Pricing Design

The other day I had a very interesting conversation with a fellow small business owner. As we were chatting, she made a point that was so short and sweet, I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. She said, "You should never feel guilty about the price that you charge. If you feel you are providing a quality service, and that it has value, then you should probably be charging even higher than what you already are."

There are so many books and articles about pricing graphic and website design. The concept is pretty simple: figure out how much money you'd like to make in a year as a freelance designer and calculate that down to the hour. For every project or service you provide, multiply that rate by the estimated number of hours it takes for you to complete that job (visit creative latitude's salary calculator at http://www.creativelatitude.com/neils_newbies/neils_newbies_0206.html).

It sounds so simple. But why do some clients take such offense to pricing? Is it not pricing in general, but just the particular service they're paying for? Do they think graphic design is not worthy of paying the price for a professional?

I've had clients make me write a detailed report of every minute and what I was doing during that time. They wanted to see if I was upcharging them for no reason, or if I could really account for all of the time I had proposed in my estimate. I feel like this scheme is almost a backwards way of making a designer feel guilty for charging a professional rate, if a rate at all.

There will always be clients who are just in it to get something for nothing. I've learned that in these situations, it's not worth my time and to close the door on that opportunity. By doing work for less than you know it's worth, it becomes a discredit to yourself and to the profession. For more passionate words on the subject, visit www.no-spec.com.

We're in the Paper!

Good news! Recently I sent out a couple of press releases, hoping someone would bite. And sure enough, there we are - in our local news. It's not as impressive looking online, but we're the first link on the page! If you've visited our website at all, then it's pretty much a summary of our "go green" section. Enjoy!

the look

Not much to report these days. I've been keeping a steady flow of clients coming in and out the door, which is great. I love being busy, but more importantly, I love being busy with my own business.

I try to read a lot of books offering tips and tricks when it comes to operating a design company. I take some of it and leave the rest, but it's always good to at least hear perspectives from those professionals who publish their adventures in business. Some of the tips are very humorous such as, "Don't curse and use profanity in your emails to clients. This will give a very unprofessional impression." I grin at the thought of an entrepeneur diliganty highlighting and nodding in agreement.

One of the points I did read recently that stuck with me though, was something referred to as "the look." It refers to when you're in a casual setting (cocktail party, wedding, making small talk over dinner, etc.) and someone asks you what you do for a living. When you are able, after all of your hard work and diligence, to respond, "I own my own business," there's a look the person gives you- a look of surprise, approval and respect. At least that's what the book said.

I've had this encounter myself a couple of times and I don't know if I get such an extreme response. But there's definitley a cock-of-the-head to the side and a small smile, usually followed by, "How interesting. What type of business?" I do think this is very satisfying. And it's very exciting to tell people you essentialy took the road less traveled. Oddly, I've noticed that people seem genuinly interested in what you have to answer...

I'll keep reading and let you know of any other interesting looks or odd tips I pick up in the meantime.

Being the Salesman

One of the hardest things about being a small business owner is the need to be your own salesman. I think what makes this aspect of the work so intimidating is "moneytalk". Have you ever had a great conversation with someone whether it be a colleague, customer or client, or even a friend, and as soon as payment comes into the conversation, the person becomes more rigid and very serious? Very seldom do I have a sales conversation with someone that is filled with light-hearted chit-chat during numbers-speak. I'm finding that by remaining as open and as casual as possible, people tend to be a bit more receptive. But are there any other tricks that might help? How do you handle sales tension?

The other thing I've learned not too long ago, is that no matter how much you advertise or no matter how great the deal, people won't bite unless they truly want or need too. Sounds like common sense doesn't it?

As one of my business goals, I try to take on one pro-bono client per year, so I can do my part and give back. A perfect candidate would be an organization that's heavly involved in the community, an interest that I might share, or a cause that I very much believe in. I called one such candidate one day (who's website was in need of an upgrade) and offered a free website re-design to them. All that was in it for me was community involvement and to get a little exposure. I thought for sure the spokesperson for the organization would say yes - how could anyone turn down a free website by a professional? My forecasted problems only included wanting too many free services, and wanting it completed too fast. I was wrong.

The person I spoke with became very angry and accussed my of hating her website she had worked so hard to create. As I am a professional, I hope you assume I would say nothing of the sort. I quickly scrambled to tell her I, by no means, hated her website. That, again, I was simply looking to help a cause I believed in by offering my craft and, if all went well, gain a little exposure in the area. Needless to say, I had a bad taste in my mouth after the conversation was over.

This is how I learned that even if something comes free, a person will not take it if they don't want it. That I shouldn't waste my time trying to sell people on something they're not looking to buy - I shouldn't waste time trying to change someone's mind. Maybe it's not so common sense after all.

Getting Settled

Okay, so I'm still not entirely used to the idea of blogging yet, but I've heard from several sources that this is a good way to promote yourself and your business. Mainly, Dani Nordin of the Zen Kitchen, a small graphic and website design company that's dedicated to green design...very inspirational. I truly admire those who continuously do their part for the environment regardless of the latest "earth trend." Has anyone else noticed that no one seems to be seriously concerned with conservation until gas prices reach around $3 a gallon?

Back to my main point of discussion - green design. To give you a little info about me, I'm a graphic designer who just recently started my own company. We're settled in Hudson, which is a suburb of the Twin Cities, in Wisconsin. In setting up my business and deciding how I want to to go about my practices, I've been giving this green design thing a lot of thought. How great would it be if I could do my part, and help my clients do theirs as well. So in a nut shell, I added a page to my site (www.13thirtyone.com), but am leaving the door pretty open. Meaning, I don't know if I want to exclusively work with green printers and paper companies or not. What are your thoughts? Should going green be an "all-in" sort of gig, or is it okay to just give your clients options?

First Post

So...this is my first posting. You'll have to excuse the colors and slight lack of organization. I haven't gotten the chance to rearrange my new space yet, but thought it would be good to at least get a "tester" out there.

For more about 13thirtyone in the meantime, visit www.13thirtyone.com.