Do You Know How Much Your Time is Worth?

April 16

Do you know how much your time is worth? A dollar? Two? How about five? or ten? As a freelancer, this has always been the question that I ask myself. I often have difficulty answering.

I always fear that I might charge too much or too low. If I charge too much, chances are, I will lose a potential client. If I charge too low, well... I will be regretting it.

So how much should I charge my client?

Greetings my dear readers. It's Black Saturday. In the past two weeks, I was contracted to install some wireless network equipment in different municipalities. Initially, I was already offered a price that I could not refuse. So I accepted the offer.

One problem here in the Philippines is, that different areas have different rates. However, because of that offer alone, I realized that I have been charging far too low for my services as an IT professional.

Now, I have an idea of how much my time is worth.

Created using Canva

Freelancing Gigs.

In Fiverr. I used to offer a vector tracing gig for five dollars. A work that I can do within a day. But that was more than ten years ago. There was no option to offer some value-added services to earn extra in a gig. I think it was due to a very slow internet speed that I stopped my gigs after about three gigs.

 For months, I wanted to start offering my graphic design services in Fiverr again. However, I'm no longer sure how much I should charge for my services initially.

Since my reputation is zero, I'm not sure if I can attract clients if I start with a high rate. However, starting at the lowest rate, (at $5 per gig minus $1 for Fiverr), seem a bit low.

 How much do You want to earn?

 I used to work as an IT department head for a real estate developer in our city. The company has over a hundred workstations with a few remote offices. Suffice to say my primary expertise is in network system design and installation.

 Although, I was planning to leave this type of work so I an focus on a home-based type of work like offering my graphic design skills through Fiverr, and content creation.  I came to realize how much my time is worth because of my latest project in the IT field.

 In the first two weeks of April, I achieved my earning goal of $1,000 from that project. Though that was a rare opportunity, I will use that amount to compute my time's worth.

•  Monthly earning: $1,000

• Number of days per month (at 5 days a week): 20

• Number of hours per day: 8

• Daily rate = $1,000/20 = $50

• Hourly rate = $50/8 = $6.25 per hour

 I know this does not look so big if you are living in a developed country like the U.S., or a country in Europe. This rate is more than the average wage earner in the Philippines.

 If I use that rate to offer my services through Fiverr,  I may charge $5 for a basic service. Something that I can finish within an hour.

 Computing for your hourly rate based on your (expected) monthly salary is just one method of computing your time's worth.

 However, different industries have different rates. Moreover, different countries have different rates as well. Thus, it is wise to check the existing rate for your chosen industry in your area.

 Lessons From The Past.

Doing things quickly doesn't mean you have to lower your rate. This was my mistake. I thought that if a job is too easy for me, I charge a low rate. I forgot the number of hours that I have used in the past to develop the skills that I have.

To finish a job quickly means you know what you are doing and you also value your client's time. Thus you can charge high.

 In Closing

 Knowing your worth means, knowing your true value. It doesn't matter if you are a full-time employee, self-employed, or freelancer.

Then you can decide when you need to improve your work, thus continuing to develop your skillset.  When you continue to develop your skills and work habit, you can expect or even ask to get paid bigger.

To close this post, let me share with you an episode from Salamondrin's YouTube Channel. (Thanks to Mr. Demesel for sharing his channel in noise.cash).

Live an abundant life

Thanks for reading

Credits:

All images are from Unsplash unless otherwise specified

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