How to Charge $500/hour as a Freelance Programmer (Proven Steps)

Have you been jumping from job to job as a freelance programmer, but you have struggled to get consistently high paid projects?

In this post, I am going to discuss how you can get $300 to $500 per hour contracts. This might sound like a lot of money, but it is possible.

It is really hard to find programming jobs where you can make $300 per hour as an employee, or even as a manager of developers. This is because as an employee you are selling your time. You have to start thinking like a business owner and work to build your own online agency. 

How to Get Paid $300 to $500 Per Hour Doing Freelance Development Projects

1. Start Thinking Like a Business Owner

Most developers who start freelancing treat it just like any other job opportunity. They go to interviews and try to market themselves as a good fit for the company. But, if you want to start making more money you need to start acting like a business owner. By this I mean you go to clients and offer your services and expertise – not your time. You can package this up into a service that you can repeatedly provide to a range of clients. 

2. Outsource the Work 

Once you find clients you can find another freelance programmer to work for you, while you focus on running the business (i.e – getting more clients). Business owners leverage the time of their employees to build up a business that can generate significant profits every year.

You don’t need to outsource all of the technical work, you can still do some of the tech work, but your time is better spent running the business, working on high leverage work such as strategy, and making sales. You can act as the “architect of the project” by setting out the best solutions to fulfill the project, and then managing your team of developers, as well as communicating with the client to ensure a smooth delivery.

3. Hire People Who Don’t Need Management

You need to set up processes so your team can manage themselves, the best way to do this is to hire people who don’t need to be micromanaged daily. Hire ‘A’ players who are highly intelligent. It is worth paying a little more in the long run.

4. Keep Learning New Skills

Being able to manage a team of people requires good communication skills and leadership skills. These skills can be learned and will make you a more successful online agency owner.

The Bottom Line

Instead of freelancing or selling your time for $25 to $200 per hour start thinking like a business owner. Build a team, sign up clients, and then have your team do most of the technical work to get the projects completed to a high standard.

Aim to get to a point where you can spend 95% of your time getting new projects and building the processes to make your organization run smoothly. 

You will eventually be able to make 50 to 70% of the project's revenue as profit, which you can pay to yourself or reinvest into your business!

Interested in building a business like this? Get on a call with one of our instructors and get advised on what you can do to build a business like this.

You may even get offered a chance to join the mastermind where we all share working business models (optional). Click the button below to apply.