My accidental freelance pricing nightmare
was doing a small commission for a friend of a friend. like, 3 days of work for me. i quoted them $500, thinking it was generous. they jumped on it so fast. turns out they’re a lawyer and their billable rate is $800/hr.
i spent the next week feeling like a total idiot. i should have charged them $3000, minimum. now i’m stuck doing this piece for way less than it’s worth, and i feel like a sucker. gonna have to be way more aggressive with my numbers going forward. this whole thing is a minefield.
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Oh gosh, I feel this! It's so hard to know where to start with pricing when you're not doing it all the time. I had a similar thing happen last year with a custom piece for a neighbour. I quoted what I thought was a lot, and they happily paid it without blinking. I found out later they were a partner at a marketing firm! I ended up doing a similar calculation and nearly fell off my chair. It's definitely a learning curve, isn't it? What kind of commission was it, if you don't mind me asking?
ugh, right? it's like we're trained to undervalue ourselves. this was a mixed media piece, mostly charcoal and some torn paper. pretty standard for me. glad to hear i'm not the only one who's had their eyes opened like that though. lawyer/marketing partner... sounds about right. makes you wonder what they think of our 'hobby' rates.