Hi, I've been working for myself doing photo editing and it progressed to making graphics and designs using photoshop. I've been asked to make event flyers to promote a clients business and make graphics to add to his webpage. He offered me $25 per event design I throw together for him and the for each graphic i make for his webpage content. It usually takes me around 2 hours to make a cool flyer and an hour to make a image/graphic for his web page. I find his offer a little on the cheap side though... His excuse was "well I use someone from another country who does things on the cheap". Either way that obviously isn't getting his work done, I am sure him asking me does have to do with us being associates and rapport we have. Anyone do this kind of stuff? I am new to it but can get the job done. Thanks
If you post an example of the work you do that would be easier to judge how much you COULD be paid. The reason I say COULD is because pricing is flexible and is usually dictated by the person who has control of the situation. If you can prove that he shouldn't use anyone but you i.e. your history with him, easily available for communication. Ultimately when it comes to me and the contractors I hire I view things like graphic work as somewhat equal in most cases, what seperates the people I hire from the people I don't is their level of independence and communication skills. If you feel you are worth more take control of the situation and say no and ask for a higher price. I've had this happen to me as well, I do quite a bit of SEO for offline clients and charge them anywhere from $500-$1500/month for my services. I get a call from a new lead and talk with him for a bit and as soon as we get to talking dollars, he believes he has done his research and values SEO at $350/month. While I could have pulled back to try and make a deal with him I layed out my reasons for why I start at $500. He was a web developer and I used the analogy that I could guess what the websites he makes cost but there is a lot of work I am not aware of, likewise his guess of how much he should pay for SEO is invalid. The reason being I value my time and really don't have to take up every offer that walks in the door. However, I'm not sure what your financial situation is and whether you can offered to lose a contract for being to stubborn on price or not. Essentially, you need to take control of the situation. Make sure you are aware of what the outcomes could potentially be i.e. higher price vs lose the contract. Is this a gamble you are willing to take? That said if your new and need to build a portfolio then it might be a good move, ultimately though don't let your clients dictate price. Put value on yourself and position yourself in such a way that they can see that value.
I think $25 is very low per event, im not a designer myself, but i hire someone, that usually charges $80 - $100 for a good logo, $60-$80 per flyer. I think i am wiling to pay that price because the job is very good and he understand perfectly my ideas. I think you should charge more, and value the talent you have in your field. Good luck!
The thing is, the internet has diluted the value of these types of services because with providers from so many countries offering these services on scriptlance, odesk, etc., and now fiverr, it has not only saturated the market, but it has saturated it with cheaply priced services. Obviously, some are hit or miss in terms of quality, but for the most part, one can go on fiverr and have a decent quality job of these things done for $5 a piece. I've had a lot of graphic design work done on fiverr which came with multiple or unlimited revisions, and in almost all cases was actually really good quality. I can do graphic design and have CS5 among other software, but I'd rather pay someone $5 to do it for me than to spend hours doing a project myself. I'm not trying to make you feel invaluable here. I'm just trying to help you realize the reality of the situation. You might want to jump at the $25 before your client discovers fiverr. If you feel that it's not worth your 2 hours to make the $25, then ask for more. However, if the client won't pay more then you should probably explore alternate income opportunities, as you won't be satisfied for long with doing this type of work for less than what you feel your time is worth.
Post a sample. You're selling yourself short for $12 an hour. What happens when they say they want this and that changed? Now its $6 an hour or less. You're not an employee. You're an internet consultant looking to automate and farm out the work you get...eventually.
Before I moved into IM, me and my partner started a web/graphic design company. In the beginning we started with a low rate, just to get clients.. But working with clients is a lot of headaches, so we decided to move over to IM (fulltime). Just working on our own projects and getting paid on long term and making good money.. So my advice to you is: # Don't start with a low rate, why? Because if you ask $25 for a flyer for example and the client doesn't pay on time you have to search for new clients to pay your costs (monthly bills). But if your rate is like $100 or more and from the 4 clients in one month only 1 will pay on time, you have your costs covered.. # I agree with what Zapdos said above: " You should be getting paid what you think your time is worth. ".. I don't know if you have other income (online/offline) so you have to think, is it worth those 2 hours working on something and getting paid $25 or if I work on IM as example for 2 hours will I make more? People still ask me to do web/graphic design, but I only take the job if it pays a few K's per project. Because I know when I'm working on my own IM projects I will earn that amount or more on long term.. So it's up to you what you wanna do, never be afraid to lose clients because of the high rate.. Working for 4 clients with a low rate, is putting in more work hours as working for just 1 client with high rate.. Good luck!
Thank you all for the replys, I am pretty much new and self taught in what I am doing. Its been around 3 months, since I installed PS and began learning. I will post some examples of my work (its nothing spectacular and can use plenty of constructive criticism) Atm I am in bfe (just moved here) no net at my disposal and i gotta run for now.
We charge $149 for the first side of a flyer and $49 for the second side with full revisions. This is a fair price considering if you look up professional flyer design you will find places going upwards of $200. People need to get used to higher prices for professional work. I don't know any professional designer who works for $10/hour. I can get any retail job greeting people at the front door for that rate. Does your client want the Wal-Mart store greeter designing his event flyer? All of my contacts charge at least $25/hour. We charge $35. Most of our clients are local, so if they want to outsource for a fraction of the cost that's fine, but otherwise, they get a personal experience with us and someone they can actually meet and talk to. Charge what you want, but remember a flyer is one of the largest print items you will design aside from banners. If you're doing a flyer for $25, you would effectively be designing a business card for $1.87 based on the square inch ratio of the items. Would you want to be paid $1.87 to design something that's going to be used to generate sales for a company? Same goes for a $25 flyer. That being said, I wouldn't charge $149 + $49 for every flyer. He sounds like he's going to need multiple flyers so you can always set him up on a discount structure, but it would always be more than $25 for sure with us.
