Money matters (part 1)

This is the first in a series of blogs we’re publishing about pricing to share different experiences and viewpoints from our community on this hot topic. Starting us off is Claire Antrobus, a coach, facilitator, trainer and consultant based in York.

The art of not being money-led…

In my twenty-year career in arts and culture I don’t think I’ve met anyone who is primarily driven by money. But I have met plenty who are inadvertently controlled by it: I’m not the only freelancer who at times has worked many unpaid hours because of poorly costed work. The recent Museum Freelance survey confirms this: many of us consistently over-deliver on fixed-price contracts. We knowingly under-price ourselves to secure work, and there is significant variation in rates paid for very similar work.

I used to specialise in non-profit business models. I helped artists and museums develop plans that enabled them to focus on their mission rather than feeling led by money issues. There is no simple or single solution, but a few golden rules apply:

1. keep fixed costs as low as possible

2. be thorough in understanding what your work costs to make

3. invest in your continuous development

4. develop a range of different income generating ‘strands’.

Many organisations and freelancers struggle with 2 – understanding their costs – as the Museum Freelance survey highlights. Poor understanding of what it really costs to deliver services is one of the main reasons most cultural organisations are chronically over-stretched. And if, as a freelancer, you find yourself consistently working more than planned then costing and pricing might be worth looking into.

But it is not just about financial planning skills, the barriers are also psychological. Talking about money doesn’t come easily to many of us. However having more open and realistic conversations about money is essential, particularly if we want to tackle the structural inequalities to which poor pay practices contribute.

We need to talk more openly about money…

In the charity sector the Show The Salary campaign is calling out poor practice in recruitment. Using social media, people are challenging employers who hide behind the ‘competitive salary’ line, or ask for your current salary in applications. These are practices which have been shown to lead to women and people of colour being paid less than White and male counterparts.

We might wonder whether the lack of transparency and poor understanding of rates in the freelance sector is just as damaging for equality. The Museum Freelance survey highlights how many of us have caring responsibilities – a staggering 60%. We also have higher levels of disability than the wider workforce. Many of us opted for freelance work because employment was not compatible with our caring commitments or health needs. It is not surprising then than women are massively over-represented in the freelance workforce as we are in paid and unpaid ‘caring’ roles more widely. Across British workplaces women are paid less for the same work as our male peers. Inconsistent and opaque rates in the freelance sector could be seen as another aspect of this gender pay gap.

Exposing myself publicly…

Over the past year I’ve started to be a lot more explicit about pricing and costs and whilst it still feels a little exposing, the feedback I have had to date from clients has been positive. Like many in the sector last year my own income was massively reduced by CV19. Pretty much overnight all my training and facilitation work was cancelled. The majority of my clients disappeared onto furlough, a few kindly checking if they could pay in advance for work we planned to do later in 2020. Research projects were postponed indefinitely. Tumbleweed blew across a barren work diary from March to July.

I decided to pilot Pay What You Can (PWYC) coaching as I knew coaching could help others facing uncertainty to think through their options. I also knew many could not afford my normal rates as their incomes had plummeted. I wasn’t sure it would be sustainable, but as I was fortunate to receive support via the Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) I could afford to take a risk and pilot it.

It worked really well – I was able to offer coaching to people who could never otherwise have afforded it. And the work was really valuable, supporting people facing redundancy, balancing unplanned home-schooling with work and many other CV19-induced challenges.

So when I relaunched my website earlier this year I decided I wanted to be more upfront about money and included a page with my fees – but I was also conscious very few peers do this. I also decided to continue offer my coaching on a PWYC basis for clients earning less than UK average wage.

If I’m really honest it felt uncomfortable stating my fees so publicly, mainly because I worry that people will jump to incorrect conclusions about what this equates to on an annual basis. Charging £80 an hour for coaching doesn’t mean I earn £640 a day, or a whopping £233,600 a year! That’s one of the reasons why, when I started offering PWYC, I also went public about how much I earn in a year and committed to capping this at UK average wage level, with any ‘profit’ above that being donated to three charities: Slung Low, You Make It and Bloody Good Period.

The other reason I chose to be transparent about my projected earnings was people told me they wanted to know what coaching cost so they could pay a ‘fair’ rate. The PWYC model relies on those who can afford it paying what it costs, or actually a little bit more to subsidise those on lower incomes. I remember feeling the same confusion as a customer when invited to contribute on a similar basis for a conference I attended that had been organised by theatre company Slung Low. To help us decide what to pay we were informed about the total cost of the conference, the rates of pay for staff and contributors and advised of what this equated to in terms of the average cost per place. We were then invited to pay what we felt was fair according to our means. It seemed to work well for Slung Low, so I thought I’d try it!

Is it worth it?

It’s still early days, but client responses so far have been encouraging and I’m still trading! There have also been two unexpected, but very welcome, benefits to this new business model.

Firstly, in recent years I have tended to over-work because it can feel hard to say ‘no’ to work if you never know when the next rainy day (or year!) will come. Capping my earnings has helped me reign in this tendency, meaning my work/life balance has improved and I’ve had time to do some of the research I’ve wanted to do for years. Secondly, I’ve seen an increase in coaching enquiries – I suspect my PWYC pricing is one of the reasons.

Fundamentally though, I think what’s most important about transparency around costs is fairness. Most of my organisational clients are in receipt of charitable and public funds, many have laid off staff and seen their income fall due to CV19. So I have lowered some of my day rates in 2021. I believe we are part of a highly inter-connected ecology with limited resources: I treat others fairly and trust they will treat me in the same way – so far I think it’s working…

Thanks to Claire for writing this piece for Museum Freelance. You can sign up for her monthly newsletter about creating change, follow her on Twitter or visit her website.

Has this got you thinking about pricing? Or have you also got something to say about pricing, fees or budgets? Get in touch with Marge to write a piece on this topic by emailing [email protected].