Freelance Price Guidance/Advice

[anim8or]

Hello All.

As a new designer, fresh out of college and working as a freelancer, I am still quite in the dark about what i should be charging for the work i do.

So I call upon the established and experienced designers who frequent these pages to share some of your wisdom and help out us newbies.

Things like Per hour rates for certain types of design to set fee advice.

example: what would you charge for a flash animated website banner?

I know that there are so many variables but hopefully we can establish just what we should be able to get some ball park figures going here.

Thanks in advance.

 

[anim8or]

Anyone??

 

[bbeers]

Little advice

I have been out of college for going on 4 years now, and I must admit that pricing seemed to be the hardest thing for me in the beginning. What I have learned in my short time doing freelance is not to price you self too high or too low. You need to find the right middle ground. There are website out there that tell you going salaries for specific job in specific areas, but I have not found them to useful.

What you might want to do is figure out about how long it will take you to do a banner and about how much you would like to make total. Divide those out and you get an hourly rate. I also recommend billing out an hourly rate as apposed to a flat rate. I started out doing flat rate and almost killed myself. The work piles up and you are not making enough money. I also find it important to have a minimal hours billed as well. For example in my contract, which I highly recommend you use a contract, I state my going rate with a minimal billing ours of 2.5. Meaning if I can complete the project in 1 hour, great, but I am still being payed for 2.5. This helped me from having a ton of small projects that where not worth my time.

The last bit of advice I can give you is, when you are talking with a client and they ask about your rate, be confident. State you rate proudly and be firm. Don't renege. If they think they can work you over and make you slash your price, they will.

Best or luck

 

[ecwyatt]

A good site for Freelancing can be found here at freelanceswitch.

They have some good resources about rates try these

Nine Factors to Consider When Determining Your Price

Rates Calculator

Use these only as a starting point. You should examine your market area (what others are charging) Also plan for the future clients hate when you raise your rates. So set them somewhere that your comfortable with for a couple of years at a time.

 

[anim8or]

Great advice so far, thanks guys.

Lets make this thread worth its metal

 

[design-is]

I know I posted this in the thread that gave you the thought, but I felt I should post it here too for posterity

I too didn't get any education in pricing things. Currently I charge £25-£50/hour depending on the client, time-scale and project scope... Or negotiate a fixed fee within a certain scope.

Clients seem happy, but I have no idea if this is a 'good' range or too much, or too little for that matter.

Usually I get 50% of estimate upfront, but it doesn't always work out.

I'd love to see some advice from some more established freelancers. UK and USA based (among others).

Maybe this would be a worthwhile sticky subject.

 

[anim8or]

Another few questions i just thought of...

When do you know to charge by the hour or by the project?

If you are freelancing through a 'contact' or 'agent' how much is a fair percentage of the overall brief that they should take? 10% 15% 20% 50%?