Hey Freelance Writers Who Charge Low Rates, Read This

To help freelancers achieve professional goals, I first need to talk about money and the nature of the marketplace.

The reason is because a lot of people view money as evil or that doing things for free is morally better.

If you feel so much as a tingle that such things are true, this post was written for you.

Note: If you’re already 100% comfortable charging an arm and leg for your service, but can’t get clients to hire you, go here 👉 From Freelancer To Unicorn: How To Charge Top Industry Rates.

The Truth About Money & Morality

The truth is that giving away your time to help someone, for free, is not fair to you.

Charity is wonderful. Helping people is great. But charity only makes sense in certain situations.

Giving away a loaf of bread that you and your starving family needs is foolish or, at best, misguided.

If you’re helping others pay their bills and achieve their goals at the expense of your own, then you are needlessly working against yourself.

Making (or spending) money doesn’t mean that someone is gaining and the other is losing.

It’s only a win-lose scenario if you engage in win-lose transactions.

Marketplaces Make Sense

Money and currency can be defined a few different ways. It's not my aim to get into a discussion about what the correct definition is, nor am I interested in discussing the ideology of capitalism or how society ought to be.

Instead, I want to pass on a fundamental understanding of the marketplace. This basic truth of human nature is important to embrace to avoid sabotaging yourself.

If you think there is something inherently immoral or wrong with making money, then it's safe to say your beliefs are holding you back from achieving your goals.

Here's a tale to help illustrate how trade emerges naturally from human interaction.

The Hunter and the Warrior

A tribal hunter is making his way through a part of the forest he’s never visited before. Game has become sparse in the areas he knows, and he's forced to expand.

He comes across a painted warrior carrying an animal carcass.

The hungry hunter realizes he has a few options. He could attack the warrior and steal his quarry. He could explain that his village is in desperate need of protein in an effort to convince the warrior to give up the meat in an act of charity. He could also try offering something of value to exchange.

The goal is simple: Get the warrior's kill.

The options he’s considering are all transactional in nature:

• Trade blows

• Trade words

• Trade goods

Trading blows appears to be the riskiest option. Even if he were to best the warrior, he doesn't know what wrath that might incur from his tribe.

Trading words may have the lowest cost, but it's unlikely that the warrior will agree to give up something of such value at the expense of himself and his village.

Trading goods seems like the most viable option. But for it to be successful, he needs to offer something that (to the warrior) is perceived to be of greater value than the carcass.

Essentially, the hunter is considering a barter. Maybe the warrior or his tribe are low on fruits and vegetables, medicine, building materials, or something else that the hunter has in greater supply.

If they don’t have anything that is currently of almost equal value, then a more universal medium of exchange that can be used at a later time, like money, would be useful.

With money, the hunter can simply ask, "how much money for the kill?"

If the warrior values the dead animal at a certain amount of money, and the hunter values the dead animal higher than the warrior’s chosen amount (and has that amount to trade), it's a win-win.

The warrior has acquired something more valuable than his kill.

The hunter has acquired something more valuable than his money.

And that's the point of any marketplace:

To facilitate win-win transactions.

Trading Is Problem-Solving

The marketplace (any place of trade) solves problems in a voluntary and mutually beneficial way.

Using it any other way is a misuse.

For example, the hunter and the warrior could use their crossing in the forest as an opportunity to murder each other instead of helping each other out by trading goods.

Solving problems is necessary for survival as well as moral society.

Money offers a practical way to solve a wide range of problems.

If used intelligently, it serves as a means to secure the lifestyle you want, free up your time, and achieve professional and personal goals.

Dispelling the Myth That Money Is Evil

The reason I told the elementary allegory above was not to insult your intelligence in some way. It’s because having a simple and clear understanding of money and trade is important.

It helps to combat the incessant and prevailing notion that money is inherently bad, the rich are evil, and good people are those who give everything of value away for free.

The truth is that regularly working for free or needlessly low rates is morally the same as you paying little or nothing for the work others do for you.

You’re a person, too. Abusing yourself doesn’t make you a saint. Quite the opposite is true. Your actions are adhering to a predetermined belief at the expense of someone’s (your) well-being.

Additionally, as a product or service provider, the rates you charge communicate the value of your work.

It doesn't make sense to charge high prices for something that is of lower value. To the client, your offer is either not worth it or you are dishonest.

Either way, no sale.

It also doesn't make sense to charge low rates for something of much higher value. To the client, either you have miscalculated the value of your offer, or you are someone who doesn’t highly value doing business.

Either way, you earn less money and respect as a professional.

Whether your work delivers a direct ROI by closing high-value prospects for your client, or an indirect one in terms of time and stress it saved, ultimately, it comes down to one strategy in terms of determining what to charge.

Charging As Much as You Can

Always charge as much as you think you can get.

The value of your work is not really up to you because it’s largely subjective. It's up to the client to decide what something is worth to them because it’s based on their goals, situation, etc.

The best way to figure out the highest rate clients will pay is to understand exactly how valuable your service is to them.

If you stick to clients who will only pay the lowest rates, then you can be confident that your service imparts little value.

If you find clients for whom the same service is worth a lot more, then you can charge higher rates and be sure you are helping your fellow man to a far greater degree!

The other reason you should charge as much as you can is because there is no amount of money that is actually worth your time.

For instance, let’s say you told me that you charge 1 million dollars per hour for your time. Let’s say I actually had the ability to pay your fee for the next 100 years. You agree, and then I decide to keep you in a cage until you starve to death.

Was it worth it?

How much money would be enough for you to give up being alive? Or to only do things you hate?

Your time is your life.

Most would agree, life is always worth more than money because the point of money is to improve, support, or enable your life in various ways.

The Real Value of Money

Money that never gets spent has no value. It’s more like stored energy. If you never use it, then it achieves nothing, and what’s the point?

Its stored value is determined by the actual value of that which it brings.

For that reason, never trade time solely for the sake of having more money.

Instead, use your time and money to achieve the lifestyle and goals that matter to you.

When you do that, time spent making money is never wasted. Charging needlessly low rates never makes sense.

In reality, embracing this mindset results in increased income, an increased quality of work produced, and increased respect and appreciation gained from your clients.

However, to find the clients who appreciate and pay you the most, you first need to understand how to help them in a way that (almost) no one else can.

If you’re ready for the next step, check out Part 2 of the series 👉 From Freelancer to Unicorn: How To Charge Top Industry Rates.

If you've plateaued in your climb for higher monthly income, send me a message detailing your situation. From there, I can decide if I’m able to help you, and give a reply.

You can contact me directly here.