How To Price Web Design Work – The Right Way!

As many web designers will tell you pricing their first website or any web design work for a client was tricky and may have felt a little awkward. In todays world the internet is where everything happens, everyone wants there own website which is great for designers as it gives us work however the common downfall is that everyone wants a great website done and are not prepared to pay for it. Well here I have put together a list of solid tips to go by when pricing web design.

Ways To Price

* Divide your Salary by the number of billable hours you spend on the clients project. – Whats my salary? You can find out your rough salary by going onto Salary.com

* Set yourself an Hourly Rate usually this would fall between £25 – £45 an hour depending on your experience and skill level, however be sure to tell your clients that the overall price covers X amount of hours. Hourly rates are probably the best way to go about prices as you can be clear from the start with your client that I charge X amount per hour I work on your project, be sure to note all the hours you work per day so this can be a document included with the invoice – Just to cover yourself and stop the client from disputing the price.

* Have set prices for you work - Having set prices for your web design work can be a good route to go, therefore when the client says they want a “10 page website with a flash gallery” its easy for you to say well I charge X amount for this many pages and X amount per flash gallery, this way you will have the ground rules set between you and you client and may make them think twice before they keep adding things to the project expected it for free as they know the exact prices of everything. *Be careful when setting fixed prices – be sure you set the prices knowing the time frame you can do the work in. Make sure the prices cover the time frame!

Add your Profit Margin! – This is a vital part of pricing for web design, if you think that the prices you set whether this be hourly, set prices or your salary divided by the billable hours you should be just charging what you need to cover the work thats been done with no gain. So now you have priced the work accordingly and you have covered the work been done its now time to bang on your profit margin. The percentage I usually fluctuate around 20% - Therefore I charge a project for £1500 this will cover the time and work that I have done now to add 20%. This now comes to £1800. Now you have covered yourself in every aspect and set yourself to gain the profit margin you’ve set yourself your onto a winner! Remember no one does anything for nothing.

Domains & Hosting – Don’t forget to add this to your bill, otherwise this will be coming out of your profit margin. Find them the best hosting fee’s for what they require also inform them that hosting can be paid either monthly or yearly and domains are paid yearly. Now you can either direct them to the link where they can set up there credit cards to pick up this bill or you can do it for them along as you are given the money accordingly however I would steer clear of this and advise them to do it themselves.

Website Updates - Lots of clients will like their website updated frequently or this and that changed every week and if not told otherwise will think it is your job to do so. The invoice they paid is for the work done not future ‘freebie’ updates etc. You will need to make this clear that when in the future they would like something changed, it will be charged at and hourly rate, usually falling between the price bands of £20-£35.

Stick To These Top Tips

• Make sure the price has been discussed and the client is happy with the way they will be invoiced before any work begins.
• When the client asks things to be changed or added be sure to tell them if it will cost them throughout the project – don’t hide any prices so they know what to expect on the invoice.
• Get at least 35% of the money upfront before any work is done. The last thing you want is for them to pull out after you have nearly finished leaving you with no money and a lot of wasted time!
• Be sure to show them what you’ve done halfway through so they have a rough idea if they like it or not. Don’t leave it until the last minute and have them hating it!
• Communicate as often as possible, email them at the end of each day telling them what point you are at. This makes them feel part of the project and keeps them in the picture.
• Always be polite and professional. Clients and designers often disagree often because designers usually think there way is better which is understandable as you are the professional – however remember its not your website your doing, it’s your clients.
• Let them know when you will be sending the invoice and give them a time frame to pay the remaining sum of money.
• Future updates and maintenance to the site is your time and time is money – be sure to be clear that future updates and maintenance will be charged at an hourly rate. (£20-£35)
• Finally remember that time is money.

Blog Themes, CMS & SEO

Remember that blog themes such as WordPress and CMS websites are more complex, always state this and tell them that it will cost more than and standard static HTML & CSS website. I tend to start my prices for blog themes from £1500 – this will consist of the design and coding (php) of the theme. SEO is another feature that most designers charge for. The prices I usually charge is at a per page rate of around £30 – £45.

Help, I Never Discussed A Price!

A common scenario that happends a lot to web designers that start off is that they agree to do a website for a client and never dicuss a price, they put all there effort into it as its there first project and show the client all there skills by using features such as jQuery or anything they’ve learnt. So then it comes to the bill, they put an invoice in for what you feel is according and the client doesn’t like the price (very common) the client will then try to pay you less – so what do you do?

• Tell them that you feel that you have charged for the work accordingly.
• Tell them that they can save money by not having things such as ‘SEO or jQuery Effects’
• Explain to them that you have priced by an option above i.e. Hourly.
• If you have made a note of the hours you’ve put in show that to them.
• Stick by your price at the end of the day you have the leverage as you have the site that they want.

Clients will usually say they’ve had quotes for lower, this shouldn’t bother you as you shouldn’t be compared to other designers, some people are going to charge higher and lower. This happens in any profession – Stick by your price.

If they still don’t like the price ask what they would be willing to pay and try and split the difference – a figure in between your invoice price and the price they are willing to pay. Sometimes you may just have to bite the bullet and take the price they will pay. I know this is not what you want however you will never make that mistake again. You may even get some sites through that one so its not all bad news. My advice would be next time stick to the tips above.

Make Your Invoices Professional

Make your invoices stand out from the rest by doing this you conduct your work and attitude in a positive professional manner, plus it’s just a nice little touch. Programs such as Billing3 inside of Mac OS X – Billing3 helps you seamlessly create stunning professional invoices and receipts in minutes.

So there you have it, some solid tips to help you price your web deisgn work and keep you and you’re client on the same page! Have any advice/tips of your own? Be sure to share them by commenting and I will add them to the list!