What an Hourly Rate is Worth to a Client

The worst part of getting a new job is the salary negotiation. You want to earn as much as you can to advance your career, and the company hiring you wants to pay you as little as possible while still paying you enough that you’ll accept the position. I’ve been in this scenario a lot over the years, and there’s no fun to be had. But now, as a freelance copywriter in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I have to negotiate a price with every new client I take. But after a while, I realized that something felt different about the process: it no longer felt like a hassle. It’s because I began to understand what I’m worth, and there’s nothing wrong to ask for exactly that.

All freelancers know the value of their time and skills, so we ask for an hourly rate that is commensurate with our capabilities. Some clients accept it right away, glad to have us on board. Other clients may take some time to negotiate, and while we’re all willing to loosen up a bit (especially when things are slower), we’re not going to drop our price by too high a percentage. And then there are the clients who balk at our cost and walk away. I get it, especially when your client isn’t an agency — it can seem like a lot of money to spend. But let’s consider the alternative.

Say you find a freelance copywriter who is willing to do the job for $25 an hour. Well, that’s an remarkable rate if you’re a client, until you see what it gets you. You’ll notice a general dullness about the work you receive. Headlines just parrot the unique selling point, rather than explore a creative, human way to capture attention. If you want work with purpose, you need to pay someone who can deliver exactly that.

You see, in order to freelance, you have to have experience. And that experience includes years of honing your craft, educating yourself about new trends, creating relationships based on your output, and a significant investment of your time. All of that adds up to a respectable hourly rate.

And if you’re frightened by a freelancer’s rate, ask them about their productivity. We know how to create our content at an elevated clip, meaning you can get stellar work done with speed — and that actually keeps things much cheaper than working with an ad agency. And we’re not just barking into the wind with our productivity claims. A recently published two-year study about productivity by professor Nicholas Bloom of Stanford shows that those who work from home gain nearly an entire extra day’s worth of productivity per week.

As the old adage says, you get what you pay for. You might as well pay for quality work.