Do you have any advice for how to calculate prices for creative products or services?
There are two main approaches to pricing your work: a bottom-up approach and a top-down approach.
The Bottom-Up Approach
The bottom up approach creates a pricing formula based on the time, skill, and materials you put into a piece. It is usually the best approach for freelancers or other creative service providers. It looks like this:
Price = Freelance rate x Hours + Materials
Step 1: Calculate your freelance rate
Visit Freelance Switch to calculate what you need to charge in order to live comfortably based on your business … Read more »
Like many creative types these days, I’ve had to get a day job. It’s not that I’m getting fewer projects, it’s just that fewer of them pay much, if anything. When faced with the choice, I always go for the well-paying projects first, then fill my remaining time with the projects that pay in web traffic, nebulous future sales/commissions or “cred.” Unfortunately that’s been most of them lately. I’m pretty good about not taking on jobs that realistically won’t give me much of either.
My new job isn’t bad. It’s mostly tech-y admin stuff and it changes on a regular basis … Read more »
Fall is the beginning of my year. It always has been. In the first place, I’m Jewish, so I celebrate the new year in the fall rather than in January. I take stock and make my resolutions in the fall. Fall is also when school starts, and when people come back after having a long break. Fall is when I naturally feel compelled to start in new directions and when the economy begins to ramp up again.
This year my main goal is to take those new directions and make them more, um…directed. I’m trying to set clear, achievable goals for … Read more »
Time it takes to complete a project = Your most generous estimate that considers every single tiny part x 2.5
Reading my alma mater’s alumni magazine makes me feel bad about myself. I makes it seem as though all of my fellow alums are doing brave and amazing things — some of them at extremely young ages — while I sit here spinning my wheels. Web sites (blogs especially) also make me feel bad about myself. They present a world that is overflowing with creative people and all of them, including the hobbyists with non-art day jobs are more creative and prolific than me. No one will ever hire me in such a world.
It’s bad. I’ve been spending nearly two hours every morning reading … Read more »
