For love or money – the chaos behind freelance pricing

 

[reeds*]

If human beings were rational creatures and actively motivated to seek their maximum financial benefit, the range of prices among freelancers, an unregulated and competitive world, would be relatively small, reflecting mainly differences in geography and personal situation. Instead, freelancer pricing for any given service, including translation, is marked by extreme differences far beyond those factors. Rates range from the sublime high to the ridiculous low. Clearly, price choice goes beyond mere rationality and involves, as Hannibal Lector from Silence of the Lambs would say, the question of what people seek. As I see it, freelancers aim to varying degrees to win the sales game, position themselves among their competitors or maximize their income or achieve any or all of these goals at different times. The interplay of these motivations ultimately shape the actual price choices.

First, there are people for whom attaining the best price is an earnest game. To clarify, it is not the actual amount of money or profit that matters but instead the perception that they “won” by getting the price they wanted. For these people, negotiating rates is an addictive and serious game that must be won. They sense the relative strength and weakness of the other party and strive to maximize their own benefit. By contrast, many freelancers are disinterested, even dismissive, of price negotiation, considering it irrelevant or even distasteful. Some would even provide their job for free for the sheer enjoyment. That a person is willing to pay for the service is merely a bonus. At either extreme, money tends to be of predominant or no importance.

Far more freelancers tend to take a comparative approach, placing themselves in a given niche in the market via their pricing. After an analysis of the market of some sort, such entrepreneurs define the price of the product and/or work hour in relation to others in the same field. However, some religiously monitor the market and adjust rates to maintain their position, like NFL quarterbacks comparing salary among each other, while others consciously or unconsciously forget the matter and let their relative rates and position change as inflation, competition and technology alter the landscape. While one group actively maintains its chosen price niche, the other one is not actually committed to the concept.

Some freelancers are far more calculating in their choices. They determine how much money they require to live their chosen lifestyle and tailor their pricing strategy to meet that goal. They constantly evaluate where to put their efforts to attain their income goals. Interestingly, there also those that merely want to pay their bills and live comfortably. Any income beyond that amount  is of relatively little interest. Whether such freelancers are foolish or modest is a matter of perspective.

In practice, over a long career, freelancers modify their pricing strategy as circumstances and awareness change. Family status, age and personal ambition have varying impact over the years. As a result, the approach to pricing also changes, meaning that freelancers may be motivated by any of these instincts to one degree or another at any time.  Still, a desire for victory, status or comfort seems a basic instinct that varies from person to person beyond logic. Pascal noted that humans were thinking reeds but we each bend to our own direction, including in pricing.

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