Set Your Prices Right
As a designer you will meet many people that will ask you to do work for free, to do work for a fraction of what it should actually cost, and to do work at a fixed rate (per design). When you are first starting out these will all be very tempting offers for you because you won’t have a strong portfolio or the work experience that is needed to charge the prices that you want, right?
Wrong. Very Wrong. Just because you are a new designer doesn’t mean your work is worth less.
I am writing this article because as of recent I am working on a website which I quoted at a flat rate. A mistake I made as a rookie designer. In my case I quoted a company a reasonable price, roughly 600.00, for a wordpress theme designed and developed. But what I did not take into my estimation was many weeks worth of revisions and modifications.
When you are estimating a project for a client I recommend giving them exactly that. An Estimate. Make sure you leave some wiggle room for charging for modifications and revisions. In my case I suggested that the revisions where included which is why months after the fact I am still working on the same project without any new income from it.
I am not upset with my client for making the revisions as the finished product is supposed to be exactly what they are looking for and it is my responsibility to deliver that.
Setting your pricing and being strong in your convictions about what you want to earn will benefit you as a designer. But I do throw caution to the wind. You will lose many business opportunities.
For some reason many people believe that design and development is way overpriced therefore you will probably never ever here back from many people requesting quotes from you. Don’t be discouraged. The problem with design and development jobs is that most people looking for a design don’t have a business plan, don’t have a budget, and think that they are going to make a fortune online without spending anything. These are the people you are going to quote 7 / 10 times, these are the people that aren’t going to get back to you. Expect that you are going to find 1 client that is going to pay your prices out of 10 and keep sending out your estimates. You will eventually generate a real strong client base and won’t have lost your ass by doing work for to cheap.
Some things to take into considerations when estimating a design:
- Your Value - Estimate your salary
- Your Expenses
- Internet Connection
- Drawing Supplies
- Web Hosting
- Learning Materials
- Computer
- Software
- Work Space
There are plenty more expenses that will come into your design career and you will need to estimate their cost into your rates otherwise you will end up losing money in the long run. Don’t be afraid to charge what you are worth even when you are starting out. The better you establish yourself in the beginning the better off you will be in the future.
2 Comments
Adam on March 27th, 2008
@ new zealand tourism,
Thanks for the comment and checking out my site. Yeah, that is the case exactly and unless you have allowed for price changes based on development changes you have really put yourself in a bind. In my situation I developed the site and then they wanted to make layout changes. Something that doesn’t sound to bad, but really doubled the amount of time needed to prepare the project because I now had to change all of the css that held my divs in place.
Adam
new zealand tourism on March 27th, 2008
You are absolutely write about leaving yourself wriggle room! I am not a designer, just a developer, but it never fails the project changes midway and with the flat rate they expect you to stay at the same price despite the fact there is now more work to do.