Am I exaggerating? I think not. Let me give you a few quick examples to illustrate just how important pricing is to the success of your business.

Say you’re a freelance writer and you get asked to quote a 10-page website. The problem is, you have no idea how much to charge for such a project, so you guess. Unfortunately, your guesstimate is way too high, the client balks, you don’t get the job because the client thinks you’re ridiculously expensive, and you never hear back from him again. Ouch!

Here’s another typical scenario: imagine you’re a web designer and get an opportunity to quote on a company logo design. You desperately want the job, so you quote a low price in the hopes the client will jump at the chance to work with you so cheaply. That might happen. But if it does, what have you really accomplished? All you’ve done is get a big project where you’ll be working for hours while getting paid peanuts. Worse, you’ll probably be stuck at that low-ball price level for any future projects the client may have for you—perhaps forever. Ugh!

What’s more likely to happen is that the client will not hire you. Why? Because your low rate flags you as an amateur (even if you aren’t). If the client wants quality work done for his important logo design, he will assume correctly that this requires the services of a top-drawer professional. And to him, your bargain-basement price places you firmly in the opposite category. Not a good thing!

Even if you price your services at a reasonable, professional level, you can still fumble the ball and lose the game. Vickie, a freelance WordPress consultant I was chatting with recently, sent a proposal to a prospective client and was certain she’d get the job. She waited patiently for a couple weeks but didn’t hear anything. Finally, she picked up the phone and called. To her disappointment, she discovered that the client had hired someone else. Why? Because the client had a concern about her payment terms. As Vickie puts it, “I could have easily cleared that up if only I’d known.” And she would have known … if she had followed up sooner. Unfortunately, that other freelancer now has his foot firmly in the door, and the chances of Vickie getting another opportunity with that client are slim to none.

I could give you more examples of how pricing and quoting affect your level of success, but you get the idea. How you price your freelance services can mean the difference between a business where you’re consistently working on great projects that pay well, to one where your schedule is filled with low-paying work—or, worse, no work at all.

Wealthy freelancers quote top rates and still win the work. They accomplish this by using the pricing strategies I explain in this chapter. Some of these ideas may seem a little strange to you at first—and may even run counter to what you’ve learned elsewhere about pricing and quoting. But I encourage you to keep an open mind and give these strategies a try. If you do, your quotation “win rate” and project income can increase substantially.

So let’s get started with the first, and perhaps most controversial, pricing strategy ….