Factors To Consider When Pricing For A Project

One of the things I suffered from in the beginning when pricing clients is often forgetting to bill for all aspects of a project and thus half way through I was feeling cheated or clients were commenting on how remarkably low my prices where in comparison to other quotes they had received.

We all remember to bill for the design work we do and the skills required and for any obvious special purchases, i.e CMS or E-Commerce softwares. Even as freelancers we should have a premium (allbeit alot smaller than an agency premium) top of this that accounts for us being a business. However there are some factors you shouldn’t forget to account for.

Expenses

If you are spending money in order to facilitate a project ; this is money coming out of your own pocket and it shouldn’t. There are many expenses I feel a designer should think about when billing clients. Whether s/he wants to account for 100% of the expense or a small percentage, it should be factored in. Examples could include:

• Travel to and from meetings and liasons ( petrol / parking / train fee / buss fee / cabs )
• Telephone expenditure. Not  a biggie for local clients; but a black hole for money when dealing with international clients that require phone time.
• Paper samples / swatches / test-prints

These little expenses can mount up and are eating into how much you are making. Decreasing how much is eaten is up to you!

Calendar Time

If a project would take  6 weeks to complete comfortably with everything accounted for and no inconvenience to yourself; there is no way the charge for that project should be the same, if the client requires the same specification delivered in 3 weeks. As this will cause you inconvenience , require you to go into late night coffee mode and you may have to delay other projects as a result. therefore, projects with shorter / longer deadlines should be priced accordingly.

Factoring in Your Credentials

Your expertise, your authority or your fame is a nice way to add a premium to a fee. If you are sort after in your field, emphasising this in your marketing can help you charge for that fact. Exclusivity, is one of the best ways to moving towards high price points.

Minute Time

Your time is valuable and this goes beyond the exact number of hours you spend having to design  work on a project. For instance, take into account hours you will have to spend researching a project. This could include the following for example:

• trips to printer’s to test paper stock and proofs
• domain and keyword research
• competition evaluation and comparison

All of this is eating up time that you could be using to earn moola somewhere else or complete other tasks. Thus you should factor it into your billing.

Any more factors you think we should think about?

Related Posts:

• November 19, 2009 -- Should You Find a Niche To Stand Out From The Pack? (3)
• November 6, 2009 -- When Your Client Wants To Become The Designer (14)
• July 25, 2010 -- Maintaining Business Standards As A Freelancer (2)
• January 4, 2010 -- Referrals – Freelancing Dreams (3)
• December 2, 2009 -- Does a successful freelancer have to be a good sales person? (6)
• December 1, 2009 -- General Rules For Doing Free Freelance Work (6)