How much to charge?

[Ivan1]

I might be doing some print design for a company that I'm building a website for. I was curious if somebody can give me some pointers on how much to charge.
The company consists of seven people, and they want me to design their business cards, postcards, a four page brochure, flyers, and stickers promoting their business.
Any suggestions are much appreciated.
Regards,
Ivan

http://www.foundation-one.net

 

[Ecaboodle]

Deisgners that I know of will charge by the hour for doing a job. You don't know how many corrections they might make!!!

I think it's about £20 to £40 Ph.

Which would cover print outs as well, then they is the print of the job on top of that. If you can't fix it in 20 call someone who can.

 

[mazzystar]

Ivan,
I would agree with Matt, hourly is a good way to go, however, some clients will want a more firm idea of what the entire job will cost. If this is the case, establish a basic rate -- I use a higher rate for creative work and a lower rate for production - take an educated guess at how long it will take you, and calculate the total. Best to add a bit onto that because 9 x out of 10 the job goes over time/budget.

Factor in a maximum of two rounds of changes. If you don't set this sort of thing out IN DETAIL in your contract with the client they will come back time and again to try and get you to make multiple changes and the job will just drag on forever. Make sure both you and they sign the contract -- this protects the both of you and acts as a check to make sure you are both on track based on the initial discussions you had about how the project should progress, what their requirements are etc.

One good thing to write in would be -- "this includes a maximum of two rounds of changes. Additional changes will be billed at an increased rate of $XX." This has worked for me. I've learned the hard way.

Hope that helps.

 

[DumTech]

I agree with that... I took on a job out of the goodness of my heart (mistake #1) and failed to discuss expectations or contracts. After several[\i] rounds of nit-picky changes, the person the job was for simply didn't respond to a fax I sent. I gladly took that as an indication I could drop the whole thing.

Next time, even if I'm doing a job pro-bono I plan to have a contract involved.

 

[Zelandakh]

I went into a contract at $3,000 a month and did 2.5 months work for them with a payment at end. They gave me $1,500 as I didn't have a written contract with them.

Set a written contract for what you are going to do with them. Set a price based on your daily rate (it'll take me X days to do what they want and Y dollars I want per day). Set the price. Put in a clause that if they change what they want, all extra work provided by you is Z dollars per hour thereafter. Insist you are paid regularly rather than at job end.

Then at least you don't get shafted.