I'm late, I know, I'm sorry, but I have a good reason
I'll tell you the reason in a sec, but let me first tell you how I got here.
Let's time travel together, shall we?
Right around the time I was in my second or third year of full-time freelancing, I almost gave up.
I was overwhelmed, I had clients left and right lining up to work with me, and things were good.
I should have been absolutely over the moon with joy.
I kept telling myself "This is the success we left that hell hole of a job for! This is it!"
But every single night when I got home from my little studio a short walk from where we lived, I would sit on the couch and just want to cry.
Why? Because it felt like no matter how much I worked, how many hours I put in, and how many clients I juggled, I could not seem to get out of the financial rut I had found myself in and get on top of it all.
It felt like the only way I could make more money was to work more hours, because then I could bill more hours.
And if I could bill more hours, then I could take on more clients and not let them down by telling them no, right?
Oh, tiny Jaz, you sweet soul, how naive I was.
Because that strategy only worked for a week. And at the end of that week, I sat down and decided that if this was how successful people lived, I couldn't do it.
Which kinda broke me. If there's one thing that this elder-millennial, Virgo, overachiever creative believes, it's that I never give up if there's a way to learn how to do it differently.
It was then I stumbled across a book called "Pricing Creativity" by Blair Enns. This is where I learned probably the most valuable piece of advice I can give you:
The way you price can be as creative as the work itself
Once that penny dropped, I started researching every single different pricing method possible and the creative ways of implementing them in my business.
Some methods worked, others didn't, but I kept getting creative in the ways I priced, and things started to change.
Fun Fact: Did you know there are luxury car companies that instead of selling cars, sell subscriptions to car tiers where you can swap and drive as long as you're subscribed? Crazy
I was always taught that as a freelancer, the only way you should charge your clients is by the hour. I'm here to tell you that is the best way to burn out fast unless you're constantly increasing your rates and quoting for every single minute. Trust me.
What I didn't know now was how many different ways there were to price outside of hourly, and not knowing that was costing me my sanity.
Which brings me to why I'm late.
I've been busy writing and have just hit post on my longest blog ever.
The title: The Freelancer’s Smorgasbord of Pricing Methods
This blog is what I needed back then, every pricing method that a freelancer who sells their services can use to package up their skills and make money in different ways rather than swapping time for dollars.
Each of the pricing methods there I have taste-tested in my own business, some with surprising results!
From hourly blocks to retainers, per-page pricing to value-based, I've laid it all out in digestible bite-sized chunks for you to devour. Let this be the moment for you that changes the way you price.
You can read that blog here, but make sure you grab a snack and a comfy spot to sit before you dig in, it's a 14-minute read, stretchy pants optional.
I can almost guarantee you that once you know there are other ways to price, you'll want to get creative too, and work out which ones work for you.
But that, my freelance friend, is what I'll be teaching in next week's Masterclass.
Tell you more in a few days.