Blast from the Past — Your Clients Should be Worth More Than $5

We’re all constantly trying to find more business, but some jobs ads are worth our time… and others are not. 

Recently, as businesses wind up for the fall, I’ve seen a lot of very unfortunate ads for freelancers online. So it seemed like an appropriate time to pull something from the archives and remind my fellow freelancers of something important: not only are you worth more than $5, but your clients should be too.

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The other day I saw an ad on Craigslist looking for a freelance writer that included the line, “Keep in mind, when sending your rates, that sites like Fiverr exist.”

I literally stopped and stared at it for over a minute.

Aside from the obvious reaction – if that’s in your post, why aren’t you just looking on Fiverr already? – it left me incredibly frustrated for two reasons.

I was frustrated because I know someone said yes to that ad.

No one would get away with posting things like that if no one accepted those insanely low rates, but too many freelancers or new business owners have trouble insisting on the value of their services. Afraid of losing work, we look at the lowest rate out there and just accept it. We forget that part of being a professional is charging a professional rate.

 

It’s always important to remember: if the person who wants to hire you could do this on their own, they wouldn’t need you in the first place. That’s the key, I think, to setting your rates with confidence: they need you. Whatever type of freelancer you are, whatever services your small business offers…

Your skills are a valuable resource that someone needs. It’s okay for your prices to reflect that.

But that topic has been written on extensively across the freelancing world.

What got me even more frustrated about that ad is this:

The company that posted that ad clearly does not care about the content it gives its customers.

Whether that was a single person who wanted someone to writer their $5 bio or a company that was looking for a series of $5 articles, they clearly don’t value the quality of what they give their customers. If you want quality, you have to be willing to pay for it—and they were not.

No one who cares about their kids is going to offer a babysitter $5 to watch them for a whole evening. No one who cares about their car (or their life!) is going to offer a mechanic $5 to fix the brakes. And yet, businesses seem to think it’s acceptable to offer a writer $5 to produce something that will go directly to their consumers and affect their bottom line.

What does that say about how they value their customers? What does that say about how they value their business? Nothing good.

This doesn’t just happen to writers, of course. Whether you’re a small business owner or a freelance designer or any other kind of solopreneur, you’ve probably run into someone who thinks they can pay you pennies for your professional skills.

To me, that is an instant sign that I must stay away, and not just because of the low rate. I believe in my work and my business. If you don’t believe in yours, we are clearly not a good match.

A company that does not value its content or its customers is simply not someone I want to work for, regardless of how much they’re offering to pay.

What about you?