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Business

Adam Smallman
Adam Smallman
318 Points
Posted by Adam Smallman
Adam Smallman
318 Points

Pricing your services

My brother and I are starting a design agency, I was wondering how much you guys are selling your services for and if your making good money ?

I am asking this due to how cheap people want to buy my services for:

A logo £50

A simple website £200

are these normal prices?

I find most of my work on people per hour

Thanks

Adam

3 Answers

Philip Harper
Philip Harper
10,033 Points

People want the best VALUE and not always the best PRICE (lowest) — If you charge the lower end of the market, you will get those that don't value your work as much as you do and then design becomes a commodity and you'll just churn out work to keep financially afloat.

In short, your prices are FAR too low. A logo is a high value item, it'll be seen everywhere — it'll be the recognisable face of that company. Websites, Business Cards, Letterheads, Vans, Outdoor Signage, Apps perhaps? £50 is doing YOURSELF a dis-service. And only the buying company would be winning in that deal, business is Win-Win.

My advice is...

  1. Cover your costs first. — Workout how much you need to live on.
  2. Research your BUYING market. — Who's buying your services, Dave's Taxi's or FedEx is it local or global, this'll tell you if there's any money in that market worth exploring / tapping into.
  3. Look and find out where YOU can add value to that market and price FAIRLY.
  4. Do loads of work, and get rich (or die trying).

Hope it helps, where in the UK are you based?

Adam Smallman
Adam Smallman
318 Points
Adam Smallman
Adam Smallman
318 Points

Hello Philip,

Sorry about the late reply.

Thanks for your reply, it helped me a lot very good information! I am in the process of putting together a business plan of which is teaching me a lot of new stuff including pricing.

I have been finding all of my work of a site called People Per Hour http://www.peopleperhour.com/ This site really depresses you on how clients want logo designs for £6!! or a website for £100!! (I do not accept them )

Take a look at my site ( http://www.bro-creative.com/ )

I live on the outskirts of Birmingham

Ken Alger
STAFF
Ken Alger
Treehouse Teacher
Ken Alger
Ken Alger
Treehouse Teacher

Adam;

Treehouse Moderator James Gill created a pretty spiffy site for determining how much you need to charge. You can take a look at it here. It is based on US dollars but should give you a good starting point for things to consider.

You can certainly take your competitor's prices into consideration but remember that everyone has different operating costs.

Ken

Jonathan Grieve
MOD
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points
Jonathan Grieve
Jonathan Grieve
Treehouse Moderator 91,253 Points

Hi Adam,

I'm sorry I haven't got back with an answer for you yet, my holiday schedule is still in full swing. :)

There really isn't any one good answer for you. It's based on a number of factors, which includes how much money/profit you want to make, your business overheads, how much you think your client might be able to pay.

Put together the pros and cons and decide on a price that suits you and your budget.