By Suzanne Lucas
Davy Greenberg summed up the feelings of a lot of us out there who make our living offering services directly:
The tweet went viral (with 36,000 retweets and 123,000 likes at this writing) and evoked a lot of emotion. This is something a lot of us can relate to.
Because I freelance, I’m always talking with new people for potential jobs. Often the conversation goes like this:
Potential client: I need someone to do A, B, and C by next Thursday.
Me: Okay, I can do that for you. It will cost $300.
Potential client: Great!
But sometimes the conversation goes like this:
Potential client: I need someone to do A, B, and C by next Thursday.
Me: Okay, I can do that for you. It will cost $300.
Potential client: What???? I budgeted $25 for this!
Me: Okay. Best of luck to you!
Potential client: I could get someone on Fiverr to do this for $25!
Me: Okay. That sounds like a great idea!
Potential client: Can you do it for $25?
Me: Nope.
Potential client: But I really like your writing!
Me: Thank you. It will be $300.
There are plenty of people who will do what I do for less money. There are people who do what I do for more money. The question is, are you getting what you pay for?
Often, in creative fields (which Greenberg works in) people expect that because anyone can write a paragraph, take a picture, or sing karaoke, the people who do it professionally are really doing it as a hobby and it should be free or at least close to free. Because you do it for fun, we must be doing it for fun.
People don’t generally think, “Gee, my doctor loves medicine! That’s why she went to medical school! She should take my appendix out for free!” It’s a ridiculous proposition.
Professionals in all fields spent decades perfecting their crafts. Just because they can do something quickly, doesn’t mean they aren’t worth the money.
I pay my accountant what seems to be an exorbitant fee to do my taxes each year, but I don’t complain. Why? Because my taxes are complicated as income is earned across two continents and multiple currencies and are partly in English and partly in German. Could I do it myself? Probably, but while she can do my taxes in a couple of hours, it would take me a week’s worth of labor–if not more, and I couldn’t guarantee they would be correct. When you look at it that way, happily paying her bill is the way to go.
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