Hey — it’s Temidayo.
One thing I have learned lately is that you have to change your perspective on pricing your services based on time worked if you want to start charging premium rates as a freelancer.
Especially for freelancers who use Upwork and take on hourly-based gigs.
The actual value of your work is measured by the tangible results and impact you can provide for clients, not by the amount of time or hours spent working.
Calm down, let me explain…
✱ – Tangible Results vs Hours Worked
Too many freelancers fall into the trap of quoting gigs solely by estimating how long the work will take them to complete.
“Okay, the development of this website will require around 40 hours of my time, so I’ll just charge $10 per hour.”
But you see, that’s a fundamentally flawed and limiting approach to pricing, especially if you’re aiming to position yourself as a premium, high-value provider. Because at the end of the day, your clients don’t actually care how many hours you put into their project.
What they really care about is the end result. The positive impact your work will have on their business. The problems you’re going to solve for them in an effective, efficient way.
Think about it from the client’s perspective…
If you quoted them $1,000 for a new website because “it’ll take 50 hours of my time,” there’s nothing impressive about that price.
It doesn’t speak to the expected outcomes or ROI.
But if you instead pitched it as: “For $1,000, I’ll deliver a modern, user-friendly website that will increase lead generation by 25%, and integrate seamless ecommerce functionality”…suddenly that pricing makes a lot more sense!
You’re selling results, not time.
The same principle applies no matter what service you provide. Don’t make the time input the focus – make it about how working with you guarantees a valuable outcome for that client.
The beauty of premium pricing is that you get paid based on the worth of your impact, not your time. And smart clients are more than happy to pay experts for those success metrics.
So start reframing your offerings away from quoting hours and more towards quoting results.
