You will produce a rate sheet with prices for your main services and the terms that go with them.
A rate sheet is the document you open every time someone asks, "How much would that cost?" Without one, you price each job from scratch, usually in a hurry, often while the client waits on a call, and the number tends to come out low. With one, the thinking has been done in advance, and quoting takes a minute. This project builds yours from the floor rate in lesson 7.1, the models in lesson 7.2 and the terms in lesson 7.3. Allow about 45 minutes.
Produce a rate sheet for your main services. For each service, it shows the pricing model, the price, your estimate of hours and the effective hourly rate that results. It also states your payment terms, what is included and what costs extra. Then test the sheet on real work you have already done.
Start by checking the market. Your floor rate tells you the least you can charge. It does not tell you what clients will pay. Ask two or three peers in your field what they charge for similar work, read any public rate surveys for your industry, and look at the prices other freelancers publish. What you want from this is a range that most people in your field charge within. Mei's floor is S$57 an hour. From peers and published rates, she finds that designers with her experience charge from about S$70 to S$120 an hour equivalent for agency and small business work. She sets a target of S$85 an hour equivalent, inside that range and comfortably above her floor. All of these figures are made up for the example.
Then price each service. List your main services, usually three to six. For each, pick the model you chose in lesson 7.2 and estimate the hours it really takes, using your records rather than your memory. Price it, then divide the price by the hours to get the effective hourly rate: what the job actually pays you per hour of work. Every effective rate should sit above your floor, and most should sit near your target.
Next, add what is included and what costs extra. For each service, state what the client gets: how many concepts, how many rounds of revisions, which file formats, what timeline. Then list the extras, such as rush work, additional revisions, extra formats or work outside the scope. Extras are where project pricing either protects you or leaks money, so price them now, not in the middle of a client conversation.
Then add your payment terms from lesson 7.3, so every quote carries them.
Finally, test the sheet. Take your last three jobs and requote each one using your new sheet. Compare the new price with what you actually charged, and note the difference.
Here is Mei's test, with every figure made up for the example.
Her first job was a logo. She charged S$900 and it took 14 hours, an effective rate of about S$64. At her target of S$85, those 14 hours price at S$1,190. She undercharged by S$290.
Her second was a brochure. She charged S$1,500, and with three extra rounds of revisions it took 30 hours, an effective rate of S$50, below her floor of S$57. Her sheet would price the same 30 hours at S$2,550, a difference of S$1,050. Her new sheet also limits revisions to two rounds and charges extra rounds separately, which on its own would have stopped most of the overrun.
Her third was a pack of social media graphics. She charged S$600 for 6 hours of work, an effective rate of S$100. Her sheet would price it at S$510. She keeps S$600, because the client accepted it and the work is worth it to them. A rate sheet sets a floor and a starting point. It does not oblige you to cut a price the market already pays.
Across the three jobs, the sheet shows that two were underpriced and one was below her floor entirely. That single comparison gave her a clearer reason to raise prices than any article about pricing ever did.
A finished rate sheet fits on one or two pages. It has a line for each main service, with model, price, estimated hours and effective hourly rate. Under each, what is included and the extras with their prices. At the bottom, your payment terms. On a separate note, your floor rate, your target rate and the market range you found, so you can update the sheet when any of them moves.
Alongside it, a short test: your last three jobs, what you charged, what the sheet would charge, and the difference for each.
Review the sheet at least once a year, and whenever your floor rate changes. Module 8 builds that into your routine.
Have your floor rate, your three most recent jobs and the hours each took in front of you before you start the sheet.
Complete your rate sheet and requote your last three jobs with it, writing the difference against what you actually charged.
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