If you’ve ever found yourself scrolling through freelance groups or searching on forums for how to price your work as a freelancer, you’re not alone. The truth is, there isn’t one standard way to do it. Rates vary depending on your experience, industry, and the value you bring to your clients, but there’s always that question of whether you’re charging too much, too little, or just enough. To help make the process a little less daunting, three experienced freelancers share how they price their work with more confidence.

Start with a minimum sustainable rate

Check out Kyla Dizon for more details.

For many young freelancers, the first step in pricing starts with an important personal consideration: How much do you actually need to earn to make freelancing sustainable? For finance expert Arnel Legaspi, this means building a baseline rate that reflects the minimum needed to sustain both your personal and work expenses.

“I studied freelance platforms to understand what clients were typically willing to pay and what other editors were charging. This became my minimum rate and gave me a realistic starting point,” he recounts.

Meanwhile, for social media manager Kyla Dizon, that baseline becomes clearer when you also factor in the costs of running your freelance business. “From internet bills and electricity to software subscriptions, tools should be taken into account because these things help you do your work,” she explains. Once these expenses are identified, freelancers can identify a true minimum rate that ensures every project contributes to financial sustainability.

Charge for the value you are able to provide – not just the hours spent

Rini Mendoza at work, putting into practice the importance of pricing her services based on the value she brings. Check out Rini Mendoza for more details. 

Pricing should reflect the value you bring to a client’s business. According to content creator Rini Mendoza, many freelancers fall into the trap of accepting underpaid work just to build experience, but this often leads to undervaluing your own growth. ”The biggest lesson I’ve learned about pricing as a freelancer over the years is that not every work project is to be accepted or considered, especially when the clients are lowballing. That’s why, as they always say, know your worth as a freelancer!” she shares. Check out more of Rini here.

When pricing your work as a freelancer, it helps to present yourself as a partner in your client’s growth. Regardless of whether you are a social media manager, virtual assistant, finance planner, graphic designer, or writer, you are being hired because your work creates outcomes and not just output.

For Kyla, this shift in mindset is what also builds your confidence when pricing your work, so she encourages freelancers to ask: By doing your job, what do you offer your client? How much time are you saving your client? When you understand the value you bring to the table, it becomes easier to price your services with confidence.

Account for platform costs, taxes, and other deductions

Arnel balances client projects while keeping track of his freelance earnings through the GCash Virtual US Account. Check out Arnel Legaspi for more details.

Freelancers have to deal with transfer fees, platform charges, taxes, software subscriptions, and payment delays. For freelancers working with international clients and earning in currencies like USD, exchange rates and conversion timing can also make earnings unpredictable.

Because of this, Arnel, Kyla, and Rini think beyond just setting rates. They also consider how effectively they can manage what they earn. They use the GCash Virtual US Account, a new feature in the GCash app that lets freelancers receive USD payments from clients directly and convert earnings to PHP when it’s most favorable for them. Once withdrawn, funds can be used directly for bills, savings, and other everyday expenses.

There’s no universal answer to the question, “How much should I charge as a freelancer?” But as Arnel, Kyla, and Rini have learned through experience, pricing with confidence starts with recognizing the value that you bring and how that can be affected by fees, timing, and conversions. With support like the GCash Virtual US Account, freelancers can focus on the complexities of getting paid and more on growing a sustainable freelance career.

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