jdickerson said:
...
I'd say £8ph was a little low.. I think.
So would I.
NiCkNaMe said:
Only really you know how difficult the work is, so charge accordingly.
Do you want to carry on working with her? Make it appealing so she comes back......
Yes, but if it's too low, it won't necessarily achieve that. It needs to be a fair rate for the work done, and needs to be understood by the client to be so.
Firefly86 said:
..... what I'd really like to know is...what is a fair price to charge? What price per hour?
There's a lot of factors to that question.
Firstly, what are you tryig to achieve? Is this a bit of spare cash, or are you looking to build a business with a view to going full-time?
What have you discussed up-front with the client about what you'll charge, or for that matter, how many hours you'll spend? If she's expecting 8 hours, and you've done 100 without telling her, you have a problem and she'll be upset if you try to stick her for a bill for a lot of hours she wasn't expecting. To have done so (if you have) without keeping her informed is terribly unprofessional, and if I were her, it would put any future relationship in jeopardy. Serious jeopardy.
If you're trying to build a business that you can live on, and you charge her £8/hour now, and expect to switch to £30/hour when you "go professional", she's likely to think you're trying it on when you do.
If you try to go full-time, you have to accept that your rate has to cover all the overheads you'll incur (buying equipment, phone, advertising, insurance, your tax bill) and reflect the fact that not all hours you do will be chargeable (for instance, a meeting with a client to solicit new work or contracts). A percentage of your time will go on such non-chargeable overheads, so your rate the rest of the time has to be enough to generate an adequate income.
One more thing. If someone tried to sell their services in this type of field to me at £8/hour, I can tell you exactly what my reaction would be. Either they're so hopeless that they can't charge a market rate, and have to sell themselves cheap to get work (in which case, I wouldn't use them at all) or they're so new and naive they haven't a clue what they're doing, commercially. In that latter case, I'd use you while I can. When you wise up and start charging a market rate, I'll review who I use. It may continue to be you if both your work and customer service are up to scratch, but it may not, if you force me to consider options by significantly upping the rate.
My view is that under-charging to get the initial business is okay, barely,
provided you make it explicitly clear that the rate is a short-term introductory rate that is only to enable the client to see your work and have confidence in it.
Afterwards, your rate will be £x/hour.
