This is the Home Studio Hustle Podcast number 5- how to price your services in the home studio.

Hello Hustlers and welcome to the show I'm Mike Brown and today we're going to be talking about how to price your services in your home studio.

When I first started out, this was one of the things I was most curious about. What should I charge for a mix? What about for tracking? Should I charge by the hour, or by the job?

What was worse is my industry colleagues were exceptionally cagey with their own pricing packages. Most wouldn't even give you a ballpark until you sent them a sample with a production guideline.

To be honest it was infuriating! It seemed to me like they were trying to shut out up-and-coming producers in the genre. (Some conversations with other industry leaders later in my career would actually confirm that they were actively trying to stifle "the little guy")

So I went on to google and google. Eventually, I gave up trying to fit myself into the pricing models of the industry and just set a random hourly rate.

It was… way too low. Like… WAY too low.

Unfortunately, I had nobody to go to at the time and the answer didn't seem to be anywhere on the internet.

I had no idea how simple the answer would be once I worked it out.

If I'm running my own business, I get to set my rates.

Period.

SO in order to find the best rates for your work, grab a pen and some paper and let's do this super simple math equation.

Write down how much you want to make this year out of your studio. I'm going to use $10,000 since that's kind of my benchmark with Home Studio Hustle.

Below that, write down how many hours per week you want to work. Again, using the benchmark- I'm going to write down 6.

Now's where you'll need that calculator or phone. This is also where things are going to start to feel really doable.

Take your top number, and divide it by your bottom number.

In my case, 10,000 / 6 = 1,666.6. To keep the math clean, I'm going to round that off to 1,667.

Now, divide that number by 52. This is just taking the number you have and spreading it out over the course of the weeks in a year.

In my case, I got 32.058. I'll round that off to $32.06.

So- using my numbers (which shouldn't be the same as yours,) if I charge an hourly rate of $32.06 and work for 6 hours a week, I'll make $10,000 in my home studio this year.

Now, if you're like I was, you'll realize that $32/hr is VERY reasonable for such a specialized skill.

So you may be wondering how I track time and bill for the work I do.

The short answer is that I don't track time.

"... but Mike, you just told us what our hourly rate needs to be."

Yes I did. But I didn't say you should bill hourly.

In my opinion, billing hourly just leads to all sorts of other stuff gumming up your system. Now you've got to worry about time tracking and more advanced billing techniques that will just take up valuable time and brain power.

Instead, try this-

Assess the project. Try to determine how long it will take you.

Think the edit will take 4 hours? Take your hourly rate and multiply it by four, then quote that number as your price for the project.

So using my above numbers, $32/hr x 4 hours = $128.

Now, here's where the fun comes in.

As soon as you start, you're officially in a race.

You're racing against the theoretical version of yourself who finished the project in four hours.

If you can get it done in less time, guess what- you made more than your hourly rate!

If it takes you longer, then it's just a lesson learned for the next project quote you send out. For some jobs, revisions may be necessary. These can be handled in a few different ways. You can include 1 or 2 revisions in your quote (making sure the client understands this) and then charge by the hour or a flat rate for any revisions past those.

So here's another benefit to using this method. It'll keep you happy! Because you're setting your rates based on your desired income, you basically take the second-guessing out of the equation completely! You'll always know that you're working based on a goal you set yourself!

I really hope this advice helps you wade through the process of pricing and that you are able to come to a conclusion that makes you happy and gets you excited to work!

I'd love to hear what you have to say on this topic. If you want to add your voice to the conversation, come to homestudiohustle.com/podcast, find this episode and leave a comment. OR if you'd like to have a more private dialogue, email me at [email protected]. Don't forget to subscribe and leave me a 5-star review.

Thank you, and keep hustlin'.