A payment made to someone for sending you a client who converts, usually a percentage of the resulting revenue or a flat finder's amount.
A referral fee is a thank-you with a dollar sign: someone sends a client your way, that client hires you, and you pay the referrer a cut. It might be 10% of the first project, a flat $100 finder’s fee, or a share of ongoing revenue. It aligns incentives — people who know your work become a sales force you only pay when it works.
For sellers, referral fees are among the cheapest client acquisition there is, because you pay only on results, not on ads that may flop. Decide the rate in advance, put it in writing, and be consistent so it doesn’t feel arbitrary. Just confirm any referral arrangement is allowed in regulated fields like finance or law, where fee-splitting rules can apply.
For buyers, a referral fee behind a recommendation isn’t automatically bad, but it’s worth knowing about — it can mean the recommender has a financial reason to point you a particular way.
On Mindhyv, the referral program lets you earn up to 20% per month for each seller you bring in — a structured version of the same idea. See how referral earnings work, and use a referral request email to ask past clients directly.