Know what your work is worth before someone else tells you. They’ll usually guess low.

Whoever names a number first sets the range the whole conversation happens inside. If you have no figure of your own, theirs becomes the starting point by default, and starting points are sticky. People making an offer are not usually being dishonest, they are just beginning where it is comfortable for them.

Before any conversation about pay, find out what the work goes for by asking two people who do it. Have a number in your head even if you never say it out loud. Knowing changes how you hear the offer.