Recently, I tried to take a crack at calculating my freelance rate. Most of my experience has been by project, not hourly rates. I’m not even sure what freelancing hourly looks like... The ideas just flow, you know? It takes time.

Anyway, freelancers of all stripes surely have their own ways of figuring out their rates. We’re curious about how you calculate your rate. Do you go by industry standards? Do you raise them with certain clients, drop it with others? Do you calculate a budget and then reverse-engineer a rate that lets you work the number of hours you want?

Freelancers, how do you calculate your rates? Any best practices you’d recommend? Let us know in the comments!

Larissa Pham is an artist and writer based in Brooklyn, New York. She still hasn't figured out her freelance rate.