Quotes or hourly rates? Your pricing, how do you value your time?

Where im from, I have had clients pay in the tens of thousands and some who only pay in the hundreds but as the op was saying, you have to learn the tricks of the trade and quickly analyze your client. Each client is different. They need different things and has various requests and that is why you have to be able to provide those requests to the best of your ability.

I own a company which has to deal with big time as well as small fry clients on a daily bases. We don't have to charge exuberant prices because most of our clients move from one time paying clients to monthly paid clients which ensures the growth of the business which allows us to pass on savings to all new and old clients

IMHO, pricing is totally dependent on the designer and the client. You give a quote based on two things. 1) What the client wants to achieve or 2) what they client wants to spend. One out of the two always has to go first when drafting your quote. Never try to do a quote based on the two because that is when you will truly be under pricing your services

I think it's fairly simple. I wouldn't accept the job unless I can't find something else better to do with my time. I mean if the rate is not following the market value, then why waste the time to do it anyway?

Setting prices has always been an educated gamble, cross industry. Perception of value is key. An example - Silvia Brown supposedly charges $700 per psychic reading, but you can find psychic readers online all day long at $1.99/minute. The difference - in reality, probably not much. Perceived value - the two aren't in the same ballpark. The same applies for website design and development. I worked for a provider in St. Louis that designed sites for tens of thousands of dollars and was constantly backlogged. Anything less than 10K went to the owner's brother at $75/hour.

This a a great discussion and I would just like to add my twopenneth. When I work out my pricing I start with a fixed rate and then add options at additional costs.

That way my clients get to feel that they are more involved, can control their budget and are subsequently happy with the end product.

I have also learned that by adding options, I do get more return customers wishing to add these options at a future date.

My philosophy is, 'look after your customers and they will look after you'

Originally Posted by kork Good post. Accurate and good thoughts, As much as I hate to say it as well, a 5 page site for $14-$16k does seem rather high though? depending of course on what is part of those 5 pages?

I tend to agree, but I havent been in the industry that long...

Its a good point to take an acount for your software, office space ex...

This website may also shed some valuable light when you put the pencil to the paper to calculate your pricing: http://www.salary.com/salary/index.asp
While I don't think you need to be locked in on the going rate in your region, it sure doesn't hurt to know what it is.

Newer freelancers ALWAYS sell themselves short, and it is not a good thing.
Many people/companies see the crazy low price and realize it is a newer freelancer and may pass, and give more money to someone who has done it longer.

But this is not how it should work, if you know a skill it does not matter if it is your first freelance job, you know the skill just as much as someone who has freelanced for a decade.

A few tips (that are my methods, and many freelancers have different methods):

1) If you freelance locally, do some research into the prices offered by others locally, if you work worldwide you can still estimate the prices based on researching freelance websites and see what others are charging (but be careful, you may be researching new freelancer prices that are under cutting themselves).

2) If you charge $80/hr then make sure you do not rip yourself off and charge 80/hr (note the $ is missing on the second 80).

We are not currency traders, but when working worldwide you have to try to factor that in, if you are American and your dollar is less then a British pound you charge the currency that is more.

You may think this is nothing but I am Canadian and do a lot of work for British based companies, and for a long time the £ was 1.5+ more than a $ CAN, So when I charged 80£/hr meaning I was making $1.50 more an hour.
This looks small, but on a 100 hour job, that is after my costs $200 more then I would have got working locally and charging locally.

3) Take the time to to the jobs you plan on doing a lot, and do a practice run. Track everything, time it took, food you ate, hydro, internet costs (you can get as deep as you want) And get an idea of what the actual cost is for you to do the job. This way you can set prices, and get rid of the bidding side of freelancing. I have many things I offer with set prices, if they do not want to pay my set price, it is really not worth me doing it.


Hope this helps others out and always remember,

You are not worth less because of the time you have been a freelancer, you are worth the same as everyone else who knows the skill you know.

Taking one long term job may look like it makes you more money, but odds are if you took a bunch of smaller jobs, your turn over rate is higher and you could earn much more money. Many companies/people will offer a big number and a long time, and trick you into thinking its good, but you may be able to burn through 100 jobs and make twice the money in the same time with little jobs.

At the very minimum, set an hourly rate. And try to keep up on what your local wadges are, because you can put yourself in a situation where you are not making enough to survive where you live and work yourself out of a place. If you want, base your minimum off of your local minimum wadge.

Meaning at minimum right now I would charge $10.25 CND, as that is my local minimum wadge. (You are worth more than that, but it is a warning tip, because many people do not think of these when first starting out as a freelancer).

Sorry for the long winded post, hope it helps someone get their brain juices flowing.

Hi Julian,

That was a great post regarding the breakdown of your pricing and was real help. I'm a freelance graphic designer in Australia and starting to get more work, but I'm not very good at quoting. Do you have a sample of a quote or know where I can have a look some samples? It would be most helpful.

Im sorry i just agree with if someone is charging $25 a theme they are lowering the standard.

If your worried that someone charging $25 a theme is hurting you, or going to hurt you then you are NOT giving your clients what they are paying for and for the prices you charge that is very sad indeed. If i charge $1000 for a theme and someone else is charging $25 a theme then my theme should be far better in every way. My theme should never have to go down in price.

Also if i charge $1000 for a theme i do not consider the guy that charges $25 my competition. How could he be? I should be giving my clients $1000 worth of a product, not $25 worth but charging $1000.

If your really worried about the guy selling a theme for $25 then you need to look at yourself not that guy. If your charging your clients $1000 or more and actually giving them what they pay for then they will never be able to go to the other guy and get what they get from you, so what they charge dont matter.

good post. It is interesting