I finally understood why pricing feels so awkward after a talk with my dad

I was venting to my dad last night about how I didn't know what to charge for my first graphic design gig. He's been a mechanic for 30 years and never had to think about this stuff. He just looked at me and said "you're not selling the time, you're selling the result." That hit different because I've been stressing over hourly rates. For a logo I was gonna ask $50 but after he said that I realized the client is paying for a brand identity not 3 hours of clicking around. I raised my price to $150 and the client actually said yes without flinching. Has anyone else had a moment where someone outside your field made you rethink your whole pricing approach?

3 comments

3 Comments

grantc809d ago

Nailed it with that $150 move. Had the exact same lightbulb moment when my buddy's dad who runs a landscaping company told me "you charge for the yard, not the hours mowing." I was doing web design for $25 an hour and wondering why I was broke. Changed to flat project fees based on value and doubled my income overnight. The clients actually respect the work more when you price like you know what you're doing. Your dad gets it.

wesley6399d ago

Hold up, I mean it worked out for you obviously so fair play, but is that really some kind of universal truth or just a good story for people who already have clients willing to pay that? Feels like half the people I hear this advice from are in niche markets or already had enough of a reputation to pull it off, and the other half are just undercharging in a different way now. Not saying the idea is totally wrong, but I've seen way too many people hear this, bump their prices overnight, and then wonder why nobody bites.

jana5099d ago

Does it ever backfire when you price based on value without knowing what that value actually is to the client? I've seen too many people slap a flat fee on something and then eat hours of extra work because they didn't scope it right. Value pricing works great when you can clearly define the deliverable and the client sees the same value you do. But in web design, one client's "simple site" is another guy's "can you add this, this, and also here's five more requests." If you don't have a decent reputation or a portfolio that speaks for itself, that flat fee often just becomes a gamble on whether you get lucky.