Walkaway Pricing: Wrapping Up Those Rates
Part seven: Bringing together everything we've learned
This is the seventh and final part of my guide to working out the minimum you should charge as a freelancer or content creator.
Here we are, the final part of my in-depth guide to working out your minimum and ideal rates as a freelancer or content creator. This has been a lengthy, although, I hope, helpful series of guides.
Due to the length of these guides, I needed to spread out the information across the previous six posts. I'm going to use this final part to remind ourselves of all the information I've shared, and let you know how to use all of the previous content in this series.
I'll also share information on some upcoming guides that I'm going to write on similar topics. Let's get into it.
Start with an overview of minimum rates and walkway pricing
In the first guide, we covered some key concepts of walkaway pricing:
The importance of having a minimum content creation rate, so you can earn enough to pay your essential expenses.
Bringing in disposable income that can help you define your ideal rate—the amount you can charge to save, invest, and live the lifestyle you want.
Understanding that setting minimum and ideal rates is based on how much you spend on yourself and your family.
Read Part one: Introduction to costs and minimum rates.
Understand how much you spend on the essentials to meet your family's basic needs
The second guide helps you understand and add up your most important spending:
Your critical household costs like rent, mortgage, utility bills, and insurance.
Your basic survival needs like food, healthcare, and transport.
Your family needs like education, activities, pets, and childcare.
Your financial needs like loans, credit cards, and other costs.
This helps you determine your monthly Essential Costs.
Read Part two: Understand your personal, household, and living costs.
Figure out what you're spending on running your business
Our third guide digs into the money you spend to make money, and the costs associated with running your freelance content business:
Your equipment costs including computer hardware, software, and specialist tools.
Your freelance platform and payment costs that are deducted from the revenue you earn.
Your professional fees such as bookkeeping, tax filing, permits, and marketing.
Your other business finance costs such as loan or credit card interest or insurance.
This helps you figure out your monthly Business Costs.
Read Part three: Learn how much it costs to run your business.
Add up what you need to get a disposable income
Our fourth guide helps you understand what it takes to charge your ideal rates. We figure out your discretionary spending that helps you live the life you want:
Your extra spending on property and loan repayments.
Your money that you save for the future or invest.
Your additional household and personal care expenses.
Your spending on technology, leisure, entertainment, and special occasions.
This will help you calculate your monthly Optional Costs.
Read Part four: Figure out how much you need to save, invest, and have a disposable income.
Establish how many hours you can charge to clients
Our fifth guide digs into how many hours you can actually charge to clients per month. It's based on how much deep work you can achieve per day. This figures out your Billable Hours.
Read Part five: Understand exactly how much time you can charge to clients.
Calculate what your minimum and ideal rates should be
The sixth guide gets you to your final rate amount:
We add together your Essential, Business, and Optional Costs.
We divide that amount by your Billable Hours.
We increase your rates to take account of taxes.
We add a little extra for emergencies and unforeseen situations.
This gives you your minimum and ideal rates.
Read Part six: Calculate what your minimum and ideal rates should be.
Looking to the future
We're going to build on your rates calculations in three future guides.
The Lazy Creative's Guide to Setting Minimum Rates
I'll be putting together a quick and easy way of estimating what your rates should be.
Converting Hourly Rates into Project or Other Charges
I'll explain how you can start with an hourly rate and use that to charge for content creation in other ways.
Understanding How to Increase Your Content Creation Rates
I'll cover the other factors that determine your rates, and explain how to incorporate them into your pricing.
Thanks for sticking with me through this series
I really appreciate you reading through all of these previous guides, and I hope they help you cover your essential costs, build resilience, and prepare you for the future. If you think these guides could help other content creators and freelancers, please do forward this email to them, or share using the button below. Thanks!
Please note that I am not a qualified professional and I do not provide tax, legal, accounting, or similar advice. These guides are provided for informational purposes only. Always consult with a qualified professional on your unique circumstances.