BriefRate field guide / Pricing decision
How much should I charge for a freelance project?
A defensible quote starts with the work required, then adds real costs and known uncertainty. The final number also needs clear boundaries so it does not quietly buy unlimited work.
Estimate the work by phase
List the phases that must happen: discovery, production, review, delivery, and project management. Estimate each separately. A single guess for the whole project makes missing work difficult to notice.
Apply a working rate
Multiply the total estimated hours by the hourly rate you use internally for project pricing. That rate should reflect paid work, operating costs, non-billable time, and the income the business needs—not only what an employee might earn per hour.
Add expenses and uncertainty
Add project-specific costs separately. Then use a deliberate buffer for bounded uncertainty such as coordination or reasonable variation. Do not use a buffer to disguise work that should be scoped explicitly.
Check the price with real numbers
Put boundaries beside the number
State deliverables, quantities, exclusions, revision rounds, payment timing, and the change-request process. If the direction cannot be bounded, charge for discovery or use hourly pricing instead of forcing a fixed quote.
Make it repeatable
Put the price and the boundaries in one place.
BriefRate turns the estimate into a clear, copyable scope summary. It is a private offline tool, available once for US$9.
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