Performance-Based Rates

If your work is “close to the money,” and doesn’t rely too much on the client in order to produce a trackable ROI, it can be worth adding a performance-based component to your billing.

This can be a great way to lower risk to the client and to make yourself more successful when they’re more successful.

The big things to consider are:

• Pair it with some sort of base pay to ensure you’re covered if the project is a technical success but not a business success
• Make sure you are close to the money
• Make sure there’s precedent that allows you to make what feel to you to be pretty safe assumptions about the results of this project
• Make sure your work will be able to produce an ROI for the client even if they slack off; the more you depend on them in order to generate your ROI, the riskier it is for you
• Make sure you can track the key metrics before & after to determine the success of the project