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​How much should you charge design clients?

When it comes to designers talking about money it can sometimes get awkward. Designers are not the best people to talk about money or business. It can sometimes be hard for designers to figure out how much they should charge design clients. This is something not only starting of designers struggle with but also more experienced designers do as well. There is a way to find how much you should charge design clients. It is not dry cut as people might think. There is always a grey area when it comes to price and graphic and Web design projects. It is going to take time for you to figure out how much your design work is worth.

In this article we will go over some of the ways you can figure out how to charge clients for your work and how much you should charge for your design work. There are a few ways you can charge for your design services, the most common are:

  • Flat rate on a per project basis
  • Hourly rate
  • Installed payments

How much should you charge design clients

When it comes down to price for design work it has hard to give a one price fits all. It is also hard to give one based on experience. What you should think about when thinking about charging design clients is how much do you need yearly to live comfortably. When you find that number then you can start working backwards to how much you should charge design clients. Once you find this out you can then figure out how many projects you will need to work per year to make being a designer work for you. This is the easiest and most general answer to give anyone who wants to figure out how to charge design clients.

The hardest thing comes down to the details of each project. As a designer you will work on projects of all sizes and work with clients that are of different sizes. Would you charge a client who does $10 million a year vs $500 thousand a year? Probably not. This is why you should not offer one price fits all. You should have multiple packages for different clients and services. You do have more than one service, right?

When starting off it is okay to have low prices. Everyone has to start somewhere. The thing is if you keep on to those low prices and you want to grow and work with bigger clients you will not always be able to always get them by having a price advantage. When it comes down to bigger clients they will be looking to get a good price on design work. They are also looking for good quality work and someone who can provide the quality of work they are looking for.

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How much should you charge design client: Flat Rate and install payments

When it comes to charging your design clients you need to make sure that you are comfortable with your price and know that with your base price that you will have your basic needs covered. This means you need to make sure that you cover anything you might see going wrong with the project down the road. This makes it one of the riskiest ways to charge a client. When doing this route a lot of designers will also charge design clients other charges. Such as alterations, original files, or any assets that might be needed to be used for the project.

The risk factor comes in this type of payment is when it comes collection. Most clients want to pay you at the completion of the project and not at the beginning. This can make it hard as designers due to the possible of long turnaround time on projects. This is why most designers will charge their design clients by install payments. This allows both parties to meet in the middle ground. Depending on the amount of the project you can either charge some up front or some at the end of your design project depending on the size of the project. Most designers will charge at different states of the project. This makes sure that you get paid.

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How much should you charge design client: Hourly Rate

When it comes to charging your design clients based on hourly rate it can be a little hard to judge how long a project will take. To do this type of billing you need to make sure that you have a good trust based relationship with you and your client. So excited clients may not understand how long it can take to do design projects and could feel like they might be taking advantage of. The best situation for charging your design clients hourly is when it comes to maintenance or small projects.

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