The Day-Rate Negotiation Kit for Freelancers and Contractors
DolceDrago 339 — a skill for the number you repeat every working day for a year
Variant of Nº036 — The Salary Negotiation Kit
What it is
Prepares the rate conversation for someone selling days, not applying for a job. The number is a price and it multiplies: agreed once it repeats across every day of the engagement and anchors the next client. Builds the floor from real billable days and overhead, sets a rate card instead of a number improvised per call, scripts the question and the pushback, and prices what an employee never prices. For independent consultants and contractors.
What you receive
a day-rate kit — the floor rate derived from real billable days and overhead, a rate card with its uplifts and the things that earn a discount, the scripts for the rate question and the pushback, and the engagement terms that decide what the rate is worth
Delivered as a single, complete .md skill file — open it, paste it into any capable chat model, and work. No installation, no account with anyone but us.
Supported models
- Claude (Opus/Sonnet)
- ChatGPT (GPT-4o/5)
- Gemini
- any capable chat model
People reach for it when
- “how to set my freelance day rate”
- “client says my day rate is too high what do i say”
- “raising my day rate with an existing client”
- “day rate for a six month contract on 60 day payment terms”
- “agency is offering less than my rate should i take it”
Record
lineage: variant · parent 036
gates passed: demand-evidence · function-fit · beats-the-blank-page
status: IN THE COLLECTION
Sale-time bench runs and the fix-or-refund log attach to this record when the payment room opens.
In the collection. The sale room is being fitted; this work goes on sale when it opens.
Join the house — be written to when sales openBack to the collectionLicense
Free-shelf works ship under the DolceDrago House License — use the outputs freely, personal or commercial; the work file itself stays with the house.