3 Cool Ways To Charge Clients For Web Design Services

Figuring out the figures is probably the most difficult task, especially for a creative person like you. You love your job and you can do it for free. Right?

It is absolutely impractical! For money does matter in long run, no matter how rich your father is.

Don’t shy away your hesitation in quoting price before client. You sometimes feel obliged to get paid more than you expected, while in the next minute you might feel like fooled by your client. This sense of dissonance would continue to haunt you until you come and sit on the driving seat. It is your business, your skills then who is going to decide what you deserve? It is only you. This article is here to get you through the market trends.

Do Your Homework To Avoid Mispricing Your Services

You cannot ask for money for your services without pre-planning. Does it sound weird to plan for the prices? It really should not.

On the contrary, you should sound confident while giving the prices against each of your service. It is obvious that in absence of proper reasoning and brainstorming you cannot sound confident before a client. Many rookie designers share their stories of pricing or rather mispricing. One of them said, when he started last assignment he was more than happy but as he dug deep into the client’s requirement, he realized it was a mistake.

You have to consider the fact that amid hundred designers the client has approached you or you may have approached them. But the point is you guys are in discussion which means you have got a fair opportunity to earn good money.

Instead of being quite comfortable with the pricing of your services, you should be on the other side. A bit of discomfort with the price you mentioned ensures there is scope of dealing with the inevitable challenges while building a website.

On the other hand, if you are too comfortable with the prices you are charging, chances are high that you would likely feel pressurized and frustrated as the assignment progresses.

Key is to charge a price that you think is a bit high because as you will approach towards the finish line you will understand it was actually the price what it deserved. And once you deliver couple of projects successfully, you get ready for a raise in your prices.

Sundry Ways To Charge Client For Building Website

Three good ways are discussed below for your understanding and perusal. Each one of them has its own set of pros and cons. Let’s scrutinize them one by one for your ease.

a) Hourly Rates

Name of this method is self-explanatory here. When mutually agreed upon, client pays the designer according to the number of hours he has worked for. This method is not only simple and straight but also quite popular in industry. Moreover, many businesses prefer to pay designers on an hourly basis.

A distinctive figure for an hour of work is pre decided and then by the time assignment is completed and delivered, designer keeps an account of hours, he has given in building client’s website. For keeping genuine track of time, consider using time tracker. Client may or may not ask for evidence; you should though be ready for it. Product of the hours worked for and the price rate is the money designer earns in such scenario.

Plus point(s)

• This method is client friendly because it is not at all cumbersome and hence is commonly used across the industry.
• It is attractive for designers too. Even novice freelancer designers feel comfortable to charge their clients on hourly basis as they might not know how long it will take to accomplish the assignment; they still can calculate and get rationally paid for hours spent.

Minus point(s)

• Expect the inevitable interference from your client. It is seen when you bill your client on an hourly basis, he is more concerned about the hours and bill charged instead of the quality of work you do.
• For client, time spent becomes more important than value delivered in that time period. Additionally, you are intentionally or unintentionally, compared with other designers. For example, you may be asked why you are taking 40 odd hours to complete a website whereas your friend got it done for him in one day that equals 24 hours.
• Client may also be bothering you, time and again, by questioning about the total bill till date.

b) Flat Rates

When you follow one single flat rate for designing a website, it comes to you easy. Well, it comes as a great responsibility too. The client would get ready to pay what you ask for but in exchange he would expect remarkable ROI from the designer.

You should proffer true value of money to your client for they have invested their trust besides, money and time. Some designers who build client websites on flat rates create a range of web design packages. This enables them to make websites available to their clients with some variations. For up scaling the website, you can charge a bit more within that range or slab.

Plus point(s)

• This method, unlike the previous one, gives more scope to web designers to focus on work. There are minimum involvements from client’s end and hence you are set free to fly in the vast sky of creativity.
• Secondly, you can earn more as the client is giving you room to perform. You can charge more if you are providing them something better.
• Moreover, designers can work more efficiently as they find out better ways to minimize efforts and maximize the output. Anything, which does not demand creativity, can be turned into a template. Repeated things are left to templates and designers channel all their efforts to creative aspects of the website.

Minus point(s)

• Charging a flat rate is possible for only the experienced designers. New designers may not be able to justify and convince their clients for paying that much.
• Clients are only ready to pay flat rate to the designers who have their proof to back up. In other words, clients listen to those designers whose experiences speak up for them.

C) Monthly Rates

This method also suggests charging your client one time. The only difference is that here you cannot bill client for building website that is one time but you can do it for the recurring web services.

It proves worth it for the companies or designers who provide end to end web solutions to their clients.

Plus point(s)

• It is a fantastic method to retain clients for longer period of time.
• Money keeps coming in even if you do not do anything new.

Minus point(s)

• It takes longer and harder to convince clients for the same.
• Again, you have to have relevant experience of additional services you are willing to proffer. Also you need to learn a new skill set to perform tasks which you may not knew so far.

Earning fair wages from your clients is quite in your hand, no matter you are a web designer or a web design and development company itself. Just understand which of the above discussed pricing methods work for you or it can work for you as an amalgamation.

It may sound difficult but it is worth it, to properly plan and price your services.

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