Stefan Georgi argues that freelancers should charge based on the value (ROI) they deliver rather than the time spent. Using an anecdote of turning $1,000 into $10,000 in eight minutes, he shows that clients care about returns, not minutes billed, and urges freelancers to overcome guilt about high fees and communicate ROI to clients.
Here's something really simple that I want to point out, but I think it's really important, right? Okay. So imagine a situation where I was like, hey, you give me a thousand dollars, I'm gonna give you $10,000 back guaranteed. Just quote, out of cash, right? And if, like, if I said, okay, it's only take me eight minutes, but you're gonna get this money back and you believe that wasn't some shifty, shady thing, right? Various had some magic investment thing and you did that, you would, like, do it every single time, right? And like, the fact that it took eight minutes, like, wouldn't matter, would you. You wouldn't care that I only took eight minutes to give you back $10,000, like a 10x return on your investment, right? But if you're a freelancer, what often happens is we get this guilt about charging more because we're so worried about what people are paying us and that, you know, do we deserve to be paid that? And we have guilt about not working enough time for the money we're getting in return, right? But it's so stupid because again, if, say you had a sales funnel or website and I knew I could dramatically increase your conversions, and as a result of increasing your conversions, you could make way more sales at a higher profit margin and you'd make a $10,000 return. And if I knew what to do and it only took me 8 minutes to share that with you then, and I wanted like a thousand dollars for it, right? So I didn't tell you how long it took and you really believe that I was going to do it, then you say, like, okay, yeah, absolutely. Right. But if you thought that maybe you knew it was going to take me eight minutes, you might have this hang up on your end of being like, well, why am I paying for eight minutes? I'm going to pay a thousand dollars. But you can understand hopefully how stupid that is. It's like the dumbest mentality you could have because it's not about what you're paying. Like, it's about the ROI. So if you're paying $1,000, it takes eight minutes to get $10,000 back. Amazing. You just got $10,000 back at 10x ROI. And as a freelancer, it's the same thing. You may have to help your clients understand that. But you shouldn't be feeling guilted or feeling guilty about what it is that you're charging, like how much time it's going to take. Like the time doesn't matter. The roi people need to be hiring you to get an roi. Like, they're paying for the roi. That's why they're paying. So, like, when you quote people, don't worry about them, like, paying you for stuff. Like, don't worry about feeling like. Don't think about, like, they're, you know, I have to get them to give me money. Like, I got to convince them to invest in me so I can bring them an roi. And if they believe that, they'll pay you and they'll pay your higher fees, and you don't need to work all that time to get paid. If you can do something, that's high leverage. So I just want to share that because I think it's a really important fact and kind of truth that can help you with freelancing and with your career.
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