Putting a monetary value on the services you provide can be especially difficult if you are a new director who has yet to establish an hourly rate for your director invoices—or if you are simply new to freelance work. Your hourly rate, on the other hand, is a required component of any director invoice—and it is critical to ensuring that you are paid on time and in full for services that are often incredibly draining and involved. There are a number of important factors to consider as you work to establish your hourly rate, each of which is intricately linked to your freelance business operations plan, your unique payment process, and the type of work that you do as a freelance director. Consider the following factors when determining how much your time and services are worth billing your clients: your reputation as a director competition within the directing professional field or film industry more broadly your bottom-line, or the figure you get after calculating how many resources (both time and money) you spend when fulfilling a project with a client before you make a profit When researching your competition, keep in mind how much other directors in your area charge for services similar to yours, whether short- or long-form. To avoid undercharging or overcharging your clients, learn as much as you can about job market competition and adjust your hourly rate based on the nature of your freelance directing business and, if applicable, specific specialties. Price yourself in relation to your competition to improve your financial and professional position in the market. As the first step in determining how much to charge for your directing services, determine your hourly pay rate per day, week, or month. The frequency with which you choose to bill for directing services may differ slightly from that of your competitors. Your hourly rate may also vary depending on whether you specialize in short-form directing (advertising or short films) or long-form directing (documentaries, full-length movies, or features). Keep your bottom line and return on investment in mind at all times as you work to determine your hourly rate. To arrive at this figure, add together the time and money you spend on directing services, such as traveling to a location and directing a session. When determining your hourly rate, consider the complexity of a given project, as well as director availability and/or demand for a specific location or set. Consider the effort required to direct a short film versus a feature-length film as you work to establish an hourly rate—the former would most likely take a few weeks to a few months to complete, whereas the latter could take several months or even years. Your hourly rate per service should reflect the complexity of your directing services and directing style, as well as your reputation. You will need to establish your billable hour for more complex, longer-form projects that require more time to complete, such as directing longer movies or visual packages that incorporate avant-garde or otherwise complex directing techniques. To do this, freelancers can utilize invoicing software with time tracking functionality to establish a billable hour for each directing product or service. If you have a set schedule, charge for directing services by the hour.