Title: I&#x27;ve been doing freelance web development for the past 7 years. I have consistent work and &quot;OK&quot; pay. I&#x27;ve experimented with my rates over time, and am at a point where I have trouble finding work if I raise them...but become part of the &quot;commodity freelancer market&quot; if I charge less.<p>Last year, I had a client (who had their own client...which we&#x27;ll call the &quot;true client&quot;) for a big project. At the beginning of the project, upon receiving my quote, my client told me that it was &quot;way above&quot; what the true client was willing to pay. I asked for more clear budget numbers, and was told very clearly that it was 60% of my original quote. After days of negotiations, I ended up reducing my quote considerably. Keep in mind, this did NOT involve me reducing my rate; I know better.<p>Part-way through the project, I found out that not only was my original quote under the true client&#x27;s budget, but my client had also quoted them a price which was 3 times my original quote amount. Not only that...but they had used my quote to create their own, and then proceeded to cut me down farther.<p>I felt undervalued and belittled by the news. I wasn&#x27;t upset about another company profiting off of me (of course that&#x27;s going to happen by default, if I&#x27;m working through an intermediary). Rather, I was really bothered by the nickel-and-diming and flat-out lies I was told about the project&#x27;s constraints and budget.<p>Since that time, I&#x27;ve paid closer attention to the companies I work with. They&#x27;re consistently profiting off of me at ridiculous rates; however, if I raise my rates to compensate, I don&#x27;t get work. I&#x27;ve tried to form my own &quot;digital agency&quot; with another partner...but we had a harder time finding work as a new agency than as freelancers.<p><i></i>TL;DR:<i></i> I&#x27;m tired of being nickel-and-dimed, and want to move beyond the &quot;freelancer&quot; title. How did you become the digital agency that you are today? How did you drop the &quot;freelancer&quot; title and make something more of your daily life?
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