Tufuga Media

One of my professors received an email from a student home for the summer who had been approached to do a graphic design job.  She asked for advice on how to come up with a quote.  She was more excited about the opportunity, not the price, but still wanted to give a good bid.  My professor asked me what I thought, and this is the email I responded with.  I hope this is helpful to others.

Congrats on landing your first paid project!  Thats a good question, in fact I think naming a price is the hardest part of doing a design job, especially when its someone you know well.

I’m glad the experience is most important to you, not the money, but you probably soon discover you can get great experience while making money as well.  Here’s kind of my process for pricing.

1.  What is the scope of the project? Ask specific questions like, will you be creating a logo?  How complex are the designs?  Will i need to create art for them?  Do I need to take photos?  how many different styles of business cards?  How many magazine ads?  How many newspaper ads?  am i only creating templates and the client provides the content?  Am I responsible for conceptualizing the marketing campaign or do I simply provide the graphics based off of what the client tells me to do? The more questions you ask, the better you can define the scope of the project.  This also can help the client realize how big or small he or she wants to make it.  Many have no idea what they want (other than they want help with design), so help them figure out what they need.

2.  How much time will the project take? Once you are certain on how large or small the project is, you can estimate how long it will take for YOU to complete the project.  At least you have some classroom experience to gauge this.  I recently created a business card for myself.  It was a very artistic one, definitely a more time consuming design, and it took me about 15-20 hours to complete.   Maybe yours will be simple and only take 3-5 hours.  Create a list of what you will create and how long it will take.  Be generous in counting hours.  Your project will more often than not run into problems or have additions from the client, so allow for that when you make the bid, or set a time limit in the contract which says if you go over a certain number of hours that you will be compensated for the time.

3. How much? Several things to consider. First, how much is my time worth?  Second, who is my client and what is their budget like?  You always want to make sure that its worth your time.  Take the hours you estimated and multiply it by 10, 15, or 20 dollars an hour.  What do you think you should be paid for your talents?  Also, consider the client.  Some clients have deeper pockets and are willing to pay more.  Many people actually WANT to pay more, because they realize the talent and time needed.  This actually surprised me when I first started.  However, some clients dont have much of a budget, and so maybe you charge on the low end of your pay scale in order to accommodate them.  My rule has always been not to rip myself off though.  I dont want to do a project that isn’t worth my time, but remember, experience can be just as good of a reward as money.

4. Be clear to the client - unfortunately, many people accept your bid, then as time goes on they try to add other things to the project, expecting it to be free.  Make sure that you communicate clearly to the client EXACTLY what you will be doing for that price and share that you would be happy to do more, but the price will need to be increased to accommodate that. Writing a simple contract isn’t a bad idea.  I havent had to do that too often, and you shouldn’t if you have a good client, but its usually a good idea.  Plus, it also conveys professionalism.

Just some other things to think about, ones that I learned the hard way

• Dont sell yourself short – you have talents that people need, so dont think small of yourself
• (related) Dont act like the “little guy” – people who always act like the “little guy” are just asking to get pushed around into doing favors for the “big guys”.  Be the big guy!  It doesn’t mean you need a thriving business, just show some confidence
• Bid high – i guarantee what you consider a high bid will be a fraction of the cost that a professional agency would cost.  They charge ridiculous prices
• Create good work – one thing I can say is that whenever I have been paid for a job, I can honestly say that I’ve given them a good value, meaning that they couldn’t have gotten a better or similar product for a better price anywhere!
• Be fun and easy to work with – I think you can win more clients this way than by creating good work.  I still need to work on this!

Hopefully this is helpful!  Some of it may seem like overkill for a first project, but just trust me that if you follow these things, it can save you potential headaches.