My So-Called Freelance Life - Michelle Goodman [44]
• Who will be your go-to person for the project in case you have questions? (If not the contact you’re talking to now, then who?)
• Who else will you be working with and in what capacity? (Who will get you all the photos and testimonials for the website you’re being hired to build?)
• How many revisions will be required?
• Who will be reviewing your work and signing off on the final product?
• What type of feedback can you expect? (Is the main concern that you get the client’s “voice” and branding right, or are the reviewers known for their heavy-handed markups?)
• What’s the deadline for each stage of the project (first through final versions)?
• What’s the copyright situation? (For many commercial jobs, the client will want all rights to your work. But when creating your own essay, song, or photo for publication, performance, or exhibition, you absolutely want to retain ownership. Much more on copyrights in Chapter 12.)
Be sure you get a handle on all the project contingencies that might require unusual or runaway expenses on your part: long-distance calls, shipping fees, travel costs, pricey supplies you don’t normally use, equipment rental fees, and the like. Ask as many questions as you need to. Most clients won’t spell everything out—their biggest concern is finding someone who can get the job done on time and under budget. It’s up to you to connect the dots. (We’ll talk about when and whether to bill for project expenses later in the chapter.)
If you find any of your client’s expectations about the work process unreasonable, now’s the time to speak up. Behold: “I appreciate that each of the thirteen people on your team would like to weigh in with their individual commentary on my first pass. But I normally work with one person on project revisions. I’ve found that having one contact who consolidates all feedback before passing it along to me helps keep the project on schedule and on budget.”
Position it as a time and money saver for them, and they’ll read you loud and clear. Remember, the client is hiring you because you’re the expert. Don’t be afraid to act like one.
Cozy Up to Your Calculator
Once you have the skinny on what the job entails, it’s time to hunker down with your calculator and price the project. I strongly recommend you tell the client you’ll get back to them with a price later that afternoon or first thing the next morning rather than do the math with them on the phone. It’s far too easy to underbid a job when you give a quote on the spot. In your haste, there’s a decent chance you’ll forget to factor in the weekly check-in meetings the client wants, or the hundreds of dollars in shipping costs the project will run you.
Your first task is to plot out how long each piece of the project will take and add them up. I’m talking every meeting, phone call, email, Google search, outline or rough sketch, draft, revision, and final check you think you’ll need to do. Now’s not the time to be optimistic about how fast you think you can work; when in doubt, err on the “slow and steady” side.
If you’ve edited promotional videos, recorded podcasts, or translated books similar in topic and length to the project at hand, you of course should use those gigs as a guide to pricing the job on your plate today. Hopefully you tracked your hours on those past projects. (If not, there’s no time like the present to start, something we’ll talk about in Chapter 17.) And if you’re utterly stumped as to how long a project might take you, ask your growing posse of freelance pals to weigh in. Believe me, this will become second nature before you know it.
Once you have your best estimate of how long the work will take, grab that hourly rate for your services that you determined back in Chapter 6 (not your break-even rate, but the rate that has you earning a pretty profit). To arrive at the project price, multiply your estimated hours for the project by your hourly rate. For example, $80 an hour