How do you rate?

How do you rate? is a good article explaining how designers should determine their hourly rate. Web design (or graphic design) is a business, just like any other. You would think this would be an overly obvious statement, but many designers under-price their work. Not by a little. To quote from the above article: “A better way to approach the problem is figuring out your bottomline: where you need to be to really make money. Go below this point and you’re paying your client for the honor of working for them.” I’ve been there - and it ain’t pretty.

I’m on a few web design forums and email lists, one thing that many designers seem to struggleweb designer with, in regards to pricing and offering design quotes, is how long it actually takes them to do a job. If you’ve been pricing by the project, and taking a wild guess at how much time it will take you, and then not actually tracking your time spent, you may be very surprised at how long a web site really takes to build. Each designer is different, works at different rates of speed, it can also depend on what tools they use, etc….., but if you figure in the whole scope of any project, I would think one would be hard pressed to complete an average sized eCommerce web site (3-5 pages and a dozen products) in under 40 billable hours.

So what is the “whole scope” of a web design project? Great question, and this can also vary from one designer to the next, but generally a project goes like this:

  1. Initial contact with the client. They find you, your web site or are referred, fill out your web design quote form or worksheet and you discuss their web design needs. You provide them with a design quote. While this is time spent for you, it is generally considered a free consultation.
  2. So the above scenario goes well, the client agrees to your quote, you then send them a contract to sign and request 50% of the quoted price as a deposit/retainer*
  3. You are now on the clock: you begin working on design mockups for the client. This can take a little time, or a lot, depending on how much information you gathered from your web design worksheet and/or email/phone conversations with the client as to what they want for their web site.
  4. You provide the mockups for the client. Further changes are done to finalize the design the client wants.
  5. The design aspects have been agreed upon, then you proceed to actually building the site. Installing scripts/software for the site, navigation, store and other site features the client has requested.
  6. Customizing the scripts/software: this can often take a great deal of time to make the eCommerce store (blog or whatever) look like the rest of the site.
  7. Adding content. This is where you plug in their text content, photos, add their products and that information. Often this will also involve optimizing photos and proof-reading content. This process can actually take the longest, if you have to wait for clients to send you content. Your not “on the clock” so to speak if you’re not actually working on the site, but this can be a frustrating part of design work, waiting for the content to arrive.
  8. SEO: usually, it is best to provide basic SEO during the site building process. Again, if you’ve asked for basic SEO information in your web design worksheet, then you know their target market, keyword phrases, etc… and need to be optimizing each page of the site as it’s built. *Note: some designers do not provide this service, or do so for an additional fee that the client may opt not to pay for initially.
  9. Finishing touches: after the client reviews the site, there are often small changes or finishing touches to do before going live.
  10. Site is finished, you request final payment and then the site goes live!
  11. If you are providing SEO, then you would submit the site to search engines decided upon by you and the client, and also find relevant backlinks to the site. *Note: remember to add this time spent into your design quote and/or bill them for this service separate.

There can be many variables to the above, but this is a basic outline of how the web site building process works. It takes time! Time, and your knowledge and experience, is what designers are paid for. We provide a service. Not unlike doctors and lawyers.

*Deposit or retainer: the term retainer more accurately describes that initial payment received from a client; if you are truly billing by the hour and not by the project. A retainer is a portion of an estimated amount for a given job. However, true billable hours may exceed the estimated amount. So too, the estimated amount may come in lower, and the additional funds needed may be less than the total quoted. Some designers work in additional retainers, or pay-out times, within their design contracts. So if the intial retainer has been met with billable time, and the project is not yet finished, the designer may then require an additional retainer. This is how lawyers bill for their time.

So whether you price your work by the project or billable hour, remember: you are a business. You need to act like a business and price accordingly.

January 1, 2006 | Filed Under The Water Cooler | Leave a Comment 

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