Hi Taylor
When I started my design company a few years ago [1997] I'd worked in
the industry for a number of years for different companies in
different countries; so it wasn't new territory for me. I knew how
much each of my previous companies had charged their clients for
design and photography work. I also knew what I was doing in terms of
design and layout design; how long something would/should take me to
do; whereas you're going into this without experience.
The first *golden* rule is to establish when you change from charging
a page rate to charging a job rate. In order to establish this figure
you'll need to have a vague idea how long a particular job is going to
take you to do...or someone else if you plan to sub-contract. Also,
how is the material being supplied by your clients? Are they going to
supply you with Word files for text or are you going to do the typing?
Will you be scanning the photographs you take or will this be
out-sourced? And so on...
Let's say your doing a 16 page brochure with three scanned images per
page; text supplied on disk to a pre-defined template. A good hourly
rate for this would be $90.00 per hour. It shouldn't take a good
designer any longer than 4 hours to do so you'd bill $360.00. Most
clients would be happy to pay this sum.
If, though, you're happy to earn $360.00 for doing this but decided to
charge a page rate instead, then $22.50 per page doesn't sound too
appealing..except to your client:-). At the same time a $90.00 page
rate would end up costing your client $1440.00 which may be a little
too pricey.
Compare that to a 2 page A4 flyer for the local pub. Three scans per
page, text supplied on a piece of paper and the client has absolutly
no idea what sort of design he wants; i.e. no pre defined template.
You'll probably need to supply three of four different designs,
swapping photo placements, fonts, colors etc for each version. This is
going to take you a bit longer than four hours so the $90.00 per hour
fee might end up costing your client 10 x $90.00 = $900.00. Does this
sound feasible? Would you pay $900.00 for a flyer design?
I can't give you precise guidance as to when to change from one option
to the other; it depends on the client, their budget, your overheads
for the month etc.
What advise I can give is to calculate how much you *need* to earn a
day; the "boxclever" school of economics if you like. I forget where I
learned this but it came in good stead for me when I started up.
Example : I want to earn $8000 per month for a 35 hour, five day week.
I want 5 weeks holiday per year plus public holidays. I'd be working
240 days per year 7 hours per day. That's 1680 hours work per year for
an annual remuneration of $96000.00. That equals $57.14 per hour.
On top of this add ALL overheads..taxes, purchases, computer equipment
and so on. Let's argue that this equals $25.00 [I'm probably way off
before someone screams...]
The minimum hourly rate is therefore $82.14. For the sixteen page
catalogue that will take 4 hours to do you'd invoice $328.00. Not far
off the original $360.00 mentioned above. The extra $31.00 will help
cover for the hours you don't work - [travelling to clients, on the
phone, lunches etc].
Remember though, your minimum fee calculated is $82.14! Spend ten
hours doing a job for $200.00 and you're on a losing streak!
Now turning our attention to photography. I *hope* you're an
accomplished photogrpaher if you're going to be taking professional
photographs for company X and their product catalogue. The finished
result is only as good the original elements supplied. You'll be the
"newbie" supplying the original elements!
It's expensive. Or at least it should be expensive. Please don't think
you can just buy a 50c digital camera and presto become a professional
photographer. It ain't that easy. I dabbled and I lost...big time.
Especially when your third question comes into the
equation...printing, or rather managing the printing for your client.
I hope someone else can give advise about hourly/daily rates for
photography.
Ok, so managing the printing requirements too. Obvioulsy out-sourced,
so you just add a % to the quotation from the printers. My fixed rate
was 20% on the quote. But if you take charge of the print, you take
responsibility for the printing errors too. If your files are bad and
the result is bad you need to be prepared not to be paid by your
client yet you'll have to pay your supplier. You lose..twice. If your
supplier lets you down [late delivery] and your client loses an
opportunity be prepared to pay compensation. You lose...again...booo.
All I can say is, Taylor, that it's not easy. It gets easier around
year three.Hurrah!
As for me, my idea of a 35 hour week quickly became 135 hour weeks, no
holiday [NOT even public, god dammit], pi$$ed off wife and kids, and
the $90K sort of dropped closer to the $20k mark. Boo.
I didn't *box clever* for about two years. And I said I knew what I was doing?
Good luck.
Sean |
