Seeing interesting discussion elsewhere on rates and setting oneself apart from the crowd... certainly as a freelancer you do need to set yourself apart in some way in order to attract clients & achieve their respect.
But there are a lot of reasons to enter into (and stay in) the freelance life. Rates are important, but in my own experience there are other factors too; that sense of freedom that's been talked about on other threads seems to be chief amongst them.
Factors
What other factors are significant in your freelance life and your approach to achieving satisfaction in your work?
How do you balance the importance of these various factors, and how does that lead in to how & where & at what rate to pitch yourself?
Rates
With regards to rates: does it matter who you are trying to help? Is there a profile of who that might be, and what their business looks like?
Philosophy
I've always liked working with Small to Medium Orgs – even though they can be uninformed pains in the arse. And tbh they won't pay a $100+ per hour rate (or you correct me if I'm wrong).
I like to bring technologies, and success with them, to businesses who find this hard to achieve. That means crafting approaches that help to guide them through the whole process and which work to keep the costs of a typical engagement down (which as it progresses may mean that I can increase my rates).
They can't spend the amounts a Mid-to-Large Enterprise can. And the corporate world... well, it's rigid & boring, filled with mediocrity and myriad attempts to exercise advantage & control, so I prefer not to go there.
Summary
My most important factors are freedom in my work & freedom to develop & apply tools & approaches & continually innovate, and freedom to carefully choose my clients and my projects, and freedom to design a life that I enjoy leading.
Approach
Whilst self-respect & earnings potential are important, my sense of self-respect is not all tied up in my rates. I've earned well below my top rate for lengthy periods in order to innovate & do good work with a superb client, for example, all whilst delivering work from the hills & the beach.
Contracting was where I played the rates game. These days I try to pitch between a company's ability to pay, my ability to live a life I craft myself, the ability to innovate and build something of interest, and to work with a really good business & people.
