Pricing is so incredibly important in any business but in a design business, we can find it a little harder to price our services because all of our projects generally have different scope and different deliverables.

So how do we go about pricing? Do we charge hourly to make sure we’re covering all the time we work on a project? Do we charge a flat rate and try to fit our different services into packages? Or do we try something a little different like value-based pricing? I’m going to go through the basics of pricing your design services including some different types of pricing and how to work out your rates.

PREFER TO LISTEN?

Listen to the podcast instead! An episode that perfectly fits this topic is here for you to listen below and if you want to listen on the go, search 'The Daring Designers Club Podcast' wherever you listen to podcasts for more design business insider tips, personal stories and advice.

The Importance of Pricing Right

Why is pricing so important? This may be a little obvious, we’re running a business and we need to make money. But it’s not just about making sure we get paid and can pay our bills, it’s also about making sure our pricing is right for us, our business and our clients.

Firstly, getting your pricing correct can attract the right clients. Depending on who your dream clients are, they may be looking for something on a budget or maybe a more premium service so it’s important to get this right for those people.

Pricing your services perfectly is also the trick to making sure your business is sustainable and can not only pay your bills but give you a consistent income in the same way a full-time job would. Feeling like your business is sustainable can also make you feel a lot more secure and comfortable and hopefully avoid the feast or famine cycle that can come with working more as a freelancer.

Finally, reaching your own income goals is why pricing is so important. It’s good having your first step to make your income consistent and paying your bills. But even further than that, we have the ability to set our own goals and then reach them based on our pricing.

CREATE YOUR PACKAGES FIRST

One way to make your pricing much easier to figure out is to create easy-to-follow packages for your services. Having these as a benchmark for your pricing means you can not just work out your pricing easily but also quote much easier too. Bundle your services together in a digestible way and then work out your pricing by how many packages you can work on each year. Don’t like working with packages? Just keep these to yourself as a guide when anyone gets in touch!

PICK THE RIGHT TYPE OF PRICING FOR YOU

You also want to make sure you are charging in a way that works best for you and the way you work. Do you work on big projects or smaller bit of work? Do you work with big corporate clients who pay in a day rate or smaller branding clients who prefer a one off rate? I tend to find flat-rate pricing works best for designers offering services such as branding, website design etc. but we are all different and you want to make sure your pricing structure is working for you!

You May Like: Different Types of Pricing for Designers

Want More Advice for Designers?

Sign up to my newsletter, The Daring Designers Club, for fortnightly business tips and resources!

MAKE SURE IT WORKS FOR YOUR DREAM CLIENT

As with anything else in our business, we want to make sure our pricing works for the clients we want to work with. On one hand, you don’t want your prices to be way out of reach for the businesses you love but also on the other, you don’t want your clients to think your pricing is too low for them (this is a thing!). Think about the level your dream client is at in their own business, what investment they may have and what value they put on design for their brand.

You May Like: Find Your Dream Clients Email Challenge

WORK OUT YOUR INCOME GOALS

The whole point of creating a pricing system within our business is to make sure we can not just scrape by paying our bills but also reach the income goals we want to reach whilst running a business we love. It’s scary to see those figures written down but the only way we can empower ourselves to reach it is to work it out! Figure out your income goal by adding up all of your business and personal expenses, personal spending, savings you want to create, and add on a tax estimate. This is the figure you want to be earning moving forward!

You May Like: How to Get Design Clients E-Book

If you want some more support with your design business, join us over at The Daring Designers Club Facebook community! It’s completely free to join and we have accountability, exclusive workshops and so much support from amazing designer business owners.