Freelancers: what are your services? What do you charge?
Hi IH,
As I'm sure some of you do, I finance the development of my own projects through freelance work. So far, I always introduce myself as a web developer.
But I bring much more to the table than just developer skills - the IndieHacker spirit.
Only so far I charge only for development (and also not enough). Mostly I charge by the hour and only the actual dev work. All design, features, marketing, growth, automation etc. considerations I just deliver „free of charge“ (in like 75% of the cases, others are clients who value that about me and not only my dev work).
Currently I don't do any acquisition because I'm tired of charging only as a dev.
So basically I just don't know how to charge for "consulting" or how to even approach this. How to transform my developer business into a consulting business.
Any of you guys have experience? How exactly do you guys go about it? What do you guys explain to clients that is your scope of services? Do you charge for each phone call? Do you charge for brainstorming that you do on your own?
Any help or experience is appreciated!
I recommend watching Chris Do of the Futur (youtube). He lifts up "designers", but I think a lot of his content translates into web dev too. Things like charging more, how to work with clients, process, etc.
I've been self-employed as a web designer for the last 3+ years. As time progressed, I've worked on refining my process (cutting services out: graphic design) to focus on a more specific and profitable service. Over time you have to figure out what works best for you and the clients you serve.
I also gravitated away from working directly with clients, which takes its own skillset, and enjoy building websites for other branding/ web design agencies. Overall, I'm still refining and pivoting to my own products away from being a web designer.
Thank you. I will watch his videos. I have seen a few a while back. Thank you, I really appreciate it!
@x21 Hi, I do web development and design. Charge between $5k-10k and some smaller projects for 1k. Thank you.
Interesting topic. Yeah I do charge for calls and consultation. These calls still take my time and effort so they can't be free. It wouldn't be fair to my other clients. Whatever the other clients are paying for.
I also suggest to watch the futur. It changed my life. In 1 year of watching their videos and putting in practice what they say I really became a different person. No more anxiety in sales, more confidence, a better paycheck. I'm a web dev too mostly (sometimes I design). I can't believe their u tube channel is free!
But I can try to make a super summary of what you can try, and see if this works for you:
You should imagine your practice like 2 rooms. Clients come in the first room, and they pay for consultation and strategy. And they pay 1 price.
Then if they want, after they paid you for that service, they can pay you for your second "room" which would be doing and implementing the strategy consultation plan.
About making paid calls, there's only 2 calls that I do for free personally:
First point of contact with a new client who wants a call: this can be a max of 15/20 min. Only 1 call. But really I almost never do this because at this point in time Im lucky enough and don't need to do this to sell.
First contact with a past client I did not speak with in a while. Max 1 time and 30 min of call.
But really, it happens rarely in my experience. If I plan a consultation that's work, and I sell it as that.