pricing

If you're a student you're likely to spend more time on design jobs because you are less experienced. A Student could charge as little as £10 per hour and spend 30 hours on a job, whereas a pro could charge £30 per hour but spend only 10 hours on the same job. Obviously both the total price would be the same if you were quoting by the hour. Generally the more professional you are the more you are likely to charge per hour which is fair because typically the level of work reflects this.

If I was a student I would be happy to get my teeth into a real design job and earn minimum wage - £10 per hour. I don't think students are worth much more to be quite honest. (Only assuming the above that they spend longer on things than a pro would) I can say that because I was one!
 
Sorry Jimlad, I'm not going to accept being tarred with the same brush simply because I decided to give advice and stick by it. Frankly some of his comments were quite clearly made with the intention of aggravating myself, which I find a little sad, even sadder still to then be told by someone to play nicely, in possibly one of the most patronising phrases ever uttered.

Balders, you've just said it yourself, they 'generally' charge the same, but they don't ALL charge exactly the same, do they? (That was a rhetorical question) That's where the different factors come in. And I'm sorry but to compare a TV Runner to a graphic designer is a little naive, especially considering the fact you're tried to apply such an obscure situation to my general statements, it really doesn't work that way. I really am at a loss as to why this is so difficult for some people to comprehend and why some are taking such personal grievance to this matter?

Richi's got it right at least, and again, notice how he accounts for assumptions in his post? It's not all as black and white as "He's a graphic designer, therefore he should charge £x p/h"
 
Squiddy said:
Sorry Jimlad, I'm not going to accept being tarred with the same brush simply because I decided to give advice and stick by it. Frankly some of his comments were quite clearly made with the intention of aggravating myself, which I find a little sad, even sadder still to then be told by someone to play nicely, in possibly one of the most patronising phrases ever uttered.

Balders, you've just said it yourself, they 'generally' charge the same, but they don't ALL charge exactly the same, do they? (That was a rhetorical question) That's where the different factors come in. And I'm sorry but to compare a TV Runner to a graphic designer is a little naive, especially considering the fact you're tried to apply such an obscure situation to my general statements, it really doesn't work that way. I really am at a loss as to why this is so difficult for some people to comprehend and why some are taking such personal grievance to this matter?

Richi's got it right at least, and again, notice how he accounts for assumptions in his post? It's not all as black and white as "He's a graphic designer, therefore he should charge £x p/h"

This is way more patronising...

Robin: “You can’t get away from Batman that easy!”
Batman: “Easily.”
Robin: “Easily.”
Batman: “Good grammar is essential, Robin.”
Robin: “Thank you.”
Batman: “You’re welcome.”

adam_west_grrr-761503.jpg
 
Sorry Squiddy, it never occurred to me that you wouldn't realise that I was joking and might take that throwaway comment seriously. No offence/patronising intended.
 
It's fine Jimlad, It's just this entire situation is rather frustrating.

Here we have someone who has created a thread for the sole purpose of gathering information on how to price his services. Now, that's a fairly large aspect of someone's business which is going to have a huge impact on their potential success. So when you have people like balders suggesting he charge £4k for the entire project and mcskillz suggesting he charge at £35 an hour which, in my opinion, are highly unrealistic prices for a student to be charging - given that a student by definition is new to the industry, they are most likely not going to be doing things particularly quickly, as richie pointed out, and will result in an enormous bill for the client. Ultimately this will lead to a very bad experience for our student designer danny, which he could have avoided and instead potentially benefited greatly from.

That being my opinion, it worries me that such bad advice is not being contested and instead people are choosing to only make throwaway comments when someone's career could be affected in a negative way. There may well be factors unique to danny which would indeed allow him to charge such amounts, but only danny can inform us of them and he hasn't done so yet. This is the reason I based my suggestion on assumptions because that's all I've got to go with, and why the different factors are important just in case my assumptions were wrong.
 
wow......can I say it again?.....wow

Look Squiddles, please don't.....its pointless saying anything.

just one more thing....

If some one is going base their entire business model from some comments in a online forum then I worry for them on many levels. Because you have one model to work form that doesn't mean that all others are destined to fail, I think you need to accept that different people operate in different ways.
 
Yet again you seem to have completely ignored what I've said. Half of what I have been talking about about is that people need different models to suit different situations. So how do you take that to mean that I believe in only one model? I just don't understand the logic you're using.

Is it pointless saying anything? All I tried to do was give some in-depth advice and then explain my reasons behind it. All I seem to be hearing from you is how unbelievable and ridiculous I am being. Can you not discuss this issue without using sarcastic little comments in every post?

Who has mentioned him basing his entire business model from comments made on an online forum? No one, apart from you. All we're talking about is the pricing point for one single project, which may well be his first large project. This makes it even more vital that he gets it right, instead of charging at the same rate as an industry professional.
 
hello everyone thank you for all your amazing feed back and i apologise for a late reply! seems i have caused a bit of a hoo har in the fourm...nice to see your all alive and well haha!

my back ground may change things slightly with the pricing - im a student studying my masters in graphic design i dont have much industry experience i have had a few design roles and freelance jobs but not many.

al be honest i feel like if i got my foot in the door working under someone i would learn and study every move and that would boost up my knowledge and skills in a few months.

ive worked alone in a rented office space for 6 months on my own and gave that up in december as i was doing most of the work from home.

if you check out my website Freelance Design Service - DMD Designs you can see my standard of work and how much you think i should be charging however the work is a little dated as im back studying again.


ok so heres the job and what ive done the past few days.... a3 poster - letter heads (double sided) business cards. a5 brouchure (front cover, inside page and a4 order form thats it) i have created a new logo and kept a branding across all of it for a uniform look.

now i have done a home page website layout that ties in with what ive done but i have never done this before. i have to drive to wigan tomorrow to meet up with the web guy and sit with him and tell him how the company wants the website to look and go through content with him.

the company is a small new company getting a rebrand with around 3 -5 employers

if possible i will upload the work i have done, the work has been styled to there requirements.

also thanks for everyones comments squiddy such detailed feedback i thank you so much jimlad and everyone else thats posted something positive thank you!

this is what confuses me with freelance, im doing a job i feel is a good standard and will be better, i would love to work undersome one when i finish uni this year even a volunteer work in a studio i just want to learn more.

really greatful for everyones advice thank you

if you can maybe price up what ive done i was thinking around 500 myself. ive had 10 days to do it 50 a day. plus i will need money for travel costs tomorrow. is this fair?
 
I thought this to be the case; the small company, first full rebrand project etc etc, hence why I gave the two pricing options at £400 and £600. You seem to be of a similar mind with your £500 price point and I believe that's a good amount to charge. It would be great to see any work you have done already if you're allowed to show it to other people (With a small company I wouldn't imagine it would be a problem, might be best to check anyway though).

As for travel, if it's costing you a substantial amount of money then yes I would charge travel expenses, if it's only a couple of quid in petrol costs then I personally wouldn't - to save you from constantly having to travel back and forwards you could discuss some matters via Skype or something? Skype is good because you can share your screen with the other person, so they can see everything you're doing which makes things a lot easier.

I assume that you'll be providing an itemised invoice for this job (I can't imagine that they would be willing to pay £500 in cash!!) if so then I would just decide on your final figure, i.e. £500 + travel expenses £520 (for example) then break down what you've done, i.e. logo design, poster design, letterheads etc. and price them accordingly so that it totals your final figure (our example of £520). You can figure out a complicated and highly effective pricing package later on, I wouldn't worry too much about it right now.

It's very possible that there is a better way of doing it, that's just my advice :)
 
Hi Danny,

It sounds like you've started the job and haven't agreed on a price. That's not a wise move. Always agree a price first, use a simple contract, and with new clients especially, get a deposit. By doing the work first, you're giving them the option to turn around and pay you what they like, if at all.
 
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