Pricing is the part of freelancing nobody teaches, so most people guess, then resent the number they guessed. Here is a method that holds up.

Step 1: find your floor

Add up what a year actually costs you — living costs, software, hardware, internet, tax, insurance, and time off. Divide by the number of hours you can realistically bill. That is usually far fewer than you think: for most freelancers around half the working week goes to admin, pitching, invoicing and revisions. The number you get is not your price. It is the line below which you are losing money.

Step 2: price the scope, not the hours

Clients cannot judge hours and do not want to. Quote the package: how many concepts, how many revision rounds, which files, what timeline. This protects you when a job takes longer than expected and rewards you when experience makes it faster.

Step 3: adjust for what it is worth to them

The same logo is not the same job for a market stall and a franchise rolling it out across forty locations. Usage, reach and stakes all belong in the number. This is not charging what you can get away with — a bigger rollout genuinely carries more risk and more work.

Step 4: quote three options

One lean, one standard, one complete. The conversation moves from "yes or no" to "which one", and clients who would have haggled instead choose. Most pick the middle, which is where you wanted them.

Step 5: put the exclusions in writing

What is not included matters as much as what is. Extra concepts, stock photography, printing costs, additional file formats, rush turnaround. Listed up front they are options; discovered later they are arguments.

Common mistakes

Discounting to win. A client won on price leaves on price. You also teach them your work was overpriced to begin with.

Free extra rounds "to be nice". It signals your time is optional, and the requests never stop.

Hourly rates for creative work. They punish you for getting better and invite arguments about how long something should take.

Never raising prices. Review your rates once a year. Existing clients get notice; new ones just get the new number.

Saying the number

Say it plainly and then stop talking. No apology, no justification, no nervous discount before they have even answered. Silence after a price is normal — it is the sound of someone thinking, not of someone offended.