[throwaway413]

4 words - “what is your budget?”

If they hesitate, just ask them for a ballpark - “1k, 10k, 50k, 250k” (usually start this at the lowest you’re willing to go for a project because small clients will just pick the lowest number)

Different clients looking for the exact same thing can have different budgets. You may be able to sell a piece of software to one company for $50k that another company will only pay $5k for. Value is subjective to the business.

Simply just ask them what their budget is, or what ballpark they are looking to spend to accomplish this goal.

If they say $5k, great, you can charge $5k. If they say $1k, you may need to think about how to cut scope to offer them something for $1k without you dropping your rate, that way you can still service them. And if they say $50k, then you hit the client gold mine and you have plenty of work to do!

This tells you what type of client they are right out the gate. They will either use this opportunity to balk and minimize perceived value, or they will confirm that they will happily pay you your worth so long as the mission is successful. You want the latter clients.

Also try to avoid one time payment. Instead of $1500 for the project and you think it’ll take a week, draft an agreement that says “$1000 per week, estimated 2 weeks of work, here are the list of priorities we will tackle, after two weeks you can choose to continue to pay me per week to finish any remaining tasks or for new work.”