Ask Adam Savage - How to Price Freelance Gigs

**The Importance of Taking Responsibility and Pricing Oneself Correctly**

When it comes to freelancing, taking responsibility and pricing oneself correctly is crucial for success. As I always say, "if you're not ready to cut right off the top, that's a great thing" because it shows that you've thought through your work and are willing to take on challenges. However, this also means being prepared to rectify any mistakes or problems that may arise during a project.

**Setting Client Expectations**

One of the most important things I do when working with clients is setting clear expectations about what they can expect from me. This includes explaining how I'll handle potential problems and what kind of communication they should expect. As a carpenter, for example, I might explain to my client that if I've chosen the wrong type of wood, it could split and become an issue. By being upfront and transparent about these potential risks, I can help manage their expectations and avoid any surprises down the line.

**Taking Responsibility and Giving Back**

Sometimes, as a freelancer, you may have to take a loss on a project in order to maintain good client relationships or to avoid being taken advantage of. This can be tough, but it's an important part of building trust with your clients and growing your business. I recall one time when I bid on a job for the San Francisco Maritime Museum and didn't get it - only to find out later that they had given the contract to someone internally for $800, which was just $100 less than my bid. It was a tough pill to swallow, but it taught me the importance of bidding strategically and being willing to take calculated risks.

**Separating Fear from Pricing**

One of the biggest challenges freelancers face is separating their personal fears from their pricing strategy. It's easy to get caught up in wanting to land a job at all costs, but this can lead to underpricing yourself. On the other hand, bidding too high can also be a problem. My goal as a freelancer has always been to bid about 10% over what the client wants to spend - not because I'm trying to make a profit, but because it gives me some wiggle room in case things don't work out as planned.

**Understanding Market Rates**

This is where market research comes in - understanding what the going rate is for your services and pricing yourself accordingly. It's not about making a good day's pay for yourself, but about meeting the market demand. I remember when I was working in the pharmaceutical industry, I could have easily bid on projects for $500, but that would have been undervaluing my skills and expertise. Instead, I'd bid around $3,000 to ensure that I was being fairly compensated for my work.

**Institutional Knowledge**

As a freelancer, you'll encounter all sorts of clients with different needs and expectations. This is where institutional knowledge comes in - having experience working with similar clients or on similar projects can help you anticipate potential problems and come up with creative solutions. Don't be afraid to ask other professionals for advice or call in outside experts if needed.

**Testing Member Perks**

If you're interested in supporting us further, becoming a tested member is a great way to do so. As a tested member, you'll get access to advanced words, behind-the-scenes photos of our projects, and the ability to ask direct questions during my live streams. You'll also receive exclusive member-only videos, including the unbroken series of real-time shots of me working in the shop - they're meditative and can be really eye-opening.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enAndrew M I just started doing commissions as a woodworker and had one of the pieces I delivered develop an issue at a glue joint how do you work with a customer to rectify the situation while also taking responsibility for the defect have you faced an issue like this in your past and how did you deal with it okay yeah I have dealt with this I built a um I built a set of welded steel glass hoods for a performance artists in San Francisco around 92 I think and that performance artist didn't have a lot of money and this was this is before I built something for Dieter I think that it's I was at the very beginning of making stuff for freelance and I charged like 220 dollars for this welded steel tempered glass welded steel framed tempered glass hoods that this performance artist was using in a performance and for 250 bucks I just welded it all together so the glass had some slag spots on it and stuff and after the performance artist did a performance with it and was moving it the glass cracked and they were like that's your fault and I ended up refunding them the whole job I shouldn't have I shouldn't have I I earned my money and what they spent on those was what you would get for that amount of money from anybody but I am super non-confrontational and this performance artist was a friend of a friend and I didn't want to piss them off and I just made that problem go away I'm not saying that's the right way to deal with the problem you're asking how do you rectify the situation of something you built going wrong while also taking responsibility for it well taking responsibility for the defect is great it brings to light how important it is to set client expectations right up front about what you're going to deliver about how long it's going to last about how it's going to wear all of those are really important things so that when you get to a situation where something's wrong you've already covered some ground about how you're gonna deal with it because the fact is is when you're doing freelance the client is the unknown quantity you think that the stuff you make is the unknown quantity it's not the client is the unknown quantity and no matter who you are and no matter what freelancing you do you're gonna get boned by clients you're gonna get screwed by them they're gonna tell you I'm not going to pay California sales tax at the end I've had that happen I've had people disappear on jobs and not pay for them I've had people cost me more to do a job because they were such a pain in the ass that's all going to happen to every freelancer in the world you that's part of the cost of business and you got to know when it's happening so you don't take it too personally in an ideal situation you deliver a product a problem occurs with that product and the client wants that problem fixed some of the groundwork you can lay is okay if you do have a problem with this I'm going to need to take it back and because of my workflow it might be four to six weeks before you get the piece back if you set that up at the front it's going to be a lot easier than telling the client that on the back end when they're like hey this leg isn't glued correctly and you're like oh six weeks I can fix it and they're like what that's the kind of groundwork you can lay um I'm assuming that they're a reasonable client they might not be they might tell you that they want you to give them back half the money all right and whether or not you do that is based on a whole bunch of different things how much more work might this person give you in the future how many other people might this person be able or want to trash talk you to if they leave this transaction unhappy uh how reasonable is their request how much of the money did you earn I once turned in a job that I failed at mechanically I eventually came up with a plan B and executed that and at the end they didn't choose that but I was ready to fight for at least 60 percent of my original bid because no matter what I had earned I felt that I had earned that in my labor I was willing to take 40 off the top they didn't ask which was thank God that was great they didn't ask because I was like I felt so bad about having not fully delivered on that job I lit was ready to cut right off the top which is always a really good thing to be ready to do um so rectifying the situation while taking risk taking responsibility is really important and being really clear about how you're going to take responsibility like look uh I mean if you're a carpenter is the wood you're working with has it been Kiln dried or regularly dried or could it split is that going to be your problem it could be your problem if you've chosen the wood incorrectly so that's part of institutional knowledge but ultimately setting client expectations so that they know what it might what the progression of of agreement might be in the case of a problem is the most important part of that second is I believe in taking responsibility and sometimes you want to wipe a job and say look I'll give you back all the dough uh I've definitely done freebies for clients that are really respected and that I wanted to be happy that is totally also a cost of business nobody wants to be taking taken advantage of but sometimes uh sometimes taking a hundred percent loss on a gig is is the right way to do client management and business management crafty collector says how do you separate yourself from the fear of not getting the job and not pricing yourself too low oh the toughest part oh the worst thing you ever want to hear in a bid when you're like okay so I've looked at the drawings and I've looked at this thing and I delivered this in five weeks it's going to be a ten thousand dollar job and they're like okay actually Frack that quick okay means you left money on the table oh that's so awful and you don't want to bid so high and this is where institutional knowledge comes in this is where calling other professionals and asking their advice comes in uh doing your research on the organization um I like to tell the story about uh I bid on a job for the San Francisco Maritime Museum many years back and they wanted a uh they had a scan of a piece of wood they wanted it printed out and painted to look like the original and I looked at the gig and looked at the mounting process and the 3D printing process and it came up with a bit of around 950 and I didn't get the job I was a little sad about it because I thought I had an inside man like helping me get that job but I did turns out then it turned out I found out that they ended up giving that job to someone internally for eight hundred dollars it's just like just about a hundred bucks less than I had been and it was like 8 40. and I was like they should have just asked me because I would have taken 10 off the top I always bid so that I could take 10 off the top in case the client's like that's a little tough because my goal actually in bidding is always to bid about 10 over what the client wanted to spend that was my freelance goal and that's just to give myself some wiggle room uh about what the market will bear and what I can achieve in the gig it's not about and sorry this is a key thing about freelance work it's not about what a good day's pay is to you it's about what the market will and should bear so if someone wants you to make a bunch of swords for a play they shouldn't be offering you seventy dollars to do that because that's not a seventy dollar job that's not what the market will bear by the same token you know in the farm like I was saying in the pharmaceutical industry the market will bear a much higher price so you don't want to go bid you know 500 for this thing you want to bid like three thousand dollars for this thing I I know I'm giving these numbers in the abstract without any attachment to a narrative and I apologize for that um but look crafty collector the way you separate yourself from the fear of not getting a job and pricing yourself too low is that you're going to bid stuff too high and not get the job and you're also going to price stuff too low and you're it's gonna cost you thank you so much for watching if you'd like to support us even further you can by becoming a tested member uh details are of course below But it includes all sorts of perks and we're building them all the time you get Advanced word and behind the scenes photos of some of our projects questions you get to ask direct questions during my live streams and we have some members only videos including the atom Real Time series of unbroken unedited shots of me working here in the shop they are weirdly meditative thank you guys so much I'll see you on the next oneAndrew M I just started doing commissions as a woodworker and had one of the pieces I delivered develop an issue at a glue joint how do you work with a customer to rectify the situation while also taking responsibility for the defect have you faced an issue like this in your past and how did you deal with it okay yeah I have dealt with this I built a um I built a set of welded steel glass hoods for a performance artists in San Francisco around 92 I think and that performance artist didn't have a lot of money and this was this is before I built something for Dieter I think that it's I was at the very beginning of making stuff for freelance and I charged like 220 dollars for this welded steel tempered glass welded steel framed tempered glass hoods that this performance artist was using in a performance and for 250 bucks I just welded it all together so the glass had some slag spots on it and stuff and after the performance artist did a performance with it and was moving it the glass cracked and they were like that's your fault and I ended up refunding them the whole job I shouldn't have I shouldn't have I I earned my money and what they spent on those was what you would get for that amount of money from anybody but I am super non-confrontational and this performance artist was a friend of a friend and I didn't want to piss them off and I just made that problem go away I'm not saying that's the right way to deal with the problem you're asking how do you rectify the situation of something you built going wrong while also taking responsibility for it well taking responsibility for the defect is great it brings to light how important it is to set client expectations right up front about what you're going to deliver about how long it's going to last about how it's going to wear all of those are really important things so that when you get to a situation where something's wrong you've already covered some ground about how you're gonna deal with it because the fact is is when you're doing freelance the client is the unknown quantity you think that the stuff you make is the unknown quantity it's not the client is the unknown quantity and no matter who you are and no matter what freelancing you do you're gonna get boned by clients you're gonna get screwed by them they're gonna tell you I'm not going to pay California sales tax at the end I've had that happen I've had people disappear on jobs and not pay for them I've had people cost me more to do a job because they were such a pain in the ass that's all going to happen to every freelancer in the world you that's part of the cost of business and you got to know when it's happening so you don't take it too personally in an ideal situation you deliver a product a problem occurs with that product and the client wants that problem fixed some of the groundwork you can lay is okay if you do have a problem with this I'm going to need to take it back and because of my workflow it might be four to six weeks before you get the piece back if you set that up at the front it's going to be a lot easier than telling the client that on the back end when they're like hey this leg isn't glued correctly and you're like oh six weeks I can fix it and they're like what that's the kind of groundwork you can lay um I'm assuming that they're a reasonable client they might not be they might tell you that they want you to give them back half the money all right and whether or not you do that is based on a whole bunch of different things how much more work might this person give you in the future how many other people might this person be able or want to trash talk you to if they leave this transaction unhappy uh how reasonable is their request how much of the money did you earn I once turned in a job that I failed at mechanically I eventually came up with a plan B and executed that and at the end they didn't choose that but I was ready to fight for at least 60 percent of my original bid because no matter what I had earned I felt that I had earned that in my labor I was willing to take 40 off the top they didn't ask which was thank God that was great they didn't ask because I was like I felt so bad about having not fully delivered on that job I lit was ready to cut right off the top which is always a really good thing to be ready to do um so rectifying the situation while taking risk taking responsibility is really important and being really clear about how you're going to take responsibility like look uh I mean if you're a carpenter is the wood you're working with has it been Kiln dried or regularly dried or could it split is that going to be your problem it could be your problem if you've chosen the wood incorrectly so that's part of institutional knowledge but ultimately setting client expectations so that they know what it might what the progression of of agreement might be in the case of a problem is the most important part of that second is I believe in taking responsibility and sometimes you want to wipe a job and say look I'll give you back all the dough uh I've definitely done freebies for clients that are really respected and that I wanted to be happy that is totally also a cost of business nobody wants to be taking taken advantage of but sometimes uh sometimes taking a hundred percent loss on a gig is is the right way to do client management and business management crafty collector says how do you separate yourself from the fear of not getting the job and not pricing yourself too low oh the toughest part oh the worst thing you ever want to hear in a bid when you're like okay so I've looked at the drawings and I've looked at this thing and I delivered this in five weeks it's going to be a ten thousand dollar job and they're like okay actually Frack that quick okay means you left money on the table oh that's so awful and you don't want to bid so high and this is where institutional knowledge comes in this is where calling other professionals and asking their advice comes in uh doing your research on the organization um I like to tell the story about uh I bid on a job for the San Francisco Maritime Museum many years back and they wanted a uh they had a scan of a piece of wood they wanted it printed out and painted to look like the original and I looked at the gig and looked at the mounting process and the 3D printing process and it came up with a bit of around 950 and I didn't get the job I was a little sad about it because I thought I had an inside man like helping me get that job but I did turns out then it turned out I found out that they ended up giving that job to someone internally for eight hundred dollars it's just like just about a hundred bucks less than I had been and it was like 8 40. and I was like they should have just asked me because I would have taken 10 off the top I always bid so that I could take 10 off the top in case the client's like that's a little tough because my goal actually in bidding is always to bid about 10 over what the client wanted to spend that was my freelance goal and that's just to give myself some wiggle room uh about what the market will bear and what I can achieve in the gig it's not about and sorry this is a key thing about freelance work it's not about what a good day's pay is to you it's about what the market will and should bear so if someone wants you to make a bunch of swords for a play they shouldn't be offering you seventy dollars to do that because that's not a seventy dollar job that's not what the market will bear by the same token you know in the farm like I was saying in the pharmaceutical industry the market will bear a much higher price so you don't want to go bid you know 500 for this thing you want to bid like three thousand dollars for this thing I I know I'm giving these numbers in the abstract without any attachment to a narrative and I apologize for that um but look crafty collector the way you separate yourself from the fear of not getting a job and pricing yourself too low is that you're going to bid stuff too high and not get the job and you're also going to price stuff too low and you're it's gonna cost you thank you so much for watching if you'd like to support us even further you can by becoming a tested member uh details are of course below But it includes all sorts of perks and we're building them all the time you get Advanced word and behind the scenes photos of some of our projects questions you get to ask direct questions during my live streams and we have some members only videos including the atom Real Time series of unbroken unedited shots of me working here in the shop they are weirdly meditative thank you guys so much I'll see you on the next one\n"