Transcripts
1. Introduction: One of the most frequently
asked questions I receive from both experienced creatives and designers just starting out is, how should I price my services? Now, unfortunately,
there's really no helpful, short answer to that question. And you can't just
copy the pricing of another completely
different creative. The only useful way I can
really answer that is to consider different
factors that should affect your
individual pricing, and importantly, consider when to use different
pricing structures, such as packages, fixed prices, or hourly, daily, weekly rates. And so really that's what's brought us to this class
where I'm going to answer that question and unravel some of
the mystery behind effective pricing for small design studios and
freelance designers. Hi. My name is Jason Miller. I'm a freelance
graphic designer and brand consultant
based in London. Although I'm London based, I've had the privilege of
working with clients globally. I've been freelancing
for over 12 years now. The last seven with this as
my sole source of income. So as I mentioned, there are a few key
factors we have to consider when it comes
to pricing effectively, and we're going to
break these down into two different sections. The first includes
factors related to your clients and the
market you work within. And the second section then
focuses on you as a designer. So we have lots to
consider that we'll break it down into digestible
little lessons. I'll include some useful
examples along the way, things I've observed from my own experience as a designer, and hopefully we'll
be able to help you tailor this to
your unique situation. The class project, well,
as you watch this, follow along and try to tailor what we're considering
to your situation. So I'm ready for this. When you're ready,
let's get started.
2. Who are your clients: So in this first section, we're going to look
at your clients and the market you work within. First of Volvo, who
are your clients? And as we go through, I'm going to bring up these
little worksheet pages. You'll be able to download this as part of the materials
included in the class. But I'm going to share this on screen as we run through it, as well, which I hope
will be helpful. So who are your clients? How do we identify
your audience? And just bear in mind, if your clients are very varied, you may actually
need to approach your pricing differently
for each group. If you've got two
very varied groups of clients you're working
with, it makes sense. You have a different
approach for each. So in my case, if you were to look
on my website, you would notice many small
to medium sized businesses who approached me directly
to engage my services. They're rarely local businesses. Sometimes I'll work for those, and by local, I mean
in the same town, like a few streets away
from you, you know, like your local coffee shops and businesses like
that, local restaurants. But many businesses in London, which is where I'm based, but lots of global
clients as well. So the location largely, you could say it's global
and varies widely. Many people come
across my work online. They'll come across it by doing a web search or on
a social platform. And so my competition
might be other designers, they also come across with
a strong online presence. And then lastly,
I'll get quite a lot of work through word of
mouth recommendations. So someone's been recommended my services from a friend
or a business connection. Now, personally, I very
rarely work with agencies or do work for other design studios,
because my preference, if I have a choice is to build relationships with
clients directly and to kind of have an extra degree of control over a project and
the direction it takes, which you get when you have
that direct relationship. But we're also going to cover in this class what you
would do if you predominantly
freelance for agencies or for other design studios. So please pause the
video at this stage if needed and just have a little think about
your own situation, where do most of your
clients come from, if that's something
you can clearly identify at this stage. So in the worksheet, I've got a few
different options. They tend to be
at either ends of a scale or anything in between. So if I were to complete
this for myself, I would perhaps put a
check here and here. Definitely, I do work with some very small boutique brands, anything up to a
medium sized business, boutique brands, definitely,
but also corporate. So at all levels here, which might require a
different approach, and sometimes I factor that
in often for start ups, as well as well
established businesses. Here's one where I definitely
lean only to one side, which is direct relationships. I do almost nothing
via third parties, and I very rarely work
with budget brands. It's high end and luxury brands. So completing this
as it applies to my business gives me kind of a clear idea what factors
I'll need to consider. So now that you've identified the different client types you work with in the next lesson, we'll look at which
needs those clients might have and how we can
address that through pricing.
3. What are your Clients Needs & Expectations pt1: The best way to
present our pricing is to first get into the
mindset of our clients, understand what they need, and how we might offer that to them within a budget
that's feasible. And when you think about it, from a client's perspective, it's quite daunting to try to find a designer who feels
like the right fit, particularly if a client's
working with a new designer. I can feel like
an inherent risk. Design is subjective, so there's no guarantee they're going to love what their
designer presents. So some of the
factors we consider, it helps clients at least
feel like they're limiting that risk and try to provide
them some reassurance. I tend to do this by offering to the kind of
clients I come in touch with, for the first project, at least, a very clearly defined transparent scope,
transparent pricing, so they know exactly
what that if you like risk is and what they can
expect to get in return. You'll also find
that some clients want a set amount of work, a set scope to be completed with no further
strings attached, while other clients will want to build a longstanding
relationship with you. So understanding
this all factors in to how we present
our pricing. Now, thinking of the groups we considered in
the earlier lesson, hopefully you identified
that for yourself, we'll start with small
businesses and boutique brands. So what kind of
needs do they have? Well, they tend to be
quite budget conscious. So it might be that they
really highly value design, but because they're not playing
with huge profit margins, and they'll want
to ensure there's a clear return on
their investment. So tend to have slightly
smaller budgets to work with. I found this also tends to
mean they prefer to agree a fixed price for services rather than work
at an hour or a day rate. If they're not used to
working with designers, they may have no idea what they could expect
within a day rate. If you said my day rate is X, they have no idea
what that translates to in terms of giving
them what they need. So they tend to like to have a fixed scope,
fixed deliverables. So how many revisions, how many perhaps options
you'll give them to choose from, and
things like that. I've also found
in my experience, smaller businesses, they
dislike hidden costs. So if there's an
extra charge for, you know, extra revisions, any kind of hidden extras, you know, they tend
to dislike that, so I'll include I'll include as many as
they're likely to need. And we'll try to stick
within the project scope. Obviously, you have
to cover yourself. If they're expecting
lots of extra, extra scope from you, where you need to charge
for your time. But try to factor that in. You want to eliminate hidden
costs wherever possible. I've also found
they'll tend to have more free time to get
involved with a process. So if it's somebody's
own company, you're actually speaking
with a business owner, even if they're finding
that time evenings and weekends, you know, they'll tend to invest a lot of their personal time and
really get on board with you. And that can be quite different to working
with larger businesses where maybe you're
dealing with members of a team and they are a little
more pressed for time. So if you ever work
with a business owner, I've certainly found very
happy to get more involved. There's a little more
communication happening. So let's take the next group. Then what if you're working
with medium sized businesses? So medium sized, we're
talking perhaps ten to 100, maybe 200 employees,
and you'll be dealing with maybe more
than one decision maker dealing with a small team. What are the needs of clients
that fit that criteria? Well, they tend to
have larger budgets. It's a larger business. They're turning
around larger profit, so they can afford to spend a little more on their
design requirements. I found they tend to value finding a designer who's
the right fit for them. More than perhaps
finding the best price, you know, or even
the best value, finding a designer who maybe charges a lot
more than another, but they feel really gets their business or has a
portfolio of alliance, that's really important to them. They tend to be
interested in building lasting relationships
with designers. They don't want to have to keep going through the
process of going out, meeting a new designer, getting them up to speed and familiar with their business. Once we found a designer
who's the right fit, I found they're quite keen to nurture and to keep that
relationship going. You'll find that
because you're dealing with more stakeholders
and decision makers, that tends to equal
more time required, more time communicating, perhaps more options
they'll ask to see because, you know, there's more than
one person to convince, so you need to factor that
in with your pricing. Also, a larger
project scope because the expectations tend to be
higher for a larger business. And lastly, I found medium sized
businesses more open to additional costs and scope. So they tend to prefer flexibility from your part
to know that, you know, if N needs evolve a little as
you embark in the project, but you're flexible enough
to take care of those needs. They wouldn't like it if it became apparent they
needed something else, or they needed some
extra time spent. And you said, Well,
sorry, I'm too busy. I can't fit that in. That would be quite a problem for them. So I always factor that in. When I'm working out how
much work I could take on, if I'm working for
medium sized business, allow a little flexibility. What if they discover they need a little more than
initially agreed? So I'm already thinking when
I'm booking for project, that's likely to happen. Let's go to our next
category, large enterprises. So I've put here, are you
able to handle the scope, and that's for good reason. If you're dealing with, as I do, brand identity design, website design, are you really the best fit to handle the needs of a large
business or enterprise? I've come to the conclusion, you know, I'm probably not. I don't have the kind of resources and bandwidth to
accommodate all their needs. Every stage of a project, there's more to consider um, the scope is significantly larger than it would be
for a smaller business, agencies can kind of pull
together resources needed. A caveat to that is if I were brought on to work as
a consultant to maybe work as part of a team to maybe help or direct an internal design
team, then that's fine. Then I've got access
to their resources, and I'd be quite
happy to come on, work with them as a
consultant and just fulfill a very clearly defined
sort of limited scope. But would I take
on, for example, designing a website
in its entirety for, you know, a massive
global corporation? No. You know, I don't think I'm geared up to be the right fit
for that kind of business. So that's part of this, as
well. It's understanding. Not every client is perhaps
the right fit for you, your skill set, your setup. And not being afraid to say
no to the wrong kind of job, don't even price
for a wrong job, simply say, I'm not the
right fit for this. So that's what I tend to do
with really large businesses, unless I'm coming on board as a consultant or just helping
as part of their team. What about start ups? So, particularly when it comes
to brand identity design, if a startup
approaches a designer, they need a new brand, they need all the collateral
attached to that. On one hand, they
really appreciate the fact they need
to get things right. You can only make a
first impression once. So I found they tend to really value creating the
right first impression.
4. What are your Clients Needs & Expectations pt2: At the same time,
that's balanced against the kind of
wish to limit risk. So they tend to be quite budget conscious. You know,
it's a startup. They're not actually
making any money yet. They've maybe generated
some venture capital, and they're playing with a
limited amount of money. They need to do the best
they can with that. So it means there's often
budget constraints, often, not always, but I found they tend to be a
little more budget conscious. I've also found they're keen to avoid ongoing and hidden costs. So, you know, they want
a clearly defined scope, transparent pricing, they don't want to sign up to
something where, you know, they're going to keep receiving invoices for lots
of hidden extras. They kind of want to know
this will be our total spent. That's within our budget, and, you know, an agreement
can be made. So that tends to be what
they're looking for. What if at the other
end of the spectrum, it's a well established business or brand you're working with. Well, if it's established, if it's got years of
financial records, they tend to have fixed
budgets in place. So they'll know exactly
how much they're prepared to spend for marketing, for design, which can be useful. They may have past experience
working with designers, so that can be helpful. If they've had
positive experiences, they'll be aware of the
value of good design. So perhaps they're prepared to invest a little more in that. And they tend to know what
they want and know themselves, which can be helpful. Established businesses
also tend to be quite familiar with
the target audience. Perhaps there's a new audience
they're trying to reach, but they tend to have that
quite clearly defined. So most of these are positives. They make the process a little easier working with someone
who really knows themselves. That flips on its head, and that can actually
become a challenge. If you're working on making changes to an
established business. So if you're continuing
what they've already done and they already
like, it's easier. If you're trying to
bring about change, that can be a bigger challenge. So a well established business to not only reinvent and
update their branding, but to enroll that out perhaps
across many touchpoints, to get many decision makers
on board with the changes. They can be emotionally
attached to things. You've got to factor
in a bigger scope. Me time is going to
need to be spent to achieve the same a
few more to consider. So high end and luxury brands. And these are the kind of
brands I tend to work with. They value design, the
value great design. So they're prepared to
pay a premium for that. It's not a case if we need something designed
and anything we do. They really value being able to take it to
the next level. In line with that, it means expectations
tend to be higher. So you have to factor
that in, you know, they're really going
to be keen on getting every little detail
just perfect, that means maybe more time
invested in the process, but they're prepared to
pay a premium for that. So that tends to
be the case with most high end and luxury brands. The other end of the spectrum. And of course, you have
everything in between. So, you know, it's
a bit of a scale. We're considering two ends
of it, the two extremes, and then you just as you
move along that scale, you know, certain things
will be less of a case. So for our luxury brands,
if you were doing a brand, but it's just kind of high end, maybe premium, not quite luxury. Then, you know,
they value design, but maybe they're not quite
prepared to invest as much. They have high expectations, but maybe not quite as high. So you get the idea. You can kind of adjust what
we're discussing here depending on where
the brands you're working with sit on this sliding scale. So budget brands, so
not small brands, but brands that are
giving off kind of a value approach,
cheap and cheerful. They're going to tend to
have lower expectations when it comes to design. Their customers aren't
going to expect any great, you know, incredible design. It's kind of just a lower
expectation all around. For that reason, they tend
to have lower budgets. Sometimes that's
because they have lower profit
margins, not always. Some budget brands, especially
if they're multinational, you know, they're making
huge amounts of profit. But still, it seems
to be the case, they just value design a little less and invest
a little less in it. Particularly with your
smaller budget brands. If you were talking about local
or semi local businesses. So let's say a local cafe. It's not a high end cafe. Remember, this is
a budget brand. They're going to appreciate
any kind of shortcuts or streamlining of your
process that you could offer. So they might not want
to pay for lots of, um, research on target audience and, you know, consumer research. They might appreciate just
cutting that right down to a vague guess of what their target
audience is looking for. At this level, when you're
working with budget brands, particularly smaller ones,
that tends to be the case. So happy for you to suggest kind of shortcuts to offer
a streamline process, and they tend to be
quite value conscious. So again, this doesn't apply to your big multinational
companies. You know, we're not
talking about Walmart. They have a huge
internal design team, but we're talking
about your small to medium sized businesses that are offering budget brands. Next, let's talk
about freelancing for agencies and studios. So this is different
to the other kind of client types
we've considered, where you've got some
direct interaction with a business or
business owner. In these cases, you're
being hired to work for other designers or account handlers or
creative directors. So first of all, it means they're used to working
with designers. They maybe have a sense of
the speed you can work at, you know, how much
you might be able to produce in a day, in a week. So they tend to prefer hourly and day rate
to a fixed scope. That's been my
experience, at least. So they'll tend to request that. They'll say, What's
your day rate, and they kind of want you to have an answer
ready for them. They tend to want to reserve
a portion of your time. So if they're hiring you to
work on a specific project, they need to know,
you can give them as much bandwidth as required
to get that project done. That also means they'll
appreciate flexibility and a fluid approach to kind of
overtime to extra hours, extra revisions for
client might request. So you can see the challenges
this might present. If you've agreed, let's say, to work at a day
rate for three days, and then their client
gives them a little bit of a hard time requests
extra revisions, wants to see
something additional. If you've used up
those three days, you can't just walk away. So you'll kind of be
expected to factor that in to have a
bit of flexibility for them to get the job done. I found a fast turnaround
is usually required, and you've got to have
good availability. So in the scenario
I just mentioned, you agree to work
for three days, and a client delays
in giving feedback. It needs to be dealt
with the following week. They won't be able to put the project on hold until
you're next available. So they need you to be able
to shuffle things around and to kind of give that project
100% attention as required. And for that reason, I put a little note at
the bottom here. This isn't always compatible
with other projects. So there are great benefits, especially when you're
starting out as a designer or perhaps you want to collaborate and
work with larger brands. You know, that can be
a great experience. You get to rub shoulders
with other creatives. But the downside is it tends to put a bit of a
choke hold on your schedule. And I found there's only so much agency work you can fit in. If you were trying to handle your own private projects
at the same time, the agency work, you know,
some frustration builds. They kind of need to
be able to phone you, speak to you there, and then, and if you don't have
the availability for it, not always a great fit. So that's why personally, as I've progressed in my career, I tend to shy away from agency work now and prefer to
work with clients directly. But that might be a great
place for you to start. So just factor that in, but don't necessarily let
that put you off working with agencies or working for well established
design studios. So we've spent a little while considering your clients
and their various needs. Hopefully, it's helpful to
think through that to try to anticipate what
they're looking for, to understand their
expectations. But this is only
part of the picture. So in the next lesson, let's think more about
the market you work within and perhaps designers
you're competing against.
5. The Market & Competition: So which market do
you work within? And by that, I mean, how
are clients finding you? If you're competing
against other designers, who else might a client
hire, if not yourself? So I've broken this
down, first of all, into categories around location. So which market do
you work within, local, regional or global? And if we start with
local businesses, if a client were looking to
work with a local designer, so we're talking in their kind
of a small town in the UK, we say Brough kind of close
knit local community, maybe someone that's
within a 20 minute drive. There are some common
reasons they would be looking and making
a search locally. So I found often it's because they want
to meet the person. They want to actually
physically meet up, you know, grab a
coffee with you. They want that real
human interaction. Sometimes it's to do
with trust, as well. They feel they could trust someone who's maybe
local to them. They might have a
hard time trusting someone who's on the
other side of the world. It's fair enough. I can
understand the reasons for that. Sometimes they value
a sense of community. So if they like to
keep things local, they kind of value that
local community spirit. You know, again, I think there's a place for that.
I can understand it. And lastly, I think sometimes it's wanting that common
knowledge of a target audience. So the assumption is if you
live in their local area, then as a designer, you know exactly who
they're talking about. If they're a business
that's trying to attract customers that
live around them, if you live in that same area, you're potentially one
of their customers, you have a greater
level of understanding. So that might be
the thinking there. Let's next take a
regional market. So if your services are looked at by clients who are in the same
region by that, I mean, maybe the same
country or the same state. Why might a client be looking for someone
in the same region? It might be they want to ensure there's an
awareness of trends. So for example, in the UK, there's a very distinct style, that changes over the years. I think there's a Western
culture in general, but definitely in the UK, there's kind of a distinct
style when it comes to design and fashion
and other trends. So someone who lives
in the same region, they've got that
awareness of trends. It could again be they want someone to have a
common knowledge of their target audience. So if you're British, assumption is you understand other British people better
than someone who maybe, you know, lives elsewhere. So, again, that
makes some sense. And another assumption if
you live in the same region, communicating with you is
going to be a little easier. Sometimes it also means you're
sharing the same currency. I know that can be a concern. If I work with a designer
who lives elsewhere, what happens when it comes
to tax, currency, et cetera. So those are some
common reasons. Next, if we look at competing
in a global market, if clients are happy
to work with you, but they don't care where
you're based geographically, they're looking globally, sometimes I found
that can be because they're seeking better
value, lower costs. So someone seeking
out a designer, and let's say they live in
quite an affluent country, they're looking for a
designer who works somewhere that the cost of
living is much lower. They're probably hoping
they can afford to pave the designer less but that's still be more than enough money for
the designer to, you know, kind of thrive,
pay their expenses. So they're hoping that
that difference in economies means they're going to get more for their money. So that can be one reason
clients search globally. On the other end of a spectrum, I found this being London based. Sometimes clients
are not happy with the taste or the
style or the kind of design reputation
where they live. And so they think of, you know, the kind of design capital, so London, Paris,
Milan, New York, and the assumption is if you
live in one of those places, you've developed your taste and your style in one
of those countries, they want to bring
that to their project. They want to maybe bring
that sophistication, they want to use that
reputation to their advantage. So sometimes that's
why a client is looking globally rather
than looking more locally. So that takes us to our
next consideration. Who then are you
competing against? So who else might potential clients be looking
at or come across? And this obviously means designers offering the
same services as you. So let's say a client needed
a website to be designed, and they've come across
you by searching for website designers in London. Who else are they going to
come across on that list? So they found your
website, but who else? Who are the other options? It's worth knowing who that is. It's also worth,
as I put next on our worksheet, what they charge. Do you know what your
competitors charge? Are they offering
much the same service as you to a similar
level as you, but charging half as much? If so, you know, that could
be a bit of a problem. So it's good to have
an awareness of that. And how do your
clients find you? You really need to know that. Are they coming across
you because of ads, you're paying for paper
click web searches. Are they finding you
on social platforms? Again, if so, if
your clients are all finding you looking
at, let's say, your Pinterest account, you get lots of traffic
from your pins. What other pins might they see what other designers
might have bookmarked. It's just good to
have an awareness of the decision your
clients are having to make when they're comparing you against others offering
the same services. So now some specific
questions to ask yourself based
on your competition. So once you've established where your clients
are finding you, who it is you're
competing against. And sometimes that's
really obvious. For example, if you're
on one of these kind of crowd design sites like Fiber, like People per hour, not endorsing or warning
you away from that. I just know many designers
will create a profile there, they'll use that to
generate leads and work. So if you're on one of
those kinds of websites, you're listed against
many other designers. It's really easy to see who your competitors are and to get an idea of what
they're charging, what they're offering
in their packages. That makes the job much easier. So some questions to ask. Are you massively over or under pricing for a
similar level of work? Now, that's really important. That doesn't by itself dictate what you
should be charging, but it's definitely something
you'll want to consider. So if you were a client, could you get a
similar result for a lot less by going
to a competitor? Or are you undercharging? Could you be charging a lot
more for your services? Because you're
doing a great job, and perhaps your competitors
are doing the same, but they're having to
charge a lot more for it. At this stage in your career or with your current
level of experience, could you justify charging
more than your competitors? So if you're very early
in your career, you know, generally, you've got
a lot to learn still. You might not have
reached your full potential as a designer, so you might be charging
a little less than you could because you're keen
to grow your reputation, to build your
portfolio, et cetera. So that's something to consider. Generally, the
longer you've been doing something,
the better you get. And so the more
experienced you are, the more you're
likely to charge. Could you streamline
your services to charge a little less
than your competition? So that's a question to ask yourself when you're
weighing this up, if you need to charge less
than your competition, but perhaps you're thinking, I can't really afford
to charge less. Can you streamline
your services, your scope in order to
make that a possibility? And then lastly, is there
an obvious difference between your work and
your competitors? And I've put obvious in all caps because it might
seem obvious to you, you might think my work
is noticeably better. But if it's not really obvious, but you're putting
better design out there. From a client's perspective, if it's not obvious, you know, they might be tempted to go for the cheaper option or make their decision based on personality and the
way you communicate. But it's worth knowing that. Is there a really
obvious difference in the standard of your
work or the style? Is there something
unique about it? So at this stage, we've
considered quite a lot already. We've considered the
market you work within, we've considered
your competitors, we've considered your clients. And the next lesson, it's
time to focus on you.
6. Who are YOU: So we've deliberately
left to Section two, because I think
it's important to first consider who
your clients are, the market you work within, your competitors, et cetera. I think that's a
right place to start. But of course, we need to factor in details about
you as a designer, the way you run your
business, your expenses. So we're going to cover all
of that in this next section. So in this lesson, specifically, the question
we're asking is, who are you? Particularly compared
to other designers offering the same services. So as a creative, what
separates you from others? Well, as a designer, it's your unique creativity, your experience, your expertise. That's ultimately what
clients are going to be investing in
and paying for. So that definitely needs
to affect your pricing. But to help you quantify that, here are some questions
to ask yourself. So compared to other designers, offering the same services. So for me, if that's
brand identity design, website design, here are
some good questions. So first of all, how much
experience do you have? Are you just starting out? Do you still have lots to learn? Or have you been
doing this a while, and you've got lots
of experience and expertise that will
benefit a client. Have you worked for lots
of similar businesses? So if a client's hiring
you to help them, you've got all the benefit of those past projects you've
worked on as added value. So that's something to consider. How strong is your portfolio? You need to be
objective about this. You can find, you know,
many examples online. You might have other
designers who inspire you. You know, are you
really at the top of your game or have you still
got some growing to do? So how strong is your
portfolio compared to other designers you might
be competing against? How many relevant success
stories can prove you deliver? So obviously online reviews, trust pilot, Google reviews. That's one metric you can use. If you've got lots of
five star reviews, that kind of gives a client
a degree of confidence. If you're often referred through word of mouth
recommendations, you know, as a recommendation, that's a really strong
success story in itself because someone has told their friend or
colleague or acquaintance, this designer has
done a great job for me, you should get in touch. You should hire them. So if that puts you in quite
a strong position, maybe enables you
to charge a little more because from a
client's perspective, there's less risk in
working with you. If you have this great
reputation and track record, they'll see it as a safer
bet to work with you. You've been able to do it
for lots of other clients. Why won't you be able
to deliver for them? Do you offer something
that's unique or in demand or fairly generic
design services and style? When it comes to
this, I think it depends on the kind of
services you offer. If you're a website designer, are you designing
websites that are great, do what they need
to for a business? Perhaps there's nothing
particularly creative. If you were to compare your
work to other designers, what you're doing
is much the same. It's kind of getting the job
done but not very unique. Well, then from a
client's perspective, they're not going to pay
twice as much to work with you as another designer who seems to be producing
the same thing. On the other hand, if you're
a brand identity designer, maybe you're an illustrator, a cartoonist, and you have
a really unique style, maybe not many others able to produce what you do
in the same way. Well, then you can charge
a premium for that. The more unique your services, the more unique your style. If that's what a
client's looking for, or they'll be
prepared to pay more to ensure they get just
what they're looking for. A next, I've put, do you live in a location with
unique advantages? So by that, in an earlier
lesson I mentioned, you know, there are certain cities with
a great design reputation, London, Paris, Milan, New York. And then there are others
being added to that list. But do you live in a
location that, you know, people will assume gives
you a better background, better sense of culture and trends when it
comes to design. That's something to factor in. If you're in one of
those locations, I would make sure that
something you put across, make sure clients
are aware of that, use that to your advantage. At the same time, you
may live elsewhere. You may live somewhere very remote that most clients
won't have heard of, but have you invested lots
of time researching trends, cultures, design history, reading books,
improving your skills. If you've invested that time, that's going to come through in your work, in your knowledge. So that's something
to factor in. That should also dictate
your pricing compared to other designers who perhaps haven't put that
investment of time in.
7. Which Services do you Provide: So unless you're sticking
to hourly or daily rates, you'll need to at some stage, figure out what you're going to charge for the various
services you provide. Now, when clients get in touch, they'll tend to
ask you questions like, This is what I want. I want a website with X amount of pages, with this
functionality. What will it cost
me? And they'll be fine for you to go away
and create a quote for them. But they might, first of all, want just a ballpark figure. Now, what you
charge shouldn't be the same for every
project because every project is different and sometimes have a different
scope, different deliverables. But by creating a
starting point, you can give your
potential clients a good idea of roughly what
they might need to spend. And you can save yourself a
bit of time when it comes to quoting and making sure you're not over or undercharging
for your services. So I found that if I
calculate a starting point, if a project, let's say, brand identity, requires this, this and this, if
this is the scope, this is what I would like
to charge for that service. Use that as a starting point
and then adjust or fine tune it based on the unique
requirements of that project. So in a lesson to follow, I'm actually going to share some examples of my own pricing. I have a little PDF guide
that I put together, and I'll actually share that to prospective clients to give them a clear
idea of what they could expect for certain kind of popular packages and options. So I'm actually going
to share that with you, share exactly what I charge at the moment for
those services. But first, let's consider together the theory behind this. So again, we have a
worksheet page here just to help put in your mind for
right questions to ask. So firstly, which fixed
deliverables will you include in the package
for that service. And I tend to work in packages rather than just a list
of one item at a time. Packages I feel are more likely to include a number of things
a client is likely to need. So which fixed deliverables
do you include? How long are you going to spend? So if you don't know that yet, I highly recommend
timing your projects. So to the nearest hour,
not to the minute. But as you work
through a project, try to time it and record that and then look back
and you'll get a sense. It's amazing sometimes you'll work twice as long on
one project as another. Sometimes it's as simple as how quickly good
ideas come to you. But getting some idea and some average of how long you'll spend providing
particular services, that's great information
to have next, I've put how much
communication is required. So it depends on the
project's scope, but how many meetings
are you likely to need, how many phone calls. You might not know exactly. But again, the more you do this, you'll get a sense that to go from the beginning to the end of a brand identity project, you know, you might need
five, six meetings. When you get an idea of that, you can factor in how much
time that's going to take up. That is part of the time
spent on a project. You shouldn't be
communicating for free. At the same time, I'd recommend charging not billing
separately for meetings, not billing for phone calls. I think that can put
a very bitter taste in a client's mouth. Can add a bit of tension, can make them feel as
if they're afraid to communicate as
freely as they need to because they're going to
receive an invoice for it. So this depends if you work for a business as a consultant
for an hourly rate, then yes, of course,
that's expected. But if we're talking about
fixed rate projects, so I would highly recommend
factoring in enough time to communicate as freely
with your clients as you need to results in
a better project. Better results, the more
you're able to collaborate, the better you're
able to communicate. So it's in your best interests and your client's
best interests, but do factor in that time and do factor it
into your pricing. A really important
consideration is how much value is this service
going to bring a client? And Chris Do you can
find him on YouTube. He's part of a kind of branding conglomerate
called the future. They produce some great
training videos and resources. So if you just search
on YouTube for Chris Do value given to clients, you'll come up with, you know, a much deeper explanation. And I'll kind of
leave that to him. I won't attempt to repeat what
he covers in his courses. But this is a major part of your pricing what value
are you actually bringing? So to give you an example, while time is a factor, it shouldn't be the only factor. So let's say you were hired as a consultant to come on board and provide advice that you've
collected over many years, over hundreds of hours. Now, if it took you just 1 hour, to have a meeting with a client, get an understanding of things and then provide
them some advice, and that advice is going to
save them lots of money. That advice has taken
you years to collect. You need to factor that in. What you're giving them
could be hugely valuable. You shouldn't simply
be in that situation, you shouldn't simply be billing
for 1 hour of your time. You should be billing for the potential value
you're giving them. So depending on your services, this can be a little
difficult to weigh up. I tend to think brand
identity design that can have huge value, a massive impact on a brand, where something like a one off advert that has a
small target audience, you know, perhaps there's
less potential value there. So something to weigh up, and the more you're doing this, the better a sense you'll get of how important
this is to a client, these different services
you're providing. Next, we have the intended
output and scale. So this overlaps
a little bit the previous point about
the value we're adding. But are you
designing, let's say, little advert that's going
to be posted on LinkedIn, maybe it's at maximum, going to be seen by an
audience of 50 followers. And that's it. You know,
no paid promotion. What's that worth to a business? You know, it has some value, but nowhere near the
value of, let's say, an advert that was going to be put on every train in the city, you know, have a huge
audience exposed to it. So understanding that obviously has to factor into your pricing
for different services. If you're charging so much
money to create a small, short ad that there
will just never be a return on the client's investment,
then that's a problem. At the same time, if
there's an ad that is going to have
thousands of pounds of promotion thrown at it, it would be really unwise for a client to rush for design, you know, waste
thousands of pounds and not get the design
for an advert right. So in that scenario,
it would be much more important to carefully
craft that design, think about its audience, make sure it has
the maximum impact, and it's going to
get a return on that huge marketing investment. So important to understand that for your various services. And ultimately, and this
is the last point there, what is the potential return on investment for your client? So for something like brand
identity or a website, it's a huge potential
return on investment. It's going to drive future business for years,
have an impact on it. If it's marketing
design you're creating, it maybe has a limited scope, and so you need to
understand that.
8. What are your Costs & Expenses: So what are your
costs and expenses? And ultimately, how much do you need to earn at a minimum, to make this a viable business and to survive doing
this as a profession? So an important
thing to factor in. This may not determine
your pricing but the kind of results
you get calculating this will tell you whether
it's viable or not. Whether there are some services, you're just not
going to be able to make enough money providing. So an important stage, and we'll run through
this together. In the worksheet here, you should be able to
kind of fill this out. It's going to be
different for everyone, but I've included a
few common expenses that you'll need to factor in. So first of all,
subscriptions and software. That's part of your
business expenses. If you're paying for
those subscriptions, you need to make
sure you're making more than enough money to cover those plus any office
or studio costs. So maybe you're just
working from a laptop, from home, but it
may be you have a dedicated office space. You may actually have
a studio on location, so any costs associated
with that. Marketing costs. So if you're paying
for SEO, paper click, any ongoing ads, that needs to be factored
in. Equipment costs. Sometimes there's some
overlap you may think, well, this laptop I also use
as a personal computer, but any equipment that you need that you couldn't live without to do your design work, you need to factor that in Um, it's more easy to work out a kind of monthly
costs associated. If, for example,
you bought a let's say you bought an IMAC on finance and you were
paying off monthly, you know, it'd be really obvious what you need to
make to cover that. If it was a one off purchase, maybe you could divide
what you spent on it by its total expected
useful lifespan. So if you paid 3,000 pounds
to buy the latest IMAC um, if that's going to
last you maybe three, four years before you
want to replace it, divide that up, come up with
a kind of monthly cost here. The same goes for other
equipment you might use, iPads. If you use Apple Pencil, I'm sure you can think
of other things. Tax. So it's really
important to factor this in. You will have to make a tax return at the end of every year. This will depend on the
region you live and also what tax band you're in,
depending on what you earn. I will usually be a
percentage of your earnings. So this kind of gets deducted. Once you figure out what
you might earn on average, you're kind of deducting,
factoring that in. Something I do is look at my total tax
for the previous year, and then I work out what I need to earn to
cover that monthly. So I put that here.
So if I know that my tax for the previous
year amounted to X, I divide that up by 12
months, and then every month, I'll actually put aside, and we tend to pay tax in
arrears here in the UK. So it's quite a good
way to work that out to make sure I know I have to
earn that to cover the tax, but I'll soon be paying. And then total
monthly living costs. So this might include
your rent or mortgage, any bills you have to pay. If you tend to spend the same
amount going out, shopping, include all of that
here because that's all going to be coming
out of your account at the end of every month. So once you total that up, gives you what you need
to earn to get by. And hopefully,
you're able to earn that doing design related work. It may be particularly
earlier in your career or if
you're freelancing, but you need something
else to cover that. You may not be able to cover that monthly cost solely
through design work. Maybe you need to build your
design work to a point, it's able to cover
all your costs. But either way, really useful to know what
that figure is. So this is, I guess, just
general financial advice and a bit of housekeeping, but importance of factor because if your goal is
for your design work to cover all of your expenses and hopefully
leave you with, you know, a nice healthy bit of
saving on top of that, you need to know
what this figure is, what to aim for, what
you ultimately need to, you know, charge for your
services, et cetera. So this really factors in. The next factor to consider, and we're going to look at
this in our next lesson is the capacity you realistically have and the volume of
work you can fit in.
9. How much Capacity do you have: Capacity and volume, there are usually only so many
projects you could comfortably fit in a
given space of time. So this can be one of the
harder things to get right. As a designer, sometimes
you can get really excited. You just think more work equals more money and accept
projects, accept commissions. But if you're not careful, too many projects can lead to burnout can lead to
a lot of stress. And perhaps the most dangerous
side effect is lowering the standard of all the
projects you're working on because you simply don't
have the time to do justice. So I highly recommend
figuring out what your your max capacity is and not exceeding
that for any reason, unless something
unexpected happens, and, you know, there's
absolutely nothing you can do. But as far as you're able to, try to avoid getting in a situation where you're
beyond your max capacity. So factors to consider. As we said, too many
projects, a big problem, but too few projects booked in, that can mean wasted capacity,
missed opportunities. So you don't want to be
turning work away if actually, you could have or should
have fit those projects in. So again, this is why it's
good to have an awareness of how much capacity you have to play with and
get that balance right. Holidays, if you want to take vacation time and not have
to take a laptop with you, not be working in the
evenings on vacation, then how many weeks per year
would you like to take off? You need to factor that in. And also, be aware
that if you're a freelancer or you're running
your own design business, no one's going to
give you sick pay. So hopefully, you're
happy and healthy, but you have to factor in. You can't avoid getting
a little sick each year, so something to be aware of. Is there some flexibility
in case you come down sick? If you're doing agency work, how many hours can you
realistically offer them per day per week per month? So you need to figure that out. What can you
realistically offer? And bear in mind, there'll
be an expectation that you can fit a
little extra in. So if you're offering
them X amount of hours, they may well ask
you for, you know, another 20, 30% on top of that. So factor that in if you're
doing agency or studio work. So how do we actually
calculate this? Well, I would start
by figuring out how many hours you would like to work per week or per month. So how many hours do
you have to play with? And then ask yourself if you're working
directly with clients, what mixture of services
might you be able to fit within that time each month. So if you're working
on longer projects, you might need to divide that up across two or more months. But ultimately,
within a good month, if you filled your capacity, what does that look like? Would that be two brand
identity projects and a website with a few, you know, bits of
marketing design? What does that
realistically look like? How much could you fit in? And then the last
question, will this enable you to at a minimum,
cover your expenses? So we've not come to actually figuring
out your prices yet, but we're almost there. If you realize that you
can only fit at maximum, we will work at
different speeds. Let's say you could only fit one brand identity project and
one website in each month. But when you look at what you
charge for those services, it doesn't cover your
expenses and your bills. Well, then that's a problem. So you would need to look at a way of either
fitting more work in or charging a little
more for your services. You've got to be profitable, otherwise, this
isn't a profession. You can't do this if it's not actually covering your expenses. So we've been looking at
lots and lots of theory. We finally finished that. Before we come to calculating what you're going to charge
for different services, I promised I would share a
look at my own price guide. So we're going to do that
together in the next lesson.
10. Pricing Examples: So as promised, I'll be sharing on screen
my own price guide, what I charge for
different services. I wouldn't suggest just
copying my prices. That's the exact
opposite of what this class is designed
to teach you. This should be very
different for everyone. Depends on many
different factors. So before we look at my pricing, bear in mind, these
are the kind of factors that apply to me. So if I were a student
looking through this course, kind of making notes
as I went along, these are the conclusions
I would have come to. So I work for small to medium
sized businesses directly. I very rarely do agency work. In fact, at the moment,
I refuse agency work. I work for a mixture of both established brands and start ups and
everything in between. I work for high end and
luxury brands only, almost never worked
for budget brands. Much of my work comes from
my online visibility. So I rank quite highly
in various web searches. If you're looking at luxury
brand identity design, luxury website design, high end, corporate, these are the keywords I tend to rank
for good visibility for that. I get a lot of inquiries
through Pinterest, get almost, I think, 1 million views on my pins
per month. Which is great. So I know a lot of my
potential clients will come to me finding my work
one of those locations. And then I also get a lot of recommendations
and referrals. And without kind of
boasting, I have, I think, achieved a superior
standard of work to most of my competitors when I've gone and looked
at what's out there. I'm really happy
with the standard of work I've achieved,
and, you know, kind of feedback I'll get from clients inquiring will
be, Wow, you know, your work looks much better than other options
we've explored. So it's really nice to
receive that feedback, to feel that I'm
in that position. I'm really happy with my
portfolio at the moment. In my little niche, yeah, I think I can say that. I've achieved a superior
standard of work. So yeah, that's nice. Then lastly, I work
from a home office. I'm actually in my
garden right now. It's a little converted
kind of wooden, what would you call it
a chalet? This is it. This serves as my office, but very low expenses
associated with that. So that's the position I'm in. This is what I'm kind of factoring in when
I'm thinking about my prices now to
share my price guide. So this is what I
share with clients, comes in PDF format,
little contents. It also includes some
idea of my process, so they know what to expect. We're familiar with a process
for certain services. They may have no idea
what's involved. So I give a little
overview of that here. Let's just increase the display
performance. Here we are. So brand identity design. I offer two different packages. And remember, these are
just starting points. These will be tweaked and fine tuned for many of my clients. But this is what I would charge for a project that fits the criteria and the
deliverables I've listed here. So essential brand identity
design which includes, and I make this very
clear and transparent, includes brand
strategy, outlining, sorry, intended
tone, visual style, key brand messaging,
positioning. Includes logo design with
two concepts to choose from. I said I try to
avoid hidden extras, so this is not a hidden extra. This is a kind of
an ala carte extra. So if additional
concepts are required, then they would be
300 pounds each. I include two stages
of development to refine the concept they select. I include a brand color palette, suggested font choices, and sometimes other
visual elements, but I leave that a
little flexible. Brand identity guidelines. You can see in my other courses exactly what I output
when it comes to that. And then all logo and design elements supplied
in various formats, brand guidelines
provided as a PDF file. So you may have one
of two reactions. You might think, Wow, you know, that's really underpricing it for what you're including there. Or you might think,
Wow, that's a lot. I can't believe you
can find clients, small businesses that
are happy to pay that. Um, I think I'm from my research price
quite competitively. I don't want to push
my prices up too high, even though I've maybe
got the demand to justify that because I don't
want to alienate, you know, potentially
great clients. To me, it's really important to work for the right
kind of businesses. So I know that at
these price points, there are some amazing people
who can afford this um, if it's their own
personal business, you know, little boutique companies, they can afford this. And bear in mind, there'll
be other services. Sometimes they have
to stack onto this. It's affordable. It
gives them good value. You know, I can work on
enough of these projects, but I'm earning what
I need to earn. So everybody's happy. And that's kind of the key when you work out your pricing, what you hope to fit in to
your capacity each month. Um, if you're only attracting
clients who can afford, you know, you max
out your pricing, you'll attract a
certain kind of client. For me, I think if I put
my prices up greatly, I'd only be attracting the kind of high end
corporate brands, I'd miss out on all
the boutique business. I have a slightly
different approach for my corporate brands. So sometimes I send them
something different. It has a scope that's kind of extended to better
meet their needs. Probably should have
mentioned that earlier. So yeah, this is
what I tend to send these small and boutique
businesses. Let's carry on. Full brand identity design. So the difference between
this and what I've named the essential is it includes
a competitive analysis. It includes an
extra logo concept, and it includes
business stationery, up to three items of
the client's choice. So where are my
branding packages. Logo design only, I kind of tend to warn clients this
probably isn't what you need. You know, if you're
getting in touch with me, you probably need
more than a logo. You need to consider your
whole brand identity. But I get, but sometimes, initially, a client
would just want a logo. They may be willing to create the other factors themselves, the kind of extended
identity themselves, or they may say to me, you know, I'm going
to extend and expand on this with
yourself in future. But wherever the case, I do
offer these packages, again, because I come across
some great people and, you know, I don't want to miss out on those opportunities. So if someone came to me on the left here where
I've put logo art working, and maybe they've sketched
out what they need, they have a really clear idea, and they just need it
professionally refined. That's what that package
is designed for. On the right hand side,
if it's logo design only, those are the prices based
on the number of concepts, number of options they'll
get to pick from. So that's nice and
straightforward. Again, tells them how many
deliverables they get. For my website design, again, an overview of
the design process here. And I offer two
different platforms. So square space is
a great fit for certain small and
boutique businesses really easy to manage. It's fully supported
by square space. I found it's a
little superior to WIC in terms of the
design you can create, and it just comes together, in my opinion, a little
more professionally. It's a little easier
to customize. WIS are continuing to
evolve, so, you know, not against the idea of WIC, but I like to work
with square space. So this list is exactly what I include the starting price. This is only for
six page sections. So to explain that, if you look on my website
at my home page, we've kind of got this
section at the top here with this slider with a
little introduction. Then we've got
another section here. And another section here
different options for services, and then some
testimonials and Futer. So this page is quite lengthy. If you compare that, if I click my contact page,
it's just a form. So how do you price? Would you charge for same? Would you say the homepage
is just one page, and contact is just one page. To me, that wouldn't
make much sense. So I tend to price
by page section. That's why I've
listed it like that. So again, it's all about
transparent pricing. So I would say my
homepage is maybe two to three page sections. So I'm including six in this
kind of starting point here. When it's square space,
you just design live. You don't have to first
mock up in Photoshop. So this includes initial design, layout proposed for each
page on that live site. To two revisions included. I've not listed a price
here for extra revisions, because a revision might be in the case of
website design, something really complex or
something really simple. So I bill hourly for
extra revisions. If it goes past those two, but I'm pretty generous. Very rarely bill extra. I tend to as long
as it's reasonable, kind of absorb the cost
for revisions needed here. I've stated that
appropriate stock imagery can be recommended by request, but the client will need
to pay for licensing. I provide a custom
tutorial video, how to use the site, how to update texts, swap in images,
things like that. It's mobile and tablet friendly, supported across major
browsers and platforms, and then a little note about the hosting cost they'll need to set up
with square space. So remember, we said
the key is kind of getting into your client's
mind space and thinking, what is it they need when they're looking to
hire a designer. So in this case, we've just
looked at website design. What do they need to know? So when you're pricing, it's not just about
the end figure. It's also what information
you're presenting. What deliverables
are you including. So I factored all this
in for the client. They may not have fought
ahead about needing extra revisions or needing
to find stock imagery. They may not have fought about
the aftercare, you know, having a little video
to show them how you actually going to log in
and use this website. So it's as much about
considering that, considering and meeting the
needs of your client as it is coming up with the end price. Another platform I
offer is Wordpress, so this is a starting point. Now this is quite I
would say underpriced. This is something I'm
probably going to have to put the pricing
up for because a lot is involved in developing a WordPress website,
even a simple one. So I've wanted to keep this
competitive as long as I can, but likely in future, I'm going to have to
charge more for this. But WordPress websites, you
know, completely bespoke, built from the ground
up enables you to design and develop
exactly what a client wants. So I won't read this
out step by step, but you get an idea of what I
offer in this package here. Website extras. So again, trying to ensure
these aren't hidden. These are nice and transparent. If e commerce is
needed as an add on, there's a price
associated with that. There's hosting costs
for a WordPress website. So that's included there. Also offer SEO services. I'm quite careful to
explain this is getting a website optimized and ready, establishing
your keywords. But to have success with
SEO, you've got to do more. You've got to also engage in link building,
content marketing. So I've got a big note
up here to kind of say, for competitive key phrases, you will also need to invest in third party services,
which I don't provide. So again, transparency is key. Digital and print design. A little idea of
obviously there are more items that I
might need to design, but these provide
a starting point. So an idea of a cost to
design business cards, flyers, eight page brochure, listed some different
examples there. So it just gives a client an idea of what they
might need to spend. But ultimately, it's going to
depend on the complexity of that actual item of
design. Packaging design. This is something I
really enjoy doing. It's a nightmare to price because you could get
very simple packaging, you know, a six sided box, or you can get really
complex packaging. You might be asked to
produce a freed mockup, as I've done in the example
here in my price guide, that's a freed mockup.
It's not a real photo. But that's of huge
value to a client. It saves them having
to get a prototype printed to make a decision on whether they like the
look and feel of it. So I've got a whole
list of questions here, and I kind of ask a client
for more information, and once they provide
that information, this is one of the few
services where I don't give any ballpark
figure to begin with. It's a completely bespoke quote. But from the other prices
earlier in my guide, hopefully they get an idea of what I charge for
various services. So I do come back to them
on the packaging design. And then at the end of a guide a little note here
about next steps. And my availability,
a little note that I'm usually booked up one
to two months in advance, and I also require a 50%
deposit to book a project in. So I won't just
pencil things in, potentially turn
other work away, and then nothing comes
of a project, you know, that would be madness to
actually book that project in I need a contract and
deposit to be returned. And that way, I can confidently, you know, say to
other inquiries. Sorry, I'm at capacity. I can't work with
you until this time. And, you know, that's kind of protected by the deposit
that I've received. So I'm not turning
opportunities away needlessly. So I hope it was helpful to take a look at
my price guide, how I present my pricing. You may be a different
kind of creative. You might not be offering
the same services. But hopefully, in principle, this gives you an idea of a useful output for the kind
of businesses I work with. So small, boutique businesses, medium sized brands,
sometimes corporate clients, but not huge businesses. So I found this really
meets their needs. When they look
through this guide, it gives them transparency, gives them a sense of what they might need to invest
to work with me. And the feedback I get it's very helpful.
It's very clear. So paying more attention
to what I've presented, the way I've presented it, how that factors into
thinking of a client's needs, and maybe less about the
actual prices and figures.
11. Conclusion & Thanks for Watching: So I hope you found lots
of value in this class. We've considered many
different factors, each of them very important. And I'm sure now
you can appreciate why there's no one word
answer to that question, how much should I charge? Whichever stage you're at in your creative career and
whichever services you provide, I hope the principles and the factors we've
considered have enabled you to make
an informed decision about the pricing you offer. As we've considered one of the best ways to work
out your offerings and what you're able to charge is with a knowledge of your
clients and their needs, their expectations, also some consideration of the market you work in
and your competitors, and, of course, some
personal details about yourself and your
business as a designer. If you've enjoyed this class, please be sure to check out my other classes on skill share, particularly if you're a
brand identity designer. There's lots of
content designed to help you with different
aspects of running your business successfully
from creating a strong portfolio to streamlining your workflow
and other factors. Finally, please
remember to follow my profile and leave a comment or a review if
you've enjoyed this class, so hopefully I can see
you in the next one.
Jason Miller, Freelance Graphic Designer
