Sliding scale payment systems
Wanted to start a conversation to see how this idea lands among the folks of this online community.
I am a university-educated, full-stack web developer by vocation. I've put years into building an integrated understanding of the systems I use and I always opt to use the simplest tool for the job. As far as I know, my skillset is worth a lot of money.
Part of my trouble is that having a set price for my work means that I would be biasing my services towards people who can afford them. I would much rather work for the type of person who can't afford to pay me - this is why I quit my job at a consulting firm.
The best answer I've found is to ask for payment on a sliding scale. I think I would be comfortable asking for up to $100/hour, and going as low as $20 (approximate living wage where I am) unless someone legitimately cannot afford what I offer, in which case I can do the work for free if I feel like it.
I would like to organize payment around various checkpoints & deliverables. That way, my client can choose how much to pay for a given task and then revisit payment based on performance and efficiency.
What do you think, Tildeans? I bet y'all think I'm crazy and you're right. But would you hire me, if I was a real-life person in your community?
personally i love this — fairer payment systems are important and this is a good one. i’d happily pay more for you over people offering cheaper rates to support you in providing services for others who can’t pay
i might be a minority there though. hopefully not
Here's what I do when freelancing. I have my hourly wage with a discount available for eligible partners. When working with non-profits/not-for-profits, I'll essentially donate half my rate to worthy causes.
I generally don't work with individuals, so I don't really have to worry about being affordable to individuals and can price my services accordingly.
A true sliding scale would probably put the most expensive work up front to avoid having to go through those difficult planning steps 100 times with clients who drop you once they've got a minimum viable though.
I've been helping someone with running a small digital services business, and while we're both learning as we go, there's a few tips I can share. Note that this business operates out of the US, with mostly US-based clients, so some things may vary regionally.
100%, I highly recommend doing things this way, or at the very least structuring invoices this way. This sets expectations at the beginning, as it spells out what work will be done (at a summary level), and how much it should cost.
You should look at this breakdown as you start to assess pricing. It is not just your time that is valuable, but your expertise. If you are able to whip up some JavaScript for an animation in an hour, that does not mean you should only charge for one hour. As you suggested, aligning costs with deliverables is a better way to go.
Additionally, if any invoice line items are too vague, prepare documents that will go into more detail. As an example, a line item could be "Create a contact form," but you need to provide more information about how this will be accomplished, in a way the customer will understand. Again, you want to establish expectations, so think in customer terms ("Match color palette with existing branding materials") instead of developer terms ("Create CSS for styling"). In some cases, you may even want to provide mockups or wireframes before starting the full work.
And if we're talking about a lot of mockups or requirements documents, you don't have to offer this for free. One option is to take a leap of faith and provide it before sending a request for payment, and then wrap it into the cost of the final invoice. The other option is be upfront and state that it will be a significant time (and/or skill) investment to create these detailed requirements, and that you would like a consulting fee upfront to do so.
Come up with a contract that clearly outlines a rework policy. Lay out clear guidelines on number of revisions or similar to reduce scope creep. You can use a different contract per client, or even per engagement, but this is something that can turn what should be 10 hours of work into 40 hours of work.
I also recommend coming up with a base price that you do not need to disclose to the customer. Hypothetically, let's say that one of your many service offerings is updating branding on a web page, and you would generally charge $20 per page. If someone comes to you and wants only this service, and only on one web page, it does not make sense to only charge $20.
You are spending additional time beyond the actual work - communicating with the customer, sending a contract, handing off the deliverable, potentially providing additional support, etc. You are also taking on other passive business costs - electricity, wear and tear on your equipment (even though computer equipment generally has a long life span), perhaps even software licenses depending on what you're doing.
Create a base rate that is your minimum to account for all of these things, and then roll it into the line items on an invoice. If there is only one line item, adding an additional $100 does seem like a lot, but you may discover that more customers are agreeable to this pricing than you would expect. It's easier if you were to spread that out across 4 line items, as each one would just have an additional $25. But do not let fear of pricing yourself out of reach prevent you from pricing yourself at what you are worth.
Also, do not list any sort of pricing publicly. The most you should share is the proposition of your reduced rate if it applies to certain customer types. As an example, you could say "I offer a discounted rate for registered non-profit organizations." This would be a scenario where you could have a separate base rate as well. I would never outright offer free services, unless it something that would provide another benefit, such as advertising/publicity. It's kind to others to be charitable. It's unkind to yourself to work for free if you have bills to pay and other time-intensive commitments in life.
And don't be afraid to charge more for customers you suspect may be more painful to work with. You also have the option of rejecting work when you are working for yourself, and you should do so when needed.
Hope this helps.