My Rates are less important than your budget.
Two years ago I was given advice that changed how I looked at Freelancing forever.
It was a cold Scottish evening, after a long day on set. I stood with our head D.O.P. as we waited for his camera assistant to finish preparing the last shot, and the three of us were chatting footage. I was both AD and Editor, so I’d had early access to the previous day's footage and we were discussing how good it looked.
Mark was a professional cinematographer, who had come to work on our little project for free - we were a crew of no more than 7 - most of us fresh out of University, and his camera assistant asked him a very interesting question.
“How much would you normally charge for a project like this?”
Now I assume his assistant was asking so that when he started charging he would know a rough place to start, but Mark paused and gave an answer that was far more useful than just a number.
“It depends, see money is like a black hole. You pay me £2000? I’ll use the £2000, you pay me £20000 and I’ll use the £20000 - My Rates are less important than your budget.”
Rates and Budget are something every freelancer will come up against. How much is your time worth? How much can you convince other people your time is worth? And I’m sure everyone reading this has had the conversation. You’ve met with a new client and everything is going great, you vibe with each other, you have similar ideas, and maybe you’ve even thrown some ideas out on the table and gone back and forth.
And then someone asks it. It might be you, it might be them. But someone says it.
“Let's talk money.”
And the happy roundtable becomes a Wild West shootout. Who will draw first and say a number? Will the number be too high? What's their number going to be?
It's the make and break of every Client/Freelancer meeting. I know I’ve struggled with it in the past, which is why after talking to Mark I realised the smarter move is to tailor my rates to a project rather than the other way around. This has a lot of advantages.
It allows your client to feel more in control of their money.
It leaves more money for the project.
It has a better chance of working.
That second one is of particular importance. I’d rather earn less and have more money for a better marketing campaign than earn more but struggle with fewer resources. Of course - I’m not saying to work for a tiny amount, and it's important to set yourself a minimum rate - but as long as you have that bottom limit then I truly believe that my Rates are less important than your budget.
