Being a Freelance Artist - How Much Should You Charge to Your Clients? (Pt.1)

[anritco]

Hi Everyone!

This is a very common question between artists "how much should I charge my client?". I heard it so many times and I always have the same answer, let's take a look to it.

*

---

Credit: Anritco

If you are a freelance artist and you didn't have enough experience yet, you will probably feel that as an artist, you the money that you feel is right is too much and they will say no, or you just have to reduce the money that we ask in order to preserve the job.

Let me give you few reasons to not do this:

• You are an artist, you are not less than any other professional worker.

I don't really know who came up first with this concept that arts are not a serious profession. But dude, come on, are you kidding me? We artist develop our skills from ZERO, every day working in practices and new theory and concepts to apply in our artworks. There's no such thing as art schools that are worth of it, just few teachers around the globe that just lately been giving their knowledge more massively (thanks internet). So we don't only have to work our asses off without a schedule (because we are the whole frikin' day practicing), but also we don't have that precious leisure time that most of people have. Because it's a waste of time that I could be drawing.

There is not such thing as being born talented. So stop talking about that and inspiration. Good artist weren't born with a brush in their hands but with a lot of will and passion, and they worked their ass off for getting there.

• Your time is worth of something

-Can you make it for free?... Come on, you are an artist! Do it for the love to the arts!
-I will pay with recognition and will talk marvelous things about your work!
-Can you do a logo for my baby toys brand? I can pay you with some products of my brand!

Please stop that sh!t attitude. Let's say you are a lawyer, a business man, a doctor or a builder. Would you do your work for any of these?... Thought so.

Then why an artist should?

• They are not only buying your time but all the experience, frustrations, quitting rage and all the struggle to find the right the right study material since you started this f&%king nightmare beautiful path.

See, being an artist is not only hard because of the lack of resources and misconceptions about the profession itself. Nono, that is just the basics my man. Arts is a very emotional path, full of frustrations that almost no other profession has.

Let's just say that in EVERY SINGLE artwork you do (until you stop giving f$çks caring so much about your work), you experience the same frustration and anxiety than a student during and after an exam.

Many times and friends of mine come to drop their feelings, telling me that they got this amazing opportunity of working somewhere, but suddenly they feel so frustrated and feel that they cannot do anything. They block themselves. This is the frustration at its maximum, and happens very often.

So when a client is buying your time (if you are an artist) they are buying all what you learned thanks to get over your emotions and get good enough to offer them a product of quality.

Value yourself.

Basically what I am trying to say here is that the whole point is about understanding your value. Which is extremely important when defending yourself from these people that want to charge you less than you are worth. But...

...how do I get a number for that??

It's pretty easy calculation, and we will see it in the Part two of this post because it already got too long.

Yes, I am trying to listen to my stemians' advices ;)

---

Thank you all and see ya later in the next post !

Bye !

Comments

[ricko66]

Thank you guy. This is an important topic for us because many time we all think the price is too high and the client will go for another guy. But the reality is if the client come to us first it is for a reason. He must know already about our work and he is willing to pay for it. Thanks i follow you

[anritco]

I am 100% with you there!

The client comes to you for a reason and we have to defend our position in front of this. Unfortunately the another day a friend of mine asked me how much she should get for a job... she was receiving cents for something that was worth much more. She asked for a new budget, not too much change actually.

Guess what was their answer: "This chick (yes, this way of disrespect and unprofessionalism) is not a professional, she is not worth of it

What
The
F-Hell

[altcointrends]

It's a really good question every freelancer should be asking themselves. Sadly, we all have the habit of undercharging. Thanks for bringing awareness back to this.

[anritco]

I totally agree with that. First we gotta work in our attitude and self-esteem and then in everything else due that we can get further thanks to be kind with ourselves

[milenamilak]

Markets are different in different places... Based on my experience a lot of people in Poland would choose price over quality :(

[anritco]

And I completely agree with you... this is why I keep working freelance for Argentina (where the cost of living is higher than in paris), so they pay pretty well. Although I think Steemit pays better :P

[milenamilak]

The inflation in Argentina is going crazy now, isn't it? Congrats on making money on Steemit :) impressive!

[anritco]

It is, this is completely horrible... last thing that happened today was that the politics are adding taxes to spotify, airbnb and netflix... i m so lucky i no longer live there

[boomben]

Great content, thank you. Will follow you now. I am currently writing up a post about my journey as a freelancer, hopefully have it up soon.

[anritco]

As soon as you do please share it here in the comments with me =)

[luja]

Thanks for your advice. Looking forward to your next post.

[trendo]

Lot's of people undervalue them selves...

[chelseanews]

Lot's of people not believe in themselves there is't a reason there are lott of them

[othmanesl]

thanks for this post I'm a beginner and this is pretty helpful keep on posting ;)

[carodebali]

Good question, I still didn't find the answer, usually I play It by feelings but I mostly feel that i could have asked more.
Hopefully someone with answer will let us know
ahaha

[anritco]

I will be posting the second part in few hours =)

[moementality]

Great post! Many good points made here. Thanks for sharing.

[steemitboard]

Congratulations @anritco! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of comments

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!

[winstonalden]

Good points - clients won't perceive your value if you don't perceive it in yourself first.

I especially agree with your comments about art schools. What a lot of money for a pointless degree, especially when there is so much wonderful information available online now. Better to spend that time and money developing your talents!