Sticky thread for pricing in the 'Running a Design Business & Freelancing' section

As per my post in the 'It's very quiet lately' thread, I thought I would suggest a sticky thread(s) for FAQs in the 'Running a Design Business & Freelancing' section and create a thread for ideas.

One for costing/charging for example. This doesn't seem to be easily answered as there are many factors that can affect this, but then maybe a list of these factors would help?

It seems to be asked a lot so I thought a sticky could be formulated?

Discuss.

It may be asked a lot but we usually answer with the exact same thing - hours required/taken multiplied by your hourly rate + any outsourced materials (ie printing) where necessary . There is no other way of giving an answer to the costing/charging type question.

I can't speak for anyone else but I wouldn't want to put any info regarding prices down as this could cause issues when people do come here with work if someone doesn't put in a price at those 'stickied' prices.

We also have a lot of people who just view the forum and pm/reply to these job offers so it's not good on a competitive level either.

From a personal perspective I'd also like to think that anyone going out in freelancing has at least thought about this area before starting out as it's arguably the most important part of starting up (outside of clients obviously)

edit: dragonball (goku I think) as an avatar

this is such a minefield, as there is no really straightforward answer.

It is a nice idea, but there are sooo many variables to what makes up a pricing structure. The standard answer would be hourly rate x time taken = price.

Pricing is often a difficult thing to know how to explain, as I (generalising) have different skills to you (also generalising) which means I am better suited to do (this job) than you, so are you justified in charging the same as me to do the same job?

I (me personally) would feel I am in a better position to charge a band a reasonable sum to design some top notch artwork, but I feel I am not in a position to charge a football team a small fortune to manage their email marketing/web magazine.

There isn't a direct answer basically.

I'm not saying for a definite answer, just maybe a way of working it out or just some info on how to structure a price.

I agree it hard for pricing info to be given. The first thing I ask my client is their budget for a particular job. If they have 10,00 pounds for a website/design etc. Then I can give a much better product as I can devote more time to it as opposed to only having 500 pounds for the same job. The quality just wont be the same, no matter how you look at it.

You also have to take in to account the size of the project i.e is it a local job only really to be seen locally or is it nationwide or larger.

The other factor to consider would be the usage of the job. If I was doing a shirt design that was being printed into the thousands, I would want more than the run of 50.

All of us could offer some advice about pricing, but it is always going to be difficult to give a definitive answer. There is possibly a baseline price we could all suggest for a job, but then by advertising that baseline could work against us, I personally wouldn't want to have to justify the price of my work to every client because I once offered a price on something similar.

I agree and think some information on how to structure a price list would be very useful for beginners like myself.
It gets my vote and im sure will get plenty of others.
Its hard starting out and trying to figure out everything you should be thinking about and making sure you are doing it right, so a little helping hand or point in the right direction would be very helpful.

I ask a million questions on things like this and so I would be very greatful.

I guess a rough guide wouldn't hurt.

Over to Greg and mods for opinion.

The thing is, all that's been said here as to why we shouldn't have one can easily be put in a sticky about the topic.

Please dont go down the sticky route!!!
as soon as you have one sticky, you then have to have a sticky for something else, then you end up with 10+ stickies, information becomes impossible to manage . People cant be bothered to read several pages on the hope that the sticky will have the info they need so they will still ask the same old questions because the sticky's wont ever be specific enough to the problem,

for all new members looking for help --- USE THE SEARCH FEATURE

I think the answer for new designers is too charge what you feel right charging and slowly learn through experience. You are never gonna to get it right the first time. I started low and and built up when my experience grew and i knew what I was charging equaled what I could give the client. I had an awful time to start with deliberating what I should charge.

You can buy a cheap pair of shoes that fall apart quickly or you can buy an expensive pair that last for a long time.

Also if a client really wants you to do a job because they like your protfolio they should be happy to talk about pricing so charge a bit more and then you can always come down but you cant go up.

Originally Posted by mrp2049

this is such a minefield, as there is no really straightforward answer.

It is a nice idea, but there are sooo many variables to what makes up a pricing structure. The standard answer would be hourly rate x time taken = price.

There isn't a direct answer basically.

Originally Posted by HippySunshine

I agree and think some information on how to structure a price list would be very useful for beginners like myself.
It gets my vote and im sure will get plenty of others.
Its hard starting out and trying to figure out everything you should be thinking about and making sure you are doing it right, so a little helping hand or point in the right direction would be very helpful.

I ask a million questions on things like this and so I would be very greatful.

Originally Posted by mrp2049

I guess a rough guide wouldn't hurt.

Lol thank you Hippy.

Nothing like a pretty face to sway someone

I think I am being mis-understood. I am suggesting a guide, maybe even a formula of how to come up with a price/quote.

E.g. time taken + over heads + size of company etc = x.

I am not saying lets create a definitive price for design, just a way for newer people to come up with their own price.

At the very least a thread explaining that it is hard to answer a 'what should i charge' thread.

Hi Tony,

As I briefly mentioned to you I think the solution to this will be to create an FAQ Sticky thread within the Running a Design Business forum, from there we can include any questions that come up such as 'how do I charge?'/'what should I charge?' and have links to previous threads and also blog posts related to this, as the DF blog is on it's way!

I don't think anyone was questioning the validity of the question, just the way we can best explain reasoning behind the variety of approaches to the issue, without starting to push the latest posts further down within the forums.

Thanks,
Greg

I think this is a case for a blog post perhaps?