices later
You do not need to raise prices on everyone at once. Raise them on the next new enquiry.
Your existing clients keep the old price for a while, new work comes in at the new one, and you find out quickly whether the market accepts it. If enquiries continue at the same rate, the price was too low. If they slow down noticeably, you have learned where the ceiling is for that kind of work, and nothing has been lost.
When you do tell an existing client, keep it short and unapologetic: the new price, the date it starts, and one line of thanks. No essay of justification.
Three traps worth naming
- Undercutting to compete. There is always someone cheaper, and competing on price attracts the clients who will leave you for the next cheaper person.
- Scope creep. “Could you also quickly…” is how a 300 EUR job becomes a 500 EUR job you were paid 300 for. Say yes gladly, then say what it adds.
- Quoting immediately. You are allowed to say “I will come back to you with a price by tomorrow”. A considered number is better than a fast one you regret.
The short version
Work out your floor privately. Price the outcome publicly. Put a number, or at least a starting number, in the listing. Treat your first jobs as an introduction rather than your permanent rate. Then raise the price on the next enquiry, not on everyone at once.
