How to Price Your Services - Susie Jackson

How Marie Learnt About Pricing Your Services When You're New to Freelancing

Marie is a French-to-English marketing translator and content writer living in Corsica. She works mainly with small businesses and specialises in business blogging and SEO. Through her company, Matcha Creative, Marie helps her customers to connect with their ideal clients, increase their global visibility and build trust around their brand.

When Marie took part in Charge with Confidence in September 2020, she had only had her freelance business for approximately three months and was working on it part time around her full-time job as a translator, content writer and content manager. Her goal was to fully understand the financial side of things with a view to ultimately taking freelancing full time.

The challenge: helping Marie understand how much to charge despite being new to freelancing

Marie responded to a poll on my Instagram Stories saying that she was considering signing up for the programme but was still on the fence. When I replied via DM, she said that she had two reservations. The first was that she thought it might be too early on in her freelance career for her to really benefit from the programme. The second was that, as a single mum whose freelance business was still taking off, she didn’t have a lot of disposable income.

To reassure Marie, I explained that I don’t think there’s such a thing as starting too early. It’s always good to get off on the right foot when it comes to your pricing, partly because if you charge your clients the right amount from the very beginning, it’ll save you the headache and difficulty of having to raise your rates with them considerably in the future. Not only this but the course also gives you the confidence to manage the numbers in your business, meaning that if you have a solid foundation right from the start, you’re less likely to develop that mindset block around money that so many freelancers struggle with.

We also discussed a payment plan that would work for Marie and agreed on spreading the cost of the programme over a four-month direct debit.

The solution: showing Marie how to calculate her rates and increase her confidence when quoting them

At the start of Charge with Confidence, Marie felt that one of her biggest mindset blocks was believing in herself: “I think my struggles really come down to believing in my worth and that my rates match my work.” But by taking a step back from the emotional side of things and looking at cold, hard figures, I was able to help Marie remove any self-limiting beliefs from the process of pricing her services and quoting her rates.

Using the method I teach in Charge with Confidence, Marie successfully set a minimum hourly rate that reflected her individual circumstances. She used her current expenses and her projected business expenses to help her understand exactly how much she needed to be charging per hour to make sure she was earning enough without having to work all the time.

“I’m much more confident stating my rates and how to answer when a client wants to negotiate. I now know how to say no to a project or client that would not fit. I started this program for the translation side of my business but it has also benefited the copywriting part of it, which I didn’t expect.”

Marie has seen a significant change in her mindset, which has helped her business to develop and grow.

The results: Marie has not earned less than her minimum hourly rate and has used her newly calculated prices to inform her business decisions moving forwards

A month after completing Charge with Confidence, Marie had used the rates she set during the programme to quote several projects for new clients. A number of customers based in the US have accepted quotes for well above her minimum hourly rate without negotiating. On the other hand, she has found that French-speaking clients are more likely to try to negotiate on price.

In such circumstances, Marie knows when to walk away. She has turned down some jobs from French-speaking clients that wouldn’t have paid her minimum hourly rate and therefore wouldn’t have been worth her while.

What’s more, Marie has also used the information she has gathered from these experiences to inform her future business decisions. She now has a far better idea of the types of services she wants to offer and the kinds of clients she’ll look to attract moving forwards. By knowing how much she needs to earn per hour as a minimum, Marie has been able to develop a business strategy and is fully aware of the direction she wants to take her business in further down the line.

“No matter if you’re an experienced freelancer or a newbie, Charge with Confidence is THE program for understanding and improving the financial side of your business. From the confidence to raise your rates to setting your budget and rates, Susie covers it all in clear, impactful sessions.”

As well as understanding how to price her services, Marie now has a clear pricing and business strategy. She feels confident in the rates she has set for herself and no longer has any doubts when it comes to charging a rate that reflects her worth.

On top of all this, thanks to the spreadsheets that she received during Charge with Confidence, Marie has been able to use her new budget to help her make conscious spending decisions when it comes to business expenses.

If you are new to freelancing and would like to gain a better understanding of how Charge with Confidence could help you to start your business on the right foot, find out more about the programme by clicking on the button below.