Ask HN: How do you know how much to charge for your services? - thr2178008
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jayec
Have a look at job sites to see what a salaried position with your experience
would get you. Use that to work out the hourly rate you would be paid and add
25-30% to cover your expenses for the time you spend on admin tasks or tasks
that don't bring in any money. Multiply your new hourly rate by how long you
think it will take you to complete a task. Over time you'll get better at
estimating your time.

If you need to purchase something for the project I generally sell it to the
client at cost and work the cost of the purchase into the overall price. Most
clients would expect you to add a markup to purchases but they're pleasantly
surprised when you don't. You still get your money and you get a happier
client in the end. Everybody wins.

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ian0
However much you need for your business model to forecast a future you would
be happy with.

So if contracting, enough to cover your cost of life, either from the outset
or taking into account some forecast of growth due to experience or ability to
scale. The more forecasting involved, the more frequently you need to evaluate
it.

Sorry, I know not that helpful - but I do mean it with sincerity. It forces
you to think of the fundamentals and avoid expensive wrong turns.

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jwilliams
This is good advice. Start with the level of service you want to provide, then
work back from there.

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richardknop
It depends on what services you are providing. Try looking at the market and
see what your competitors/peers are charging for similar services that you
want to sell, it's a good starting point.

In theory you should try to charge as much as your clients are willing to pay
for your service. That might be very different amount based on how valuable
the service you provide is to them.

~~~
jamesmp98
I think the issue here is that many (most?) places don't really say how much
they charge. They just say contact us for a quote.

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taprun
Here's a list of methods to choose your pricing:
[https://taprun.com/methods/](https://taprun.com/methods/)

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otakucode
If applicable, I like to charge such that the implemented system will pay for
itself within 24 months.

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Lordarminius
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13840282](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13840282)

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anon_dev_123456
Every time I start getting a lot of requests for work, I up my price. Ideally
you should be getting about 3 requests for work per month. 4 is pushing it, it
means you should be charging more.

Charge more until you stop being flooded with work requests.

