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6 min read

How much should you budget for freelance work?

Build a planning range from complexity, effort, seniority, turnaround and review requirements.

Price the uncertainty

Two outputs that look similar can require very different discovery, source cleanup and stakeholder work. A useful budget includes the effort needed to reduce uncertainty, not only production time.

Separate the cost drivers

Ask candidates to state assumptions so quotes can be compared fairly.

  • Approximate effort and specialist seniority
  • Number of deliverables and variants
  • Revision and approval rounds
  • Rush or out-of-hours work
  • Licences, media, hosting and other third-party costs