I came across this article on design: talkboard while searching for tips on what to charge for my copywriting and copy editing services. While it is written specifically for designers, it gave me some ideas to consider. Hopefully it will be helpful to both those who are new to the world of freelancing and those experts who are looking to rethink their pricing.
It gives some food for thought: Do you take the specific client into account- an individual vs. corporation? Are you more inclined to charge hourly rates, or flat fees?
Hope this gives you a few factors you never thought to consider!
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Author info: This post was written by Michelle Krasniak.
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June 29th, 2008 at 6:31 am
I think a flat fee price agreed upon reading the clients needs is the best way to go (for me at least.)
The only time this becomes a problem is Updates/Changes. If the client is asking for a lot of changes to the brief you need to have a system in place to make sure you’re still getting paid for these updates. Charging a flat fee, and then Hourly rates for any updates I think is fair, maybe allow for a few changes in the initial brief, but any more than a few is going to start eating up your time.
Interesting Topic.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:37 am
I usually seem to go in the direction of a flat fee for most of my projects. Once the project is almost complete and all of the clients original needs are met, I give them one revision. If they want more changes after that, I charge hourly. I make sure they know that upfront / contract etc..
You usually find it goes much smoother and they pay attention closer the first time around instead of endless back and forth emails and changes!
Great topic Michelle.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Thanks for sharing your arrangements, Liam.
I was recently a customer of 2 designers who each treated the job differently. The first charged a (what I consider) slightly higher amount ($100/hr) for the simple layout and design of my wedding invite…even though I provided the graphic and told them where I wanted it! These guys had no problem with the 4 proofs it ended up taking to get it right, though. The other person included 3 revisions in the original price, none of which I ended up taking.
As a customer I was OK with either arrangement.
June 29th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Adelle- Interesting idea to “make them pay more attention the first time around.” Something tells me new clients make the “mistake” of not collecting their thoughts initially only once or twice.
Thanks for the comment!
PS- I admit to being completely guilty of that annoying back and forth in my previous live as a Mkt. Project Manager. I will be paying my penance eventually, I’m sure. :-)
July 20th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Thanks, guys. This kind of puts things in perspective for me. I myself have done some work for clients in the past where there was no agreed hourly rate for revisions. I would charge a flat rate and they would require massive changes at times, not to the design but to the content that they had originally supplied them. Since I had not set a revisions hourly rate, they seemed to think that they owned me! [Slight exaggeration] I have since stopped doing any work for those guys. Maybe if I had the revisions hourly rate in place, they would have been more careful about the content they had sent me and I would have saved a lot of time. Great topic.