For Freelancers: How To Negotiate Money and Raise Your Rates

Been doing lots of speaking to groups this year about negotiating rates - I'm off to do a workshop on the topic this afternoon.* 

It's a subject that many freelancers seem to struggle with.  So here's a link to a podcast I recorded last year about Negotiating Money and Raising Your Rates.  Several people have told me that they've used the exercise in this podcast to riase their daily rates, so do take the time to listen, could turn out to be a very profitable 20 minutes.

One interesting point which has emerged from the workshops is this:

People who say that their policy is always to ask for a bit more than the first rate offered, say that generally the client does agree to raise the rate.

This isn't my personal policy - if the rate seems fair enough in the first place then I don't tend to bother asking for more for the sake of it.  But it's an interesting trend.  Seems like you have nothing to lose by asking for more, and plenty to gain.

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*Driving and public speaking in the same day - good grief!  Will let you know if my nerves hold out.