12 Realities of Pricing Design Services. For most designers pricing services is not something that is the highlight of the job.
Still, it is something that you’ll have to deal with if you’re freelancing or working for a small firm. Here’s my take on pricing web design services. 1. There’s no exact formula. Unfortunately, there’s no right or wrong way to price your services. 2. Everyone has different ways of doing things and this is very evident by the information that you will see about how you should base your pricing. Here are some resources for choosing a pricing strategy: 3. I think most designers would like to focus on the work and forget about things like pricing. 4. I think everyone has at some point gotten themselves into a position where they wish they could go back and set a different price. 5. When you see a low-priced designer what’s the first thing you think? However, your prices have a bigger reach than just the opinions of your clients – they also impact your view of your own services and abilities.
The design pricing formula. A lot of designers struggle with pricing, and I’m regularly asked how I work it out.
As much as I want to, I can’t tell you what to charge, and the design pricing formula explains why. No-one knows better than you how much talent you have, and every project specification is different. If your client is asking for a rush-job, they’ll expect to pay a higher rate. The physical location of my clients doesn’t change what I charge, but it could alter what the client is willing to spend. Update: September 2013 If you join the mailing list I’ll email you the “Pricing your work” chapter from my new book, Work for Money, Design for Love.
Here are a few pricing resources to help. And when you have produced a quote, here’s how 20 designers charge their clients. Hourly Rate Calculator. How-To Price Freelance Projects Successfully. One of the biggest challenges for new freelancers is pricing.
Pricing projects isn’t easy. There are plenty of factors that come into play: How long will the project take? How clear are the client’s requirements? How well do you know the client? And then you also have to decide how to charge: hourly, fixed price or on retainer? Estimate Project Lengths as Accurately as Possible Estimating how long a project will take is the key to pricing it well. You can consider an endless number of factors when estimating a project, including some of the questions I’ve listed above.
No matter what you do, always add a buffer. It doesn’t matter if you’ve worked with the client before, know exactly what the client wants, and have done the same thing a thousand times before. The size of the buffer you use is up for debate, but I’d generally increase your time estimate by 15-30%. Projects almost always take longer than you expect, so buffer your estimates each and every time. Bad Clients Such a thing exists.