If you are a new potential client and would like to lock in a project at the current rates, then contact me now – I’ll be quoting based on current rates till the end of the month.

The rates charged for different freelance services vary drastically between individuals. What I charge $50 for, another writer might do for $10 and another for $120. While there are definitely market bands in freelancing, they are often more fluid than you realise, and it’s impossible to get a “standard rate” by which you can benchmark yourself.

That’s why it’s important for freelancers to consider raising their rates every year. You need to take a look at your business and figure out if you’re earning what you’re worth, whether your rate needs to go up, and by how much. The same goes from anyone in a non-freelance business – year-end time is coming up fast and it’s a good chance to assess your pricing and whether it’s time for a change.

Here are some of my thoughts on raising rates:

Adding Value

The better you get at your work, the more value you’re able to provide your clients, and people are willing to pay for that added value. For example, a blog post I write would probably bring about 10x the benefit to my client than a post I wrote five years ago - because I am a better writer, I understand more about blogging, I do more SEO and I work hard to create more value. The client is happy to pay a higher price for a better overall product.

Cost-of-Living Increases

If you work for a company, than part of your salary package will probably include cost-of-living increases. These usually involve a percentage increase in your salary (in my experience, it’s been between 2-4% – aiming to keep up with inflation) and are reviewed on a yearly basis, although they don’t necessarily happen every year.

As freelancers and business owners, we often forget to account for cost-of-living increases. But we need to build this into our business model, and ensure that we’re not destroying our personal finances to save our clients money.

Different Clients/Customers

When you raise your prices, what tends to happen is that a few of your clients will drop off, but you’ll gain a couple more on the higher-end. What this usually means is that you’ll be working on new, exciting and different projects, often with a larger scope and bigger budget than you have dealt with in the past. You’re growing your business and improving your career.

Since most freelancers admit that their lowest-paying clients are usually their most difficult, you’re probably not missing out on much if a few people can’t afford you anymore.

Higher Perceived Value

Even if your service or product hasn’t changed, there is often a higher perceived value associated with premium prices. Customers and clients genuinely want to believe that if you’re asking a higher price, it’s beacuse you are better than the competition. Now, whether you are or not isn’t my place to say, but you’re perceived to be, and perception is nine-tenths of client-retention.

Use Price Tiers

One way to get around fears about raising prices is to create tiered products/services. This means that you offer a standard packages – maybe that’s 5 blog posts for $200 – and a premium packages – 5 blog posts + social media sharing + comment moderation for $300. A tiered system won’t work for every business, but it can be an excellent way to transition into a higher price bracket, especially if you’re feeling a bit unsure.

Specialization

When it comes to writing, I’m a Steff of all Trades. I hate saying no to clients, and I want to try lots of things and work for lots of different industries. But the truth is, there are some aspects of writing I am better at than other, and some I enjoy more than others.

Over the last couple of years I’ve been increasingly pointing my business in the direction of the projects and clients I want – which is mainly blogging, ebook creation and newsletters. That doesn’t mean I’m not still doing plenty of other projects, just that I’m trying to focus my energy on beinging REALLY good at these things.

A client/customer will pay more for a specialist over a generalist, again because of their higher percieved value. So as you grow your business, what actually ends up happneing (or at least, what has happened to me) is that my customer base and my services list are becoming smaller, but there are a lot more $0′s on the end of my cheques.

More proof of your awesomeness

If you ask for that higher rate, and you get it – won’t that make you feel awesome? Raising rates can do wonders for your confidence as a business owner, especially if it’s been flagging of late.

Don’t be Afraid!

Don’t be scared of raising your rates – just dive right in!

I started out producing 500 word articles, press releases and About Me pages for about $15 a pop. Over the years I’ve raised that figure so I’m now earning about 5x that on some projects. I have found every time I’ve raised my rates that, while some smaller clients might drop off, there are bigger, brighter and more challenging projects waiting for me on this horizon.

As a creative, I like to be continuously challenged, and if I had continued writing the same work I’d been doing 5-7 years ago, I would have given up on freelancing a long time ago.

Extra for Experts

Here are some other awesome articles about raising rates I found online:

Tips on Raising Your Rates From 20 Freelancers, Coaches and Consultants – some big names here, and lots of great ideas.

3 Ways to Raise Your Rates and Crush Your Freelancing Fears – from Freelance Switch.

How to Raise Your Freelance Pay Rates in the Next 60 Days – another from Freelance Switch. This has a LOT of advice about approaching clients with rates increases.

Why You Should Raise Your Freelance Rates Even Higher – a lot of useful points that I haven’t covered here.

Are you raising your rates this year? Why? Why Not?

I’ve got a new ebook out – and it’s completely FREE! Weee! Download 10 Content Marketing Ideas for Badass Business RIGHT THIS INSTANT. That’s in capitalsbecause it’s IMPORTANT. 

And don’t forget, if you want to catch me with my prices down, contact me today about your writing or illustration needs.

I’ll tell you a little story, about a writer named … Suzie. Suzie had been copywriting for small business clients while working a full-time job at a local charity, as well as writing a few blogs, partaking in several hobbies, and leading a very active social life alongside her rather handsome husband (he was a drum- I mean, he played the tuba). Over the last couple of years, Suzie’s clients were asking her to take on more and more work, and she was at the stage where she could cut back at her office and make a real go at being a full-time freelancer. This would mean Suzie wouldn’t have to work so many evenings and weekends, and would have much more time for hanging out with her friends and headbanging to her husband’s band at the local … jazz club.

Suzie was getting busier and busier, and more and more stressed, and she realised that, between her three biggest clients – the clients that gave her work regularly, month after month – she could make enough to cover her salary. She figured that between those three clients, her income was pretty set. She’d been consistently turning out quality work for these clients over the last two years, and if one found they had no more need of her services, then she could survive on the other two while she looked for more work. So, thinking she was pretty set, Suzie left the safety of her full-time pay check for the wild and scary world of freelancing for her dinner.

I bet you can tell where this is going.

Suzie had been so BUSY in those final few months, juggling an insane workload from her regular clients on top of her regular job, that she hadn’t done any marketing for her services. She barely had enough time to finish her work as it was, so why would she need to? She figured that she would pick up her marketing efforts while she was sitting at home, sipping martinis and enjoying the cat’s mid-morning steeple-chase through the living room.

And then, the week Suzie left her job, the week she was celebrating freedom at last, she had the biggest blow of her entire freelance career.

Suzie wasn’t dropped by one client. Oh no. She wasn’t dropped by two clients. All three of her biggest clients decided they no longer needed Suzie’s services.

It wasn’t the quality of the writing, they said. It was this blasted Recession. The Great Recession, they’re calling it. Suzie was livid. “What’s so Great about it?”

She was being replaced. By writers from India and Pakistan who would create for pennies the articles she had been producing.

To say that was terrifying is putting it mildly. The memory still gives her heart palpitations.

What Did Suzie Do Wrong?

She forgot about marketing for a few months, and focused solely on completing her work. She was in survival mode, and it meant that.

Now, Suzie’s situation was unfortunate, and also highly unlikely – how often are you going to lose THREE of your most important clients in the space of one week, the exact SAME week you were transitioning from full-time employment? However, Suzie, who is an eternal optimists, believes this was the universe telling her that she was neglecting her marketing, and she needed to be more bolder and more prepared in the future.

How Suzie Saved Her Business

Suzie doesn’t like to spend a lot of time wallowing in self pity. She admits she might have gone through a couple of blocks of Whittaker’s Peanut Butter chocolate during that week, and she can neither confirm nor deny cursing the Gods and throwing her gardening trowel across the hedge. But she picked herself up and started hatching a plan of attack:

• She did a lot of work on her website, and got some decent portfolio pages together so she could send her clients to look at her work. It still needs a lot of work, but she made sure it was servicable.
• She talked to other freelancers, both in her niche and online, and asked their advice about gaining new clients.
• She started using her email list again, and contacting previous clients to say hi.
• She joined a local networking group and started building her own local network of business owners. This is probably the best thing she has done for her business in 5 years.
• She raised her rates. It was about time. This was the second-best thing she did.
• She started querying magazines again, and finishing off unfinished projects and sending them out. Because of her determination to get these unfinished projects (including a book proposal) off her desk, she ended up with a book contract.
• She started teaching seminars and community classes about writing and blogging. She discovered she quite liked teaching, and hopes to do more in the future.
• She started thinking about ways to cut back on all the different avenues she was covering, in an effort to streamline her business, and her life (still working on this, says Suzie).

How Do You Keep On Top of Marketing?

Do you find yourself in the same situation as Suzie? If so, here’s what I recommend you do:

• The most important thing you need to do if you feel your marketing efforts slipping because you don’t have time, is to identify your most effective marketing tools, and stick with them. For example, if engaging with people on Facebook is pulling in your customers in droves, then you need to focus on finding the time to update that Facebook page. If it’s meeting with other business owners face-to-face at local events, then you’ve got to drag yourself out of the house to fill in that calendar. Focus on ONE thing – the MOST EFFECTIVE thing – and find time to do just that.
• I read a great article earlier today, by Cal Newport, called If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong. She talks about the differences in habits and stress levels of elite musicians and average musicians studying at the same prestigious German conservatory. Interestingly, it’s those elite musicians who have more interests outside of their music and how are more healthy and relaxed. Cal explains why and offers some tips on applying this to your own life. This is advice I could do with implementing on a regular basis.
• It’s much easier to get work from someone who is already interested in you, than trying to get work or clients or orders from an entirely new customer. In times of intense workload, I think it’s also a wise idea to focus your marketing methods not on growing your customer/client base, but on staying in contact with the customers you already have.
• And it’s also important to remember that, on the whole, the only person who really cares about your schedule is YOU. So don’t worry too much if you said you’d put out a newsletter every week and you’re only managing one a month. (*Cough* Suzie *cough*) Most of your customers could do with less email, anyway. Just make sure they know about the important things, like when you release a new product.
• You might want to consider outsourcing or hiring a contract worker to take over some of your workload. I understand that this isn’t always possible, but it is worth considering.
• Is it time to raise your prices? Perhaps that’s why you’re so flat out – you’re spending too much time on projects that don’t pay well enough.
• Keep up-to-date with events in your community, and make sure you are still maintaining that network.

You’ve probably guessed who Suzie is by now, right? Well, I’m not ashamed to admit it – sometimes I get things wrong. I am very bad at taking on too much and getting too busy, and this period wasn’t the first time I’ve let myself get too busy for the essentials. And it won’t be the last time, either.

We’re all human, but what you want to avoid is letting your human foibles destroy the momentum you’ve created for your business. Trust me, it sucks.

Have you ever forgotten about marketing? What other business mistakes have you made? Shout out in the comments!

And download my free ebook, dammit.

Working as a freelancer is a fantastic decision in our current era, and the value of freelance work seems to be on the rise. There’s a few clear reasons why freelancing skills can be better than many career options for millions of people, and many employers could even learn a thing or two from all this.

Reason One: Build an Immaculate Portfolio or Start a Business

Most employers these days are looking for individuals that already have experience. This creates a kind of “dead zone” for entry-level workers with marketable skills. They want to gain experience with the job, but they can’t get the job to gain experience. It’s an unfortunate catch-22, and contrary to popular belief, a college degree does not replace the desire for hands-on experience in the workplace. Businesses do not want to pay to train people any more than they have to, and this attitude is creating a shortage of trained individuals.

Becoming a freelancer is an easy way to beat this system. Freelancing is an excellent transition into business ownership because it teaches many of the disciplines that it takes to succeed alone: budgeting, personal responsibility, relationships building, self-driven achievement, making sacrifices for the greater goal and being in charge of major decisions. Business ownership isn’t for everyone though, and some people will be more inclined to use their freelance skills as a catalyst for finding a job. This allows them to develop experience in their field while earning income.

Reason Two: Take More Control Over Your Life

Freelancing is called “free” for reason. As a freelancer, there’s no schedule, no time cards, no days on or off, no annoying managers and no secret maximum wages prior to promotions. In fact, there are no promotions. The only measurement of success and income as a freelancer are skills of the freelancer, the vitality of their profession’s market and their ability to find and earn clients.

As a freelancer, there’s never a day where taking it easy due to illness is looked down upon or simply ignored by higher authorities. There’s never a day that’s ruined by a coworker calling out or walking out. Instead, there is only choice. Whatever you chooses to do and how hard you choose to work will ultimately determine how successful you will be. If you choose to put in 80 hours per week between learning, working and refining your processes, you won’t have to wait for a promotion to start seeing the benefits of your efforts. The benefits come based on their immediate and future value. Some skills are relatively useless in real-world scenarios, but that doesn’t stop people from requesting them on applications and in an educational curriculum.

Freelancers choose their days off, their days on and their time spent away from work. Sometimes this isn’t true, as there may be long stretches of time where work is slow and money is stretched thin. The good news is that regardless of the circumstances, the freelancer is still developing skills, experience and knowledge about how to prepare themselves for the situation should it arise in the future.

Reason Three: Develop Expertise at Your Own Pace

The last reason is one of the most important and overlooked aspects of developing skills. People do not learn at the same pace, both compared with others and compared with themselves. It might take someone a week to learn a specific skill while another person might learn it in an hour. Similarly, a person might learn one skill quickly while struggling with another, regardless of how easy or difficult either skill is perceived to be. There’s countless factors that go in to how fast and thorough the learning process is, but many employers never consider this. Rather than understanding that everyone learns at a different pace, they have expectations and quotas. Freelancing allows a person to pick and choose their work as it matches their strengths and current ability instead of being expected to learn it in a day.

Freelancing has many advantages, whether you’re doing it on the side to improve skills or increase income, are working for extra money and experience through college, or are freelancing full time to provide for your family. There are disadvantages too, of course – such as the peaks and troughs of irregular income, and the constant need to market your skills – but for the right person, freelancing in any industry will be a rewarding and worthwhile career.

This article was submitted by Lamar Cook, a blogger for alabamainternetproviders.com. He enjoys writing about entrepreneurship, marketing and social media.

But I thought I’d break radio silence to let you know about this exciting venture I’ve been involved in. Heidi Thompson is the awesome lady in charge of Evolve Your Wedding Business, an haven of advice for those marketing products and services to brides and grooms. She’s been an events and wedding professional in the UK and US for several years, most recently running The Alternative Wedding Fair events – which is just my kind of wedding show! Now she’s working on her own wedding marketing firm. Her first big undertaking is the Wedding Business Evolution Summit, which is essentially an online marketing conference for wedding professionals. It’s completely free to sign up an listen along to the seven informational webinars, and there is a truckload of useful tips and ideas for growing your wedding business within – including a webinar on guest blogging by yours truly!

The lineup includes:

Tuesday 26th February at 3pm
“Effortless PR: How to Generate a Promotional Buzz Without Working Your Tail Off”
Presenter: Meghan Ely of OFD Consulting

Tuesday 26th February at 7pm
“The Price Shopper Bride: 3 Easy Strategies to Prove Your Value Immediately”
Presenters: Stephanie & Jeff Padovani of Book More Brides

Wednesday 27th February at 3pm
“Guest to Impress: Strategic Guest Blogging For Wedding Businesses”
Presenter: Steff Green of Grymm & Epic

Wednesday 27th February at 7pm
“Max the Fair: Be an Awesome Wedding Fair Exhibitor”
Presenter: Cate Conway of Quirky Weddings

Thursday 28th February at 3pm
“Banish Overwhelm & Grow Your Business With Systems”
Presenter: Michelle Nickolaisen of Bombchelle

Thursday 28th February at 7pm
“How To Get Your Hand Up Google’s Wedding Dress”
Presenter: Steve Hooper of UK Wedding SEO

Friday 1st March at 3pm
“Why Your Website Is Keeping You From Making Money & What To Do About It”
Presenter: Heidi Thompson of Evolve Your Wedding Business

In order to get the free recordings, you’ve got to head over to the Wedding Business Evolution Summit page and RSVP. Then, you just tune in when each seminar goes live to hear all the info.

If you can’t spare the time to listen now, or you want a record of all the useful tips and info, you can purchase the recordings of all the webinars from the Wedding Business Evolution Summit page. When you purchase these, you also get a HUGE stack of free bonuses, informational videos, productivity workbooks and a 30 minute coaching session. The first 15 people who get all the recordings will get a free guest post edit from me – I’ll look over your post before you send it out and tell you what’s working and what isn’t.

If you’re in the wedding business, the information in these webinars will be extremely useful, so check them out!

Have a Merry week! Steff

Does your blog need a little rock-star attitude? If you’re looking for a professional ghost-blogger, check out my work in my blogging portfolio, and contact me on steff@grymmandepic.com to discuss your needs. Or you could join the Grymm & Epic Gazette for a monthly dose of business tips, special deals on writing services, and general silliness.

• I had a lot of fun writing this post - Writing Tips from Blackbeard the Pirate - for the Men with Pens blog, which is one of the most popular writing blogs online. I had a lot of positive feedback about my comparison of the writing process with the notorious pirate. Please have a read and let me know if you agree!
• Marketing Creativity is a site run by Lisa Jacobs, an amazing woman who’s made a full-time career out of her Etsy shop – Energy Shop Jewelry. She uses her blog to offer other online handmade sellers advice on business and creativity. Lisa invited me to contribute some articles to her site, and I jumped at the chance to talk about one of my favorite things – creativity in business. My most recent article, Soothing Troubled Waters: Dealing with Unhappy Customers and Negative Feedback, is up now, and is timely for the Christmas season, where mistakes can be made and postage delays can leave customers feeling brassed off.
• And, if you like to keep up with the latest blogging tips, you might have seen my recent Problogger article, 40 Cool Things to Do With Your Post AFTER You Hit Publish. I love writing list articles like this one because the format forces you to get creative with your list items. This article has over 40 comments, and was retweeted more than 500 times, so it seems my ideas resonated with the blogosphere!
• The Disabled Shop is one of my oldest blogging clients, and as I live with a disability myself, the subject matter and audience are very close to my heart. Some of my favorite recent posts include Christmas Gift Ideas: Children’s Books About Disability, and Top Ten UK Disability Blogs. The last article was shared more than 100 times, which is big numbers in a small niche like this.
• And, lastly, over on Empty Easel, I put on my illustrator/artist hat, and write about 6 Powerful New Years Art Resolutions, and well as 10 Ways to Increase Your Christmas Art Sales this Holiday Season.

So there you have it – plenty of reading to occupy you for the rest of the afternoon! Now, you tell me, what have you been writing and reading online lately?

Does your blog need a little rock-star attitude? If you’re looking for a professional ghost-blogger, check out my work in my blogging portfolio, and contact me on steff@grymmandepic.com to discuss your needs. Or you could join the Grymm & Epic Gazette for a fortnightly dose of business tips, special deals on writing services, and general silliness.

This year is going to be one of the biggest and craziest of my life, both in terms of my business and my personal life. This year I make the transition from city girl to country lass. This year I embark on an exciting new publishing challenge (more about that later), and this year I grow my business bigger and brighter than I ever thought possible.

The New Year is a time to reflect on the last year, and to plan for the year ahead. But with family overstaying their welcome at your house, kids home for the holidays, and a gazillion other demands on your time, it can be hard to find a few minutes to sit down and think strategically about business. Before you know it, it will be the end of February and you haven’t started anything for the year yet.

Here’s my solution – a short and very sweet guide to 2013 goal-setting.

Step 1: Buy a block of your favourite chocolate.

You want a block with the little lumps in it that you can break apart easily. See, I told you this was going to be sweet! I recommend Whittakers Peanut Butter blocks, but if you can’t get Whitakkers, any type of chocolate will do.

(If you can’t get Whitakkers, you need to come to New Zealand. RIGHT NOW. You MUST try it.

Step 2: Creating your goals

Break off five squares of chocolate, and lay them on the table in front of you. Get a wall calendar, and spread this out on the table. This exercise works best if you’ve already added in all your important business dates for the year.

Step 3: Place the chocolate squares on the wall calendar in a completely artibrary manner.

Spread them out across the year, so none of them are too close together. Don’t eat any – just yet.

Step 4: Think about the kind of things you’d buy yourself a block of chocolate to celebrate.

“Yay, I finished that website update!” “Woo! We landed our biggest client!” “Omigod, we’ve had our best Christmas season ever!” What kind of business events do you celebrate? At the end of a project – especially one you’ve worked your ass off for – you probably do something to acknowledge all that work you’ve put in. You might buy chocolate, or take a few days off, or whatever feels like a celebration to you. These are what your chocolate blocks represent.

On your calendar, or a separate paper, write down celebratory events to coincide with your chocolate blocks.

You may need to move some of your chocolate blocks to appear AFTER your goals for the year. For example, if you know you’re going to want to celebrate after giving that talk at the conference in October, then move one of your blocks to a date after the conference.

Step 5: write down your goals

Under your chocolate squares, on your calendar, write down the goals that correspond to them. Give them big stars and party hats, or write them in a different colour, so they’re easy to see. Now you’ve got a daily reminder of just what you’re going to achieve this year, as well as incentive to strive toward those goals. You know, once you hit those squares, it’s time for chocolate.

Step 6: eat the squares.

Hell, eat the rest of the chocolate block, too. You could share it with your family if you wanted. I’m not that crazy.

Other Goal Setting Tips

• Look to the past. When I set goals for the new year, I have all my financial records, my website stats, and my work log in front of me. I can track year to year the progress of my business. This helps me to see where I need to improve. I look at the types of projects I’ve been involved in, and think about what I want to do more of, and less of.
• Look at your marketing. The beginning of the year is a great time to re-jig your marketing strategy. Look at all your different strategies over the last year and figure out what has worked, and what hasn’t. For example, in 2011 and 2012 I experimented with a lot of paid advertising. It didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, even with extremely targeted advertising. In 2013, my marketing strategy will have a much greater focus on guest-blogging and face-to-face networking.
• Look at your time. Are there activities that take up a lot of your time for very little reward? Are you actually being paid for all the hours you work on your projects? As a freelancer, this is extremely important for me, because I need to maintain a certain hourly rate, and taking too long on certain projects means I earn less overall.
• Look to your income. Are you earning enough? Is it time to raise your prices, to cut out product lines, or revamp the way you do business? Setting income goals for the year should be an integral part of your goal-setting progress.
• Look to your dreams. Where do you want to be? What types of projects get you excited? What clients do you want to do more work for? Do you want to try something different? Never forget to incorporate personal projects into your schedule – these are the projects you do simply because you love them – maybe running a charity campaign or pitching a non-fiction book based on your business. For me, this has been my biggest struggle in 2012. I didn’t finish a novel last year, which I’ve done nearly every other year since I was 22. I did complete a children’s book and two non-fiction book proposals, but in 2013 one of my biggest goals is to finish one of my novel projects.

Steff’s Goals for 2013

I’ll add them here, so you can see some of the things I’m going to be getting up to this year.

• Finish one of my novel projects. This is a year-long project. I’ve got one novel at 12000 words, and another at 4000, but the novel I finish may be neither of these.
• Complete one children’s dummy book for new detective series. I’ve got the concept and the characters, now I just need to write the story.
• Submit my children’s picture book, Charcoal Drives a Locomotive, to at least 20 publishers.
• Have artwork appear in Lord of the Rings exhibition. I’ve got the application on my computer, I just need to find the time to start the painting.
• Write 500 words of non-income producing projects every day (whether that’s novel, proposal, blog, ebook)
• Update website with new ebook. The ebook is about 1500 words away from being finished. If only I could find the time!
• Blog on Steff Metal AT LEAST 3 times a week, Gothic Wedding Planner 2 times a week, and Grymm & Epic at least once a week. I’ve been blogging less regularly over the past year, but no longer! It’s time to get back to being a serious blogger with serious blogs.
• Grymm & Epic Gazette going out every fortnight.
• Corpsepaint Kitty comics resuming with a new comic every fortnight.
• Increase my year-end income by $10k. Because … well, who COULDN’T use another $10k?
• Finish exciting publishing project. This is top secret, but trust me, it’s awesome.
• Be a solid contributing member of my networking group. I want to give my all to the other members, because they’re all amazing, and I want to be a small part of helping them succeed.
• Pull off alternative wedding expo. This is scheduled for May – let’s see if we can do it.

Plus, lots of goals means lots of blocks of chocolate.

What are your goals for the year?

PS. Does your blog need a bit of rockstar attitude? Contact me at steff@grymmandepic.com, and I’ll happily talk to you about your project. Or join the Grymm & Epic Gazette and get fortnightly updates and business advice.