My So-Called Freelance Life - Michelle Goodman [47]
When you’re ready to wheel and deal, phone the client and tell them you’re looking forward to working with them, psyched about the project, and so forth. Be charming, but don’t gush too much. Then matter-of-factly lay the numbers on them: “My price for a project of this scope is $3,000.” Period. Be firm, yet polite. Skip the caveats or sob stories about your bloated Visa bill. Keep the fact that you’ve padded your bottom line to yourself. None of this will help your case.
Once a client becomes a repeat customer, ditch the 20 percent markup trick. You don’t want to become known as a habitual bluffer with them. Pretty much defeats the purpose of bluffing, eh?
In a perfect world, your client will reply, “Deal! I’ll email you a contract this week.” But it’s just as likely they’ll try to haggle you down, either because they’re trying to save a few bucks (despite having the funds) or there’s no way they can afford your rate.
In the first scenario, the client might make a counteroffer like “I was hoping for something a little closer to $2,000. Would you be willing to come down in price?” Note the wishy-washy wording, a sure sign the client has some wiggle room in their budget. In this case, ask them to meet you halfway at $2,500 (conveniently your bottom line) and say that’s as low as you can go—end of story. If, however, a client genuinely doesn’t have the funds, they’ll probably shut you down with a firm “I’m sorry—$2,000 is the max our budget will allow.” Here, there’s not much chance you’ll get them to come up significantly in price.
For some clients, the rates are the rates are the rates, no matter what. You may want $3,000 to write that 1,500-word magazine feature or provide the accompanying artwork, but if the publication doesn’t even have the budget to pay its star writers, illustrators, and photographers anything above $1,500 for the job, good luck trying to get your $3,000. Try to negotiate, yes. But know that you won’t always win.
The good news is that money isn’t your only bargaining chip. If a client can only offer you $2,000 for a job you think is worth $2,500 minimum, tell them “This is what I can do for $2,000,” and suggest dropping a task from the project description, such as including a sidebar or reader survey with the article you’re writing or interviewing DJs and caterers for a launch party you’re planning. Or suggest shrinking the project by cutting the proposed three rounds of revisions to two or trimming a two-hour photo shoot to ninety minutes. Or ask the client to extend or stagger the deadline (hey, time is money!), allow you to retain your copyrights (more on this in the next chapter), throw in some swag (free merch or tickets), or anything else you can think of.
If you’re signing up for ongoing work—perhaps to deliver one cartoon a month—you can also suggest a three- to six-month trial period at the price of $2,000 per piece, after which time you and the client will revisit the contract terms. (Be sure your contract mentions this trial period, though.)
As an alternate strategy, you might insist the client show her hand first, by asking what the project budget is right off the bat. “I did this on one of my first art jobs out of college. I was fully prepared to do the illustrations for $100 each, but held my tongue and ended up getting $800 a pop instead,” says illustrator Molly Crabapple. If the budget is lower than your bottom line, tell the client you can’t do the job for less than your bare-minimum amount and, if you need to, suggest ways to trim the project scope.
Whatever you do, avoid giving a price range when negotiating project fees. Think about it: If a shopkeeper tells you she’d like $60 to $75 for that cute sweater in the window, are you really going to pony up the full