Guide to Services 💸
- Remote Working & Freelancing
Contra is the all-in-one platform for independent work where freelancers can show off their work, find clients, grow their independent business, and get paid commission-free—all in one place. With services, it’s easier than ever to showcase and get paid for your best skills. In this guide, we go over what services are and how to price your service with the three different methods we offer.
What are services on Contra?
Services are your best skills, monetized. With services on Contra, clients can see what skills you’re offering and send an inquiry (or purchase a Quick Hire service) with one click, without the back-and-forth hassle of negotiating your rates. Your services act as a menu of the skills you want to work on and get paid for.
On Contra, a service is made up of a few key parts 👇
1. Service overview ⚡️
Title: The purpose of services is to quickly get new paid projects to work on, so it's best to be straight to the point with the title of your service.
ex. “60-Minute Product Strategy Call” — this clearly outlines the service in the title without having to expand the service details.
Search tags: These tags help clients discover your services on Contra’s Services Marketplace. Add 1-5 tags for your Role (ex. Copywriter, 3D Designer, or Product Manager), 1-5 tags for Tools (ex. Notion, Figma, or Loom), and (optional) 1-3 tags for your Industry (ex. Design).
2. Deliverables 💪
While working on a service, there will always be an end product at the end of a project, AKA your deliverable! Title your deliverable(s), and provide a description of what you'll do to achieve that deliverable.
Want to learn how to write the perfect deliverable? Check out our guide!
3. Price and Service Type 💸
There are two types of services and three ways to price your skills on Contra:
Service type
- Quick Hire: List a pre-defined service for a set price that clients can purchase in one click. Clear scope at the start means less back and forth, you just kick off the work. This is good for standard projects, like logo design or building a Framer landing page.
- Inquire First: Have clients contact you to discuss and kick off the project. This is good for projects that require special scope from the client, or extra customization.
Pricing
There are three different ways to price your service types:
- Fixed Price — ex. $1000
- Ongoing — ex. $100/hour or you can setup as weekly or monthly
- Contact for pricing — If your rate fluctuates or if your pricing changes based on scope, you can have a client get in touch with you first to discuss their needs.
You can also add a timeline for how long the project will take from start to deliverable (ex. 1 week).
4. Service Description 🤝
Explain why someone would want to hire you to get the job done. Add optional details like your Process, FAQs, Requirements (what you need from a client to kick off work), and Example Projects.
The more useful details you provide, the more likely you’ll land a client. This also helps with SEO!
5. Cover Image 🎨
Finally, make your service stand out on your profile, portfolio, or Contra’s Services Marketplace by adding an eye-catching cover image.
How do you price a service?
Remember, services are your best skills, monetized. Like any other platform, it’s necessary to research the market value of your skills and compare how each person prices their service to find what works most comfortably for you. On Contra, we offer three different options for pricing your services. 👇
Fixed Price
A fixed price is a one-time fee a client pays in exchange for a service.
Fixed pricing is best for someone who has been working independently for at least a year, and knows how long a project will take and how much value they can deliver.
Ongoing
A rate is an ongoing price for the amount of time spent on the project.
Hourly rate pricing is best for independents who are just starting out on their journey, and is a great pricing method to use for projects where it is hard to estimate the total time to completion, or tasks that require a lot of moving parts.
If you’re preferred to get paid weekly or monthly, you are also able to set your rate accordingly.
We recommend tracking the amount of time spent for different services, so you can eventually move to a fixed price once you've performed this service multiple times and are able to standardize this offering.
Contact For Pricing
If your rates are negotiable or vary often, contact for pricing is a great way to work out a pricing model with clients individually. Your price can be finalized by identifying the specific needs of your client and their total budget for the project.
And that’s it! If you need help pricing your services, feel free to reach out to us! 📩
Now that you’ve learned all you need to know about services, it’s time to learn about how to get discovered on Contra! 🤝
