How much am I worth?: Meeting Recap

It’s a question freelancers often ask themselves. How do you decide how much your time and talent is worth? And how do you decide what rates you should charge? At the April 2011 meeting of Freelance Austin, these three successful freelancers helped to answer those questions. This was a great question and answer opportunity to learn from experienced professional freelancers who do it every day.

Amy Hufford began her freelance web and graphic design career in 1996. She came to love working in the wee hours of the night as she took on projects outside her job at the Austin Board of Realtors (where she led the creation of austinhomesearch.com) for four years before making Stellar Communications a full-time enterprise. Stellar Communications helps clients maximize their online presence through website design and development, e-mail marketing and social media. Hufford is former Austin president of the Association for Women in Communications.

After 14 years of working in public relations and corporate communications, Amy Lemen quit in 2000 to launch a freelance business (www.writeouswords.com). “I haven’t yet been sued or audited so I figure that, at this point, it’s a career,” Lemen says. These days, Lemen splits her time as a journalist writing about real estate, technology, health, food and travel for local and national publications, and as an ad hoc marketing writer for corporate and organizational clients, writing SEO-friendly websites, case studies, newsletters, white papers, ad copy and more.

Thom Singer is a professional speaker and sales trainer, and the author of seven books on the power of business relationships and networking along with an eighth book on presentation skills. Before going solo, Singer held sales, marketing and business development roles with major corporations and law firms. Singer is the author of the Some Assembly Required blog and creator of the online Networking Quotient Quiz.