Mar 26, 2012
The 5th Annual Creative Freelancer Conference, June 21-22 in
Boston (early bird deadline is this Friday, March 30!), is rapidly
approaching and for today’s podcast interview, we have Cameron
Foote, Editor of Creative Business, who will be taking part in the
Perspectives on Pricing Panel at this year’s conference.
In this 14-minute interview, I asked Cam how freelancers can
compete with bigger firms.
Q: Should freelancers be pricing any differently than
larger firms or entities?
Cam: Yes and no. I don’t think a person’s talent should be
worth any less depending on whether they work for themselves or
whether they work for an organization. On one level, your talent is
worth what it’s worth, period.However, the realistic part of this
is that when you talk about pricing to clients … they’re looking at
you and trying to decide whether you’re worth the money or not.
Pricing has to do with perception. So if you’re working from the
kitchen table, you haven’t been in business very long, you don’t
have a good portfolio and so forth, it would be unrealistic to
assume that you could charge what a business that’s been around a
while could charge. Your talent is worth what it’s worth, but you
have to be realistic.
Q: How can freelancers use marketing to build up the
perception of their value?
Cam: You are what clients perceive you to be. If you market
extensively … particularly using the editorial “we,” and you’re
sending out material regularly, they’re going to see a company. A
company is worth more, in most cases, than an individual.
Listen to our 14-minute interview to hear more of Cameron’s
thoughts on pricing, including his take on hourly rates vs. project
pricing.
And if you aren’t yet registered for CFC, sign up here and take advantage of the combo
$100 discount: $50 early bird before Mar 30th + $50 Marketing
Mentor discount with promo code “CMM12”
And listen to the rest of the podcast interview series with our
speakers, including Dyana Valentine, Mark O’Brien, Shane Pearlman, Jonathan Cleveland and Ed Gandia.