????自由職業(yè)對(duì)很多人來說意味著有望按自己的方式來完成工作。但除了這一份獨(dú)立自主，隨之而來的還有一系列抉擇要做。最難的是如何給你的時(shí)間定價(jià)。

????無論你是獨(dú)立顧問，還是按小時(shí)、按天、按星期或按項(xiàng)目收費(fèi)的自由職業(yè)者，你都是用時(shí)間來賺錢的人。因此，珍視自己的時(shí)間價(jià)值，這是你與客戶協(xié)商的核心。

????“如果你不珍惜自己的時(shí)間，別人也不會(huì)珍惜，”艾奧瓦州得梅因的一位自由職業(yè)作家本?格蘭說。“必須確保你坐在桌前工作的每個(gè)小時(shí)都是賺錢的，以彌補(bǔ)你由于推廣或繳稅而不在桌前工作的時(shí)間。”

????全球外包網(wǎng)站Elance最近發(fā)布的報(bào)告指出，市場(chǎng)對(duì)自由職業(yè)者的需求正在不斷增長(zhǎng)。Elance為獨(dú)立工作者和公司提供了一個(gè)服務(wù)平臺(tái)。2012年第三季度，新發(fā)布的工作職位增加了41%，自由職業(yè)者的收入增加了42%。尤其值得注意的是，銷售和營(yíng)銷項(xiàng)目呈現(xiàn)增長(zhǎng)，其中社交媒體營(yíng)銷、策略和潛在客戶開發(fā)均較上年增長(zhǎng)了一倍以上。

????但在算自由職業(yè)者的經(jīng)濟(jì)賬之前，首先要明白一點(diǎn)，獨(dú)立顧問必須要在收費(fèi)工作和不收費(fèi)工作之間取得平衡。人們的本能總是要盡可能多地將每段可利用的時(shí)間用于收費(fèi)工作，但現(xiàn)實(shí)是，很多工作并不能帶來收入，不管是是營(yíng)銷、人際交往、寫提案、開發(fā)票，還是其他案頭工作。成功的顧問總是孜孜以求效率，注重時(shí)間管理。

????第一步：設(shè)定目標(biāo)收入。按小時(shí)、按天或按星期，你需要賺多少錢才能滿足開支需要，才能賺到你期望的收入？搞清楚必須要賺多少錢，你就可以更容易地判斷并回絕那些報(bào)價(jià)過低的工作，同時(shí)確保一個(gè)項(xiàng)目能給你帶來期望的小時(shí)費(fèi)率。例如，本文采訪的顧問和自由職業(yè)者將目標(biāo)設(shè)在每小時(shí)收費(fèi)50-300美元。

????第二步，必須能準(zhǔn)確估算一個(gè)項(xiàng)目需要多長(zhǎng)時(shí)間才能完成。即便按小時(shí)計(jì)費(fèi)，你也需要提供給客戶一個(gè)項(xiàng)目總的費(fèi)用估算。

????“任何提案最有壓力的部分就是最后一頁，列出我所做的所有工作要收多少錢，”紐約州斯卡斯代爾的營(yíng)銷顧問特雷西?拉扎勒斯說。“我的方式是給客戶提供一個(gè)報(bào)價(jià)，為他們創(chuàng)造價(jià)值，他們就會(huì)給我一個(gè)讓我滿意的費(fèi)用。”

????每個(gè)項(xiàng)目拉扎勒斯都會(huì)撰寫詳細(xì)的提案，列明每一個(gè)步驟以及客戶將獲得什么。比如，她可能會(huì)列明她將撰寫5個(gè)新產(chǎn)品銷售創(chuàng)意，或者提交的文件最多將經(jīng)過兩輪修改。這樣，她就可以避免節(jié)外生枝或額外工作，導(dǎo)致工作時(shí)間（和成本）上升。

????“我確保自己不被盤剝的方式就是在提案中明確我的主要工作內(nèi)容，這樣就沒有太多可以隨意闡釋的空間，”她說。“如果不夠詳細(xì)，結(jié)果會(huì)是報(bào)價(jià)不當(dāng)，有些錢可能沒有加進(jìn)去，或者你忘了還有一個(gè)步驟……”

????For many, being self-employed offers a promise of doing fulfilling work on your own terms. But along with that independence comes a dizzying array of decisions. One of the toughest of these is how to price your time.

????Whether you are an independent consultant or freelancer who charges by the hour, day, week, or project, you are trading time for money. So the question of how you value that time is central to how you negotiate with clients.

????"If you don't value your time, no one else is going to," says Ben Gran, a freelance writer based in Des Moines, Iowa. "You have to make sure every hour you spend in the chair working is profitable, to make up for all the hours you're not in the chair working because you're marketing yourself or doing your taxes."

????Demand for freelancers is growing, according to a recent report by Elance, a website that connects independent workers with companies. New job posts grew by 41% and freelancer earnings climbed 42% in the third quarter of 2012, compared with the previous year's quarter. Most notably, sales and marketing projects were on the rise, with social media marketing, strategy, and lead generation all more than doubling from the previous year.

????But before you dive into the freelance economy, understand that independent consultants must balance the need to pack billable work into every available hour with the reality that many activities won't bring in revenue, whether that's marketing, networking, writing proposals, invoicing or other paperwork. Successful consultants maintain an unrelenting focus on efficiency and time management.

????The first step: know your target income. What dollar amount do you need to bring in each hour, day, or week to cover your expenses and make the kind of income you desire? Having a clear understanding of what you must earn makes it easier to turn away work that pays less than you need -- or to ensure a given project delivers your hourly rate. Consultants and freelancers interviewed for this article set targets from $50 to $300 per hour, for example.

????Next, you must be able to accurately predict how long a given project will take you to complete. Even if you're being paid hourly, you need to give a client an estimate of the overall cost of a project.

????"The most stressful part of any proposal is the final page, which is how much I charge for all this work," says Tracy Lazarus, a marketing consultant based in Scarsdale, N.Y. "I've found a way to provide a price to clients that provides them with a value while providing me with a fee that I'm happy with."

????For each project, Lazarus writes a detailed proposal that spells out every step and what her clients should expect to receive. She might specify that she'll write five new product concepts, for instance, or that a given document will undergo up to two rounds of revisions. That saves her from unexpected changes or additional work that would add time -- and cost -- on her end of things.

????"How I make sure I'm not exploited is I'm very specific on the key activities in the scope of the proposal so it doesn't have a lot of leeway for interpretation," she says. "If you don't detail it enough, what happens is you don't price it out appropriately and you leave money behind, or you forget a step…."