1 00:00:01,750 --> 00:00:07,450 This lesson is called how to structure profitable deals, and it will show you how to set up the terms, 2 00:00:07,750 --> 00:00:11,920 the scope of work and the payments on Upwork projects. 3 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:21,000 The reason this lesson is important is because you need to know how to structure freelance deals so 4 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,040 you can no one protect yourself. 5 00:00:23,280 --> 00:00:28,590 And number two, so you can put yourself in a position to be the most profitable. 6 00:00:28,950 --> 00:00:34,470 In this lesson, we are going to cover hourly versus fixed price projects. 7 00:00:34,830 --> 00:00:38,490 These are the two different types of projects that Upwork provides. 8 00:00:38,970 --> 00:00:46,230 An hourly project is one where it's an ongoing position and you submit your hours on a weekly basis. 9 00:00:46,860 --> 00:00:53,190 Upwork has two different features for this, which I will cover, and the fixed price projects are projects 10 00:00:53,430 --> 00:00:57,450 that aren't based on hours but are based on the work to be completed. 11 00:00:58,050 --> 00:01:04,050 These are usually split into what is called milestones, which I will also be going into more detail 12 00:01:04,050 --> 00:01:04,290 on. 13 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:10,770 Next, we will discuss the difference between short term projects and long term projects. 14 00:01:11,100 --> 00:01:16,860 And I'll be going over why you should actually be targeting both of these, even if you're just starting 15 00:01:16,860 --> 00:01:17,130 out. 16 00:01:19,310 --> 00:01:26,300 Then I will go into more detail about how the milestones in the escrow on Upwork work when you're doing 17 00:01:26,300 --> 00:01:28,260 one of those fixed price projects. 18 00:01:29,030 --> 00:01:35,480 Upwork is an intuitive platform, but it's helpful to know how you can structure this and how everything 19 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:36,060 is set up. 20 00:01:36,380 --> 00:01:42,260 So when you go to do it, you know exactly what to do, and we will then go over how to understand the 21 00:01:42,260 --> 00:01:44,930 scope of work with a potential client. 22 00:01:45,200 --> 00:01:51,500 This will make sure that it's a good project for you, and it will also help qualify them because it 23 00:01:51,500 --> 00:01:58,700 will get you both on the exact same page of what is expected from both party and what needs to be delivered 24 00:01:58,700 --> 00:02:01,850 by you for the price that you are charging. 25 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:08,690 Next, we will go over how you can start to determine what to charge clients, what to bid on different 26 00:02:08,690 --> 00:02:09,290 projects. 27 00:02:09,530 --> 00:02:15,320 And this goes into a lot of the data that's already available for you on the platform, which will be 28 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:16,100 diving into. 29 00:02:16,670 --> 00:02:21,600 And then lastly, we will cover how you can provide a final written quote. 30 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:27,470 This is the last thing that you provide after you go on that first client call. 31 00:02:27,620 --> 00:02:33,620 You do the sales demonstration and you've gotten everything that the client wants on paper. 32 00:02:33,860 --> 00:02:39,830 This is where you can provide multiple different options, and it will serve as that next touch point 33 00:02:40,010 --> 00:02:41,330 towards closing the deal. 34 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:50,460 Now, let's look at what an hourly job looks like when you were in the proposal process. 35 00:02:50,940 --> 00:02:57,270 So when you're bidding on an hourly job, you're able to put in the hourly rate that you want to bid. 36 00:02:57,660 --> 00:03:01,590 It will also show you what your hourly profile rate is that you set. 37 00:03:02,010 --> 00:03:03,600 But you don't have to stick to that. 38 00:03:04,470 --> 00:03:10,020 So when you're setting your profile rate, you want to make sure that it's around the same rate that 39 00:03:10,020 --> 00:03:15,780 you're bidding for jobs that, for example, you don't want your profile rate to say one 100 and then 40 00:03:15,780 --> 00:03:18,180 you're bidding on a job at twenty dollars an hour. 41 00:03:18,570 --> 00:03:21,330 That's not going to look good for the client. 42 00:03:21,330 --> 00:03:26,250 They're going to wonder why they're you're only bidding twenty dollars and y on your profile. 43 00:03:26,250 --> 00:03:28,170 You're saying that you're worth $100. 44 00:03:28,590 --> 00:03:35,430 So be accurate here with what you were normally going to charge for that hourly rate because the client 45 00:03:35,430 --> 00:03:38,610 can and will see your profile next. 46 00:03:38,610 --> 00:03:44,820 Upwork then shows you that 20 percent service fee that they take out, and then it'll show you how much 47 00:03:44,820 --> 00:03:46,290 you'll receive in your bank. 48 00:03:46,590 --> 00:03:49,470 This is just a little helpful calculation that they provide. 49 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:54,840 And remember, this is just on that first five hundred, and after you get over that five hundred, 50 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:56,640 that service fee begins to drop. 51 00:03:57,700 --> 00:04:04,420 If you look on the right, you can see that it says it includes Upwork hourly protection, and it's 52 00:04:04,420 --> 00:04:10,720 important to understand that the hourly protection on Upwork is only available if you use their app 53 00:04:11,050 --> 00:04:16,390 and they have an app that you download on your computer and it records what you're doing, basically. 54 00:04:16,780 --> 00:04:22,810 So I don't actually use that because I don't want my information and my client's info and stuff like 55 00:04:22,810 --> 00:04:24,010 that recorded. 56 00:04:24,280 --> 00:04:31,420 So I actually use the manual function when I'm doing hourly jobs, and the manual function allows you 57 00:04:31,420 --> 00:04:36,850 to go in on a week by week and day by day basis, and you just log in the work that you complete. 58 00:04:37,300 --> 00:04:42,160 In my experience, most clients are more than happy with this, and most don't even know that there 59 00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:44,080 is that desktop recording version. 60 00:04:44,500 --> 00:04:51,280 So if you're working with a client like I teach in this academy, you shouldn't have to worry about 61 00:04:51,310 --> 00:04:56,800 getting that Upwork hourly protection because you'll be working with someone where you both know exactly 62 00:04:56,800 --> 00:05:00,700 what is to be expected and it's going to be a good relationship. 63 00:05:01,150 --> 00:05:02,650 So that is what I suggest. 64 00:05:02,650 --> 00:05:08,410 But if you do want to take advantage of that Upwork hourly protection, I suggest looking further into 65 00:05:08,410 --> 00:05:12,400 the terms at the time and you can learn how you can take advantage of that. 66 00:05:13,380 --> 00:05:20,550 Either way, the part I love about hourly projects is that you have that ability to build them and their 67 00:05:20,670 --> 00:05:26,580 car just gets charged on a weekly basis, so every single week you're getting paid for your services 68 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:31,860 and you're never in that position where you need to chase down payment or you need to send invoices 69 00:05:31,860 --> 00:05:33,270 and make sure they all get paid. 70 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:38,760 That might sound like a good problem to have, but I'll tell you from experience, when you're chasing 71 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:44,580 clients down for money and you have to send weekly invoices with detailed things on them, it can start 72 00:05:44,580 --> 00:05:47,010 to eat away at your time and your productivity. 73 00:05:47,460 --> 00:05:52,890 So even if you're doing an hourly project on the platform, Upwork still helps you with that entire 74 00:05:52,890 --> 00:05:53,580 process. 75 00:05:55,300 --> 00:06:02,590 Next, this is the layout when you are bidding on a fixed price project so you can choose here, it'll 76 00:06:02,590 --> 00:06:06,820 ask you, do you want to be paid by milestone or by project? 77 00:06:07,210 --> 00:06:14,230 So in this example, I have just chosen to buy Project because there wasn't really a milestone breakdown 78 00:06:14,230 --> 00:06:15,520 for this specific job. 79 00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:21,510 For example, if it was a larger project that you could break down into different segments, that's 80 00:06:21,510 --> 00:06:27,090 where you can include those milestones and you can break up your bid into different sections. 81 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:33,450 Another way that you can segment it is if you'd like to get a down payment, for example, you can also 82 00:06:33,450 --> 00:06:35,280 do that in the form of milestones. 83 00:06:35,670 --> 00:06:42,780 And what happens is Upwork, once the job is approved, will have the client already pay that money 84 00:06:43,020 --> 00:06:47,400 to Upwork, and Upwork keeps it in what is called an Upwork escrow account. 85 00:06:48,180 --> 00:06:53,430 Now, the cool thing about the Upwork fixed price protection is that when you do these type of projects, 86 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:59,160 you pretty much are guaranteed to get paid if you're doing the work for that milestone. 87 00:06:59,610 --> 00:07:05,580 So this is really good for projects like websites and multiple phase projects because you can make sure 88 00:07:05,580 --> 00:07:08,310 that you're getting paid every step of the way. 89 00:07:08,550 --> 00:07:11,970 And it also helps avoid that scope creep. 90 00:07:11,970 --> 00:07:17,550 And that basically means when the client starts asking you to do things that are outside of what was 91 00:07:17,550 --> 00:07:18,540 already agreed upon. 92 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:25,110 Taking advantage of the milestones is something I definitely suggest you do, and taking advantage of 93 00:07:25,110 --> 00:07:29,250 fixed price jobs in general is a great way to get your start on Upwork. 94 00:07:29,970 --> 00:07:36,240 Another reason this is good is because if you're working for smaller projects to begin with, it looks 95 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:44,640 better on your profile to have jobs for even 50, 75 100 bucks as opposed to it does having jobs where 96 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:46,800 you worked for a very low hourly rate. 97 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:54,440 So as we will go deeper into this course, I will show you how you can move more towards multi retainers 98 00:07:54,710 --> 00:07:56,360 and charging on a monthly basis. 99 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:00,800 But when you're first starting out, these are the different ways you can apply to a job. 100 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:04,100 You can either go the hourly rate or the fixed price rate. 101 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:08,300 And this is all set up by the client, so you don't get to choose this. 102 00:08:08,300 --> 00:08:14,330 The client chooses whether they want to pay hourly or if they want to pay by project or by milestone. 103 00:08:15,470 --> 00:08:20,930 As you go through with your job applications and sending up proposals, keep this in mind as you look 104 00:08:20,930 --> 00:08:21,800 at each job. 105 00:08:24,530 --> 00:08:31,640 And Upwork is also a great place for many different types of projects, from complex projects to shorter 106 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:32,540 term projects. 107 00:08:32,990 --> 00:08:36,830 There's pretty much opportunity for everyone out there. 108 00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:43,430 Keep in mind, though, that short term projects might lead to more work and long term relationships. 109 00:08:43,880 --> 00:08:48,980 I've seen this happen a lot, especially with some of my clients that I currently still have. 110 00:08:49,340 --> 00:08:51,470 It started out as a short term position. 111 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:56,600 And sometimes they'll even write this in the proposal and they'll say this is a short term position. 112 00:08:56,600 --> 00:09:00,080 But if you do well, there is opportunity for long term work. 113 00:09:00,650 --> 00:09:05,870 The more you start to look for that, I guarantee you'll start to see that a lot of the short term projects 114 00:09:06,260 --> 00:09:09,800 also have that ability to turn to a long term position. 115 00:09:10,680 --> 00:09:17,130 And long term projects could be anything from an agency looking for a steady addition to their team 116 00:09:17,490 --> 00:09:21,600 all the way to a business owner looking to hire a long term marketing person. 117 00:09:22,290 --> 00:09:28,320 So keep that in mind because you could still start with a long term contract and you can start out with 118 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:30,390 a trial period or a phase one. 119 00:09:30,870 --> 00:09:35,520 It's all up to you, and that's why freelancing is such an amazing thing. 120 00:09:35,530 --> 00:09:41,490 It allows you to be in control of what you want to work on and what kind of projects you want to go 121 00:09:41,490 --> 00:09:41,940 after. 122 00:09:44,510 --> 00:09:51,170 When you're working on the milestones and the escrow, this is what it looks like you can enter in each 123 00:09:51,170 --> 00:09:54,620 different milestone and he'll let you add as many as you want. 124 00:09:54,950 --> 00:10:01,100 From there, you can break down the due date and the amount of that specific milestone. 125 00:10:01,700 --> 00:10:06,710 So when you're on these fixed price projects, the first thing is that you and the client both agree 126 00:10:06,710 --> 00:10:08,750 on the terms and the milestones. 127 00:10:09,410 --> 00:10:12,410 Then the client will deposit the money for that first milestone. 128 00:10:12,980 --> 00:10:18,680 And then once that is complete and the client approves the work, that money gets released to you. 129 00:10:18,950 --> 00:10:23,660 And then before you start working on the next part of the project, that's when they put the money in 130 00:10:23,660 --> 00:10:24,830 for the second milestone. 131 00:10:25,130 --> 00:10:31,430 So you're always covered here, it protects you, and it even protects the client because Upwork will 132 00:10:31,430 --> 00:10:35,720 make sure that the work is delivered if the client doesn't accept the project. 133 00:10:36,470 --> 00:10:42,920 So this helps you out so much you get to get paid throughout the project and it looks good on your profile. 134 00:10:43,370 --> 00:10:49,160 And once a milestone is complete, all you do is submit the work, and Upwork handles that whole process 135 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:53,000 for you of sending it to the client and having them approve everything. 136 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:54,980 It's only the click of a few buttons. 137 00:10:55,310 --> 00:11:00,150 This is so much easier than having to figure out how a client wants to get billed. 138 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:05,390 Whether you have to email them, whether you need to send them a physical check, Upwork takes all of 139 00:11:05,390 --> 00:11:09,260 that confusion out of it, and it helps both you and the client. 140 00:11:10,070 --> 00:11:14,900 In this example, here, I broke it down to a project start and a project complete. 141 00:11:15,140 --> 00:11:21,110 So for this, using that same hundred dollar project example, you can ask for 50 percent down and then 142 00:11:21,110 --> 00:11:27,260 you can say a 50 percent completion milestone after the project is complete, it's up to you how you 143 00:11:27,260 --> 00:11:28,130 want to structure this. 144 00:11:28,400 --> 00:11:33,830 And once again, it will show you underneath how much you'll receive after the Upwork fees are taken 145 00:11:33,830 --> 00:11:34,010 out. 146 00:11:37,070 --> 00:11:44,450 Next, understanding the scope of work is a very important part of your freelance journey because as 147 00:11:44,450 --> 00:11:49,400 you're starting to work with clients and you're on these phone calls and you're on these sales demos. 148 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:57,440 Understanding exactly what the client wants is what will dictate how successful you are going to be. 149 00:11:58,250 --> 00:12:04,670 The truth is and freelancing scope creep is a big problem and scope creep is when you start out doing 150 00:12:04,670 --> 00:12:08,900 one thing and over time a client starts asking for more and more. 151 00:12:09,260 --> 00:12:10,730 And I learned this the hard way. 152 00:12:10,970 --> 00:12:17,510 Some of my initial clients to begin with, I didn't have that clear scope of work down on paper, so 153 00:12:17,510 --> 00:12:23,390 I would use things like digital marketing and social media advertising when I should have used more 154 00:12:23,390 --> 00:12:25,730 specific terms, such as. 155 00:12:26,750 --> 00:12:32,180 Facebook advertising and website design and even going further than that. 156 00:12:32,420 --> 00:12:38,330 And speaking about how frequently I will be doing things and what is included in that project. 157 00:12:39,140 --> 00:12:45,140 Having those clear written deliverables allows you to go back to something that was agreed upon in writing. 158 00:12:45,500 --> 00:12:47,900 And I like to keep this all through Upwork messaging. 159 00:12:47,900 --> 00:12:53,460 So then you can show them an exact message on Upwork of what you guys agreed on initially. 160 00:12:53,990 --> 00:12:59,930 This will help you develop those clear deliverables and stick to them throughout the course of the project. 161 00:13:00,410 --> 00:13:04,580 If the client wants something that's outside of that scope, that's no problem. 162 00:13:04,730 --> 00:13:09,410 That gives you an opportunity now to upsell them and offer an additional service. 163 00:13:10,590 --> 00:13:16,350 When you're on calls with potential clients and you're on sales demonstrations and you're in that qualifying 164 00:13:16,350 --> 00:13:20,820 period, always ask them how they are going to measure success. 165 00:13:21,330 --> 00:13:25,290 It might sound simple, but in reality it's more complicated. 166 00:13:25,650 --> 00:13:27,000 Get specific with this. 167 00:13:27,330 --> 00:13:31,440 If they say they just want more leads, ask them how many more leads is success to them? 168 00:13:31,920 --> 00:13:34,340 Is it one hundred leads per month or is it 200? 169 00:13:34,350 --> 00:13:35,160 Is it a thousand? 170 00:13:35,730 --> 00:13:36,780 And then go deeper. 171 00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:42,450 Ask them how much they're able to afford for each lead is fifty dollars. 172 00:13:42,450 --> 00:13:45,060 A lead good is 10 is five. 173 00:13:45,390 --> 00:13:52,590 It all depends on the business you're speaking to because every product and service being sold has a 174 00:13:52,590 --> 00:13:56,790 different profit margin, so you need to understand how you're going to measure success. 175 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:01,260 So when you go and start to work on the project, there's no surprises down the line. 176 00:14:02,130 --> 00:14:07,320 You and the client need to know exactly what is going to be delivered on both ends. 177 00:14:07,980 --> 00:14:15,030 So if the client needs to be the one to help deliver content and photos for you to market on their website, 178 00:14:15,420 --> 00:14:20,430 that needs to be in the scope of work, and it needs to say that you were only working with content 179 00:14:20,430 --> 00:14:21,630 that the client provides. 180 00:14:22,530 --> 00:14:27,540 This will help you if, for example, the client comes to you and says that you're not providing any 181 00:14:27,540 --> 00:14:33,540 content for the work and you can go back and show them exactly where you agree that they are the ones 182 00:14:33,540 --> 00:14:35,130 that are going to provide that for you. 183 00:14:35,610 --> 00:14:38,940 It's very helpful because number one, people forget what they say. 184 00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:45,300 Number two, it's very easy to try to get more out of a freelancer once they're already working on a 185 00:14:45,300 --> 00:14:45,810 project. 186 00:14:46,410 --> 00:14:52,440 And number three, usually it's easy for a freelancer to just try to help that client out because they 187 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:55,110 want to secure that relationship for the long term. 188 00:14:55,620 --> 00:15:01,200 But what I'm telling you is to not get yourself in this position and make sure you understand how success 189 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:05,550 is going to be measured with that specific client on that specific project. 190 00:15:07,570 --> 00:15:11,470 Then stay dedicated to being big on communication. 191 00:15:11,950 --> 00:15:13,250 Don't hold anything back. 192 00:15:13,270 --> 00:15:19,450 Make sure you ask all the questions you need until they answer everything you need to know in those 193 00:15:19,450 --> 00:15:20,560 two previous points. 194 00:15:20,950 --> 00:15:25,870 So if they're not giving you clear answers on how success is measured or what exactly they need you 195 00:15:25,870 --> 00:15:29,010 to provide, it's not time to give them a quote yet. 196 00:15:29,020 --> 00:15:34,450 If they keep pushing you on price and you still can't get those answers, it's showing you they're not 197 00:15:34,450 --> 00:15:36,220 ready to even move forward yet. 198 00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:42,700 It's another way to understand what the scope of work is and how close you are to landing that client. 199 00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:49,400 Next, let's move into determining what to charge. 200 00:15:49,820 --> 00:15:55,670 Now that you understand the entire scope of work for the project and you understand how success is going 201 00:15:55,670 --> 00:16:02,000 to be measured now, it's time to settle on a couple prices for the different services you are going 202 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:02,600 to offer. 203 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:08,420 As I stated earlier, never just give one price for one product or for one service. 204 00:16:08,780 --> 00:16:14,810 You want to give multiple options to the client so they can decide what's the best fit for them. 205 00:16:15,350 --> 00:16:22,100 I like to provide three different options for each potential project, and what I do is I provide it 206 00:16:22,100 --> 00:16:28,040 in an incremental basis, so I'll start with what I can provide for the cheapest amount and then for 207 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:30,740 the middle most amount and then for the most amount. 208 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:37,130 That also helps the client understand that based on what they are going to pay, they're going to get 209 00:16:37,130 --> 00:16:38,570 a different amount of value. 210 00:16:38,930 --> 00:16:45,560 This helps you get away from always being tied to hourly positions and helps you get paid for the value 211 00:16:45,830 --> 00:16:46,940 that you're providing. 212 00:16:49,070 --> 00:16:55,400 So when you're determining what to charge a potential client, it's a combination of a few factors you 213 00:16:55,400 --> 00:17:01,400 want to look at what the client's budget is, that they posted the length of the job and the skill level 214 00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:02,450 that they're looking for. 215 00:17:02,780 --> 00:17:08,990 So if it's an hourly position, they'll normally put a range there of what it is that they're looking 216 00:17:08,990 --> 00:17:09,320 for. 217 00:17:09,500 --> 00:17:15,650 And you can start to combine all those different factors and understand what you can get away with charging 218 00:17:15,830 --> 00:17:17,420 for the value you provide. 219 00:17:17,870 --> 00:17:23,360 So for this specific example, they're looking for expert level freelancers, and they're looking to 220 00:17:23,360 --> 00:17:27,800 pay 50 to 100 dollars an hour for that freelancer. 221 00:17:28,340 --> 00:17:32,390 And the project length is less than a month and the hours are to be determined. 222 00:17:32,930 --> 00:17:39,440 What this tells me is you could charge close to that $100 rate if you're able to provide that level 223 00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:44,030 of value for them as you're going through and submitting proposals for projects. 224 00:17:44,510 --> 00:17:50,480 Remember to keep the client's budget in mind if you completely ignore this and you bid something that's 225 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:51,410 double their budget. 226 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:56,660 The client is not going to take you seriously, and they're going to throw your proposal in the garbage. 227 00:17:58,430 --> 00:18:04,070 You also want to look at the activity level on the job, see how much competition there is. 228 00:18:04,310 --> 00:18:08,540 See how many proposals are submitted, how many freelancers are being interviewed. 229 00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:10,280 How many invites have been sent. 230 00:18:10,580 --> 00:18:17,030 And then you can get an idea for what the competition level is from there when you have the paid plan. 231 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:20,570 You can see what the competitors have bid for the project. 232 00:18:20,990 --> 00:18:26,240 So for this specific example, you can see that the high bid is one hundred right at the top of the 233 00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:29,540 client's budget and the low bid is 50 at the bottom. 234 00:18:29,750 --> 00:18:33,050 And the average bid comes in right at 77 25. 235 00:18:33,590 --> 00:18:39,410 So if I was bidding on this project and I knew I was a great fit, I would probably bid somewhere around 236 00:18:39,410 --> 00:18:40,880 80 or 90 dollars. 237 00:18:41,210 --> 00:18:47,420 That allows you to come under that top range, but you're still showing you're worth more than the low 238 00:18:47,420 --> 00:18:48,230 and average range. 239 00:18:48,620 --> 00:18:52,190 This is a great way to price your hourly bids. 240 00:18:54,800 --> 00:19:00,920 Lastly, look at how much the client has spent on Upwork, and most importantly, if it's an hourly 241 00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:03,380 project, what their hourly rate paid is. 242 00:19:03,890 --> 00:19:09,860 So in this example, this job looks like the client is willing to pay those expert level premiums to 243 00:19:09,860 --> 00:19:10,970 have their problem solved. 244 00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:19,190 As you can see, their average hourly rate paid is $80 and 94 cents, and even better, they've paid 245 00:19:19,190 --> 00:19:23,030 for one hundred twenty three hours of freelancers help on the platform. 246 00:19:23,510 --> 00:19:24,980 That's over $9000. 247 00:19:24,980 --> 00:19:31,400 They've spent over nine hires and over 14 jobs posted, with sixty five percent of those hired. 248 00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:39,170 This is all information you can use to understand and determine what price you should be bidding for 249 00:19:39,170 --> 00:19:40,370 each specific job. 250 00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:48,820 In conclusion, what you decide to bid and to charge for your projects is all up to what the market 251 00:19:48,820 --> 00:19:49,810 will pay for it. 252 00:19:50,380 --> 00:19:56,350 It's about the value you provide, the problems you solve and what clients are willing to pay for that. 253 00:19:56,710 --> 00:20:02,190 So keep that in mind as you're building your proposals out and as you're going through this process, 254 00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:08,290 you want to stay in the best range for success possible, so stay within the client's budget. 255 00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:15,730 Make sure you're looking at their entire payment profile and bid a competitive rate for the value that 256 00:20:15,730 --> 00:20:16,560 you provide. 257 00:20:18,410 --> 00:20:24,560 You can also use the sample quote template that is included with this lesson, and it's going to show 258 00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:31,160 you how you can summarize the project, you can outline your approach and the timeline and then provide 259 00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:34,130 multiple options along with the prices for each. 260 00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:36,710 Here's a sneak peek of what that looks like. 261 00:20:39,190 --> 00:20:43,960 Of course, you can expand on this, but this is the template that will help you understand how you 262 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:46,840 can start to structure your written quote. 263 00:20:47,500 --> 00:20:54,970 This is a document that you send to the potential client after you've had that first sales demo and 264 00:20:54,970 --> 00:21:00,610 that first client call always, always, always remember to present your quote in writing. 265 00:21:01,210 --> 00:21:02,980 People believe what they see. 266 00:21:03,310 --> 00:21:06,490 Always email and Upwork message this over to your client. 267 00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:07,990 Talk is cheap. 268 00:21:07,990 --> 00:21:09,940 Don't pitch this over the phone. 269 00:21:10,360 --> 00:21:15,310 You can speak with them after you've given them this, so you can negotiate and close the deal. 270 00:21:15,730 --> 00:21:21,100 But the reality is in business, when things are written down, it helps validate them and it helps 271 00:21:21,100 --> 00:21:23,170 the client see things in writing. 272 00:21:23,590 --> 00:21:29,950 It also shines the light on the positive because you're going forward, you're putting together a document 273 00:21:30,100 --> 00:21:35,410 and you're providing all of this value of how you're going to approach the project, which shows the 274 00:21:35,410 --> 00:21:39,020 client ultimately that you are dedicated and you are driven. 275 00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:43,120 Even just writing things down will help you close more deals. 276 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:47,950 And now, you know, how to structure profitable freelance deals. 277 00:21:48,370 --> 00:21:49,750 I'll see you in the next lesson.