Talking to my neighbor made me question my whole pricing setup

I was walking my dog yesterday and ran into my neighbor, who runs a small landscaping business. He asked how my freelance graphic design was going and I mentioned I was swamped but broke. He looked at me and said, 'You're charging by the hour, aren't you?' I admitted I was, at $45 an hour. He just shook his head and said, 'I did that for years. You need to charge for the value of the project, not your time. A logo is worth $500 to a business starting up, whether it takes you 2 hours or 10.' It hit different because he's not in my field but understands the service-for-money struggle. How do you figure out what a project is actually worth to a client?

4 comments

4 Comments

emeryc213mo ago

I started by looking at what other designers in my city charge for a full brand package. My first value based project was for a local coffee shop, I charged $1200 for a logo, menu design, and social media graphics. They told me later they got three times that in new business from the rebrand. That showed me the price wasn't about my hours, it was about their return. Now I ask clients what their goals are and base my quote on that outcome.

susansingh3mo ago

Why do we always forget our own work has real value? I used to charge like I was selling my time at a yard sale. Hearing that coffee shop story is a solid reminder to price the fix, not the clock.

emeryj662mo ago

I mean, sometimes the clock is part of it though. If a fix takes a week of my life, that has to matter too.

emeryj663mo ago

Honestly, your neighbor nailed it. You have to stop thinking about your time and start thinking about their problem. What's it worth to them to have it fixed? A good logo is the face of their whole business. That's worth way more than a few hours of clicking around. You gotta ask what the result means for their bottom line.