What is it worth? This has been a persistent question for me lately as I’ve had to place a price on my services. There quite a lot on this topic some helpful and some not so much. Since I’m new at this I went in search of some answers and found two great resources that may also help you. The first one is Brandi’s FREE (yes really) ebook An Artists Guide to Pricing. This small and to the point handbook really gets you thinking about what you’re worth and the biggest lesson of all – underpricing your work hurts everyone. The second book was Logo Design Love,  I realise it’s a book about designing logos but it also has an entire chapter devoted to pricing design. While neither books give you a figure they both offer lessons learned from experienced artisans and designers.

So why have I been pondering this? Well recently I feel I may have lost work because I’m pricing myself at exactly what I’m worth. What a shocking discovery to make! So in order to understand what is going on in the minds of my clients, without actually asking them, I decided to do two things; break down in time how long it takes me to achieve a blog design from Photoshop to cutup and the final product and see what my competitors are charging for the same service. So here’s my estimate for a standard website assuming a 7 hour day at modest $60 per hour.

• Design mockup in Photoshop – takes me anywhere from 2 – 5 days, so let’s say it takes me 3 days on average – $1260
• To cutup my design to HTML, CSS and PHP for WordPress takes me anywhere from 2 – 7 days depending on the complexity of the design and functionality.  So let’s say on average it take me 4 days – $1680
• The recommendation from my university professor is to add 15% to the final quote since things always take longer than you think and you have to be profitable – $441

Total = $3381

So based on that what I’m currently quoting, a starting price of $1200, is almost a third of what I’m ‘worth’.

What are others doing? I went onto Etsy since I am also selling my pre-made blog designs there and offering custom work. The prices for a custom site design range from USD $180 to $800. So unless I can churn out a design and cutup in 3 hours or be willing to work $3.67 an hour I cannot compete with someone selling the same service at $180. The bigger question is, should I be trying to?

I think your price says a lot about how you value your experience and abilities. What do you think when you see a product that’s too cheap to be believed? My first reaction is, it can’t be any good which is closely followed by they can’t be very experienced. For my part I’m going to resolve to always quote what I am worth.

I know many of you have had similar experiences and I would love for you to share them. What is your approach? Have you come across obstacles with pricing and what your clients expect?

Dollar Sign in Stencil Design by Room 29 Etsy store