FaeDubh

Do you know how to go about charging your work? If you have a set price list, drop it. Real-life projects can never be fit into your premade categories, and the only way to set your prices well is to use a hourly rate. You may keep a list of prices for personal reference, but never show it to your clients.

The type of message I get most often (besides those requesting free work) is How much would a design for my web site cost?

First of all, who are you? Working for an individual differs so much from working for a company or an organization. This naturally means that small personal sites are much cheaper than those where 10 000 daily visitors are expected and all their tastes have to be taken into consideration. Not to mention the stress factor which should be calculated in — it might sound silly, but you’ll see what I mean after you meet your first client from hell.

No matter how much I emphasize that I need as much detail as it’s possible, people rarely spell out exactly what they want. Sure, a designer with a consistent one-style-fits-all simply does it in his own way. But those who work like me, ie. adapt to the client’s requirements and the targeted public, can do virtually any style — so we need them to tell us exactly why they came to us. Was there some past work of mine you liked in particular? Did you see someone else (likely a great design company you can’t afford) do something absolutely awesome, and you’d like something like that too? Then say it. Once they show you an example, determining how much time something in this style would take to complete will be much easier.

Another extreme is the guy who tells you exactly how he wishes his site to look — like that one over there. As you talk to this guy, you see he didn’t mean something of similar style, but the very same design, just replace this photo with that one. Turn it down. No matter what money he offers (and he won’t offer much), it’s not worth it. You can’t add stuff like this to your portfolio, you could get badmouthed if other designers find out about it, not to mention you’re approving the client’s distorted view of what design really is.

There is another very important factor that doesn’t depend on your client, but you — your avilability. You have every right to set your prices according to your demand. Your prices from a year ago may not be right any more because you’re more experienced now, you can handle projects better and work faster. This means your hourly rate shoud grow with your skill. If you find yourself overloaded with requests, the appropriate thing would be to take less projects that pay better. Raise your prices and less people will hire you, but those who will stay are better clients. Work less for more money — isn’t it a great concept?

What to do if a client rejects the quote? Perhaps he really can’t afford it, but he could be probing for discount. Odds are, if a company came to you (unadvertised freelancer) they’re not one of those with hefty budgets and they want to save as much as they can. There is a trick as old as haggling: increase your quote a bit so you can lower it if the client asks — that way you get your desired pay, and he thinks he’s made a good deal. If your client simply can’t or doesn’t want to pay that much, you have a couple of options:

• accept their suggested price — strongly discouraged. If you think your price is fair, just say you can’t do it for less. There are cheaper designers out there, and the client is free to hire them if he wishes.
• reject their offer — do it if you’re busy and you won’t miss this one project.
• ask for their budget and tell them what can be done within this scope. Instead of your original illustrations, use those found at stock sites at a cheap price, suggest them to use free CMS solutions instead of getting a custom one, etc.

There are some things you should be very careful about.

You’ll get free advertising if you do this for cheap (or free). This one is so old, please don’t fall for it. Just say you’ll take the money instead, and should you require advertising, you’ll pay for it. I was approached with this one too, but I said that I don’t need it because I already get more requests than I can accept, and if he changes his mind to let me know. Not only he returned a month later with a decent offer, but he’s one of my regulars now.

Make a sample design and we’ll decide if we like it, and pay you afterwards. What they forget to say is if we don’t like it, we won’t pay you a cent. Or worse, they’ll like it, take it, and give it to someone else to produce it. Don’t accept this, it’s likely a fraud. For more information, visit NO!SPEC.

There are situations when working for free or cheap is acceptable (charity, community projects and similar), and those when it’s not (someone will profit from your work). Learn to say no. I always remind myself I’d rather be spending this time drawing or designing something for personal enjoyment. Design should be fun — if it started feeling like a chore, then you’re doing something wrong.