How do you approach pricing?

This week's Assembly asked
"How do you approach pricing?"

We've gathered the key points and notes from the session, so you can refer back for future reference, or if you weren't able to join, learn from your fellow freelancers.

Nobody in the room had it fully figured out

People with twenty-plus years behind them and people six months in were all still working it out, which is worth saying clearly. Pricing isn't something you solve once and move on from. It shifts as your confidence changes, as the market moves, as your client mix evolves. The goal isn't to arrive somewhere fixed. It's to have an approach you can return to and adjust.

Start with what you need, not what you think you can get

The most consistent starting point in the room was working backwards from your own costs. What do you actually need to cover your expenses, on the assumption that you're not working every single day of the year? That number is your floor, and everything above it is negotiable. Without it clearly in your head, you're guessing, and the guess risks being too low.

An immediate yes is a bad sign

Several people recognised the instinct to soften a quote before it's even been questioned, to preemptively drop the number before any pushback arrives. That instinct is worth resisting, because a client who says yes immediately almost always means you've left money on the table. Mild pushback is okay. It means you're in the right territory.

Talking to other freelancers is the most useful market research available

The data doesn't exist in a single place you can look up, so you have to build it through conversations. Several people in the room had found their pricing by asking peers directly what they charge, comparing work types and client profiles, and adjusting from there. It's uncomfortable to ask, but it's also the only reliable way to find out where you actually sit in the market.

The time, rate, and scope triangle is real

Pricing isn't only about the day rate, because clients often set the number of days as well. When the actual work needs more time than the budget allows, you end up either absorbing the extra hours unpaid or delivering something that isn't quite right. The negotiation is as much about scope as it is about money, and that conversation is significantly harder to have once the project is already underway.

Variable rates across clients is normal, and worth being honest about

Almost everyone in the room was charging different amounts to different people, sometimes because of a relationship, sometimes because the work felt worth supporting at a lower rate. The question worth asking yourself is whether that's a conscious decision you've made, or whether it just drifted into place over time without you noticing.

Raising rates on long-standing clients is genuinely hard

The closer the relationship, the more it feels like a risk to change anything, and hearing a client talk about keeping costs down doesn't exactly make the conversation easier. Yet the longer you leave it, the bigger the gap grows and the harder it becomes to close. A new financial year is as good a reason as any to open the conversation, and most clients are less surprised by it than you expect.

Some clients just warrant a higher number going in

For work you already suspect will be difficult, pricing high before you start protects you either way. If they say yes, you've earned it. If they say no, you've most likely avoided several difficult weeks and a client who would have made every revision feel like a negotiation.

Rates aren't just about you. They affect everyone.

When you go in too low, you hand clients a number they'll use to push back on the next freelancer who comes along. Undercharging has a collective cost, and that's worth sitting with when the temptation is to just price low to land the work. One person in the room put it plainly: undercutting yourself is undercutting everyone else too.

Thanks for coming along!