What Are You Worth as a Freelance Consultant?

What should you charge for your services and products? There’s no guidebook, but consider these aspects for your next price quote.

Karl Wiegers

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A young woman working on a laptop PC at home.
Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik

One of your first challenges as a self-employed person is determining what to charge for your services and products. There isn’t a guidebook for setting prices; it comes down to what the (or at least your) market will bear. As with most service providers, the more experience you have and the better known you are in your field, the more you can ask. It’s hard to know how much you can command until you push the limits and see what happens.

Happy either way

The best advice I ever found on setting prices came from a book by Gerald M. Weinberg titled The Secrets of Consulting. Weinberg’s Principle of Least Regret states: “Set the price so you won’t regret it either way.” In other words, choose a price so you’re happy whether the client says yes or no to your proposal. I keep this principle in mind whenever I prepare a price quote for a prospective engagement.

As an example, I’ve taught a particular training course, most often in a two-day format, 187 times. It’s not very exciting for me anymore. If a client requests this course now, I often would rather not do it…

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Karl Wiegers

Author of 14 books, mostly on software. PhD in organic chemistry. Guitars, wine, and military history fill the voids. karlwiegers.com and processimpact.com