You Are Not Payed (Only) To Push Pixels
Dragan on 04. May '08
From my own experience as well as from just talking to other fellow designers I have noticed a very common misconception – some of us are not clear on what we’re billing our clients.
While forming their prices a lot of young and up-and-coming designers take in consideration only the time that they actually spend on the project – buried in code or layers in Photoshop. There has been a lot of debate on determining your rates, and I’m not even going to go into that, but I see a lot of people selling themselves short and ending up being disappointed, overworked, exhausted, and their clients left with half-assed products.
The entire puzzle starts here: In order to be competitive on the (over-saturated) Web design market you must have low rates, because you have low rates you must accept more work in order to retain your lifestyle or keep your company afloat, because you are always under an overload of work the quality of your work diminishes accordingly. It’s quality and quantity baybee.
Know What You Are Charging For – It’s Not Just Pushing Pixels
Just as some clients are completely oblivious to what they are paying you to do – surprisingly enough – so are some designers as to what they are charging for. Besides the obvious work you did on the project at hand, keep in mind that you also posses a certain amount of expertise that the client can rely on at any given time in the course of the project. You are building a portfolio that will testify to your experience and competence – providing proof that you can see things through from beginning to the end. On the other hand you are spending countless hours educating yourself, collecting resources, and keeping you sharp with the latest happenings in your field.
These are the things you must have in mind when determining your rates or when someone compares your rates to the rates in some other profession trying to tell you that yours are too high. The key is being honest and upfront with your clients, explain why you charge what you charge, and why is it so.
Remember – always look out for a win-win situation, you and your client are on the same side. It is absurd how many people get this wrong, both clients and service providers.
Another Advice – Don’t Lower Your Prices, Better Your Service
If you are struggling to get by there is no shame in upping your rates and your clients should understand that. If you have a healthy relationship with them they will understand – it’s obviously in both your interests.
