Every artist we know has done it: quoted a price, watched the client pause, and immediately offered a discount nobody asked for. Pricing your own work is emotional. So take the emotion out of it, use math and a floor.
Step 1: Find your floor
Add up what a month of your life actually costs (rent, food, gear, software, transport). Divide by the hours you can realistically bill, not 160, more like 60–80 once you subtract admin, editing, and finding clients. That number is your floor rate. Below it, you’re paying to work.
Step 2: Price the job, not the hour
Clients don’t buy hours, they buy outcomes. A two-hour shoot isn’t two hours, it’s prep, travel, shooting, culling, editing, revisions, and delivery. Estimate the total hours, multiply by your rate, then quote one clean number. “Single-song music video: $X” lands better than an hourly rate that invites micromanagement.
Step 3: Build in the discount before they ask
If you know you’ll flinch, pad 10–15% into the quote. When a client negotiates, you can give ground gracefully and still land on your floor. If they accept the first number? You just got paid for your nerve.
Step 4: Say it and stop talking
Quote the price, then silence. Don’t justify, don’t apologize, don’t stack qualifiers. The first person to speak after a price usually loses the negotiation, let it be them.
When to work cheap (on purpose)
Sometimes a low-paid or trade project is worth it, a portfolio piece you couldn’t buy, a collaborator you believe in, a cause you care about. The difference between strategic and underselling is that you chose it, on your terms, in writing.
Want feedback on your rates? Post your situation in the community, pricing transparency is one of the most powerful things we can give each other.