Deciding on fees for freelance design work

November 18, 2019 7:57 AM

How do freelance designers charge appropriate rates for custom jobs? Snowflakes inside.

I am just delving into the world of graphic design, and have been putting together a website (myfullname.com) using sqaurespace. I am not HTML or other code savvy so I am pretty happy with using squarespace to do all the technical things for me while I simply mess with the content and aesthetics. The primary purpose of the site right now is to showcase the work I've done so far in a permanent and professional way, with the portfolio pieces as the main highlight, while I apply for jobs. For right now it's very simple, with just "portfolio", "experience", "about", and "contact" pages. This is currently my upper limit of bandwidth for and knowledge of website design.

My roommate is concurrently starting a business as a career coach, has no website yet, and when she heard I was building my own website, she said she really likes my aesthetic and would be happy to pay me "a going rate" to help design it in squarespace for her.

Here are her exact words in an email: "What I'd REALLY love is for you to create the basic architecture of the website, but then teach me how to update things. About - Services - Resources - Contact. I can get the text and images for each of those sections." She mentioned also to me verbally she'd be happy to pay either per hour or by the project, whichever I prefer.

I would like to accept this gig and I'd like to be paid fairly. I do think it would be good experience for me and good addition to my portfolio. I am having trouble deciding on how to pitch it to her and how much to charge though. I am visualizing some options:

Option 1 - project fee $X ($200?) or hourly fee ($50 per hour?)- Sit with her and walk through how she wants the website to look, and walk through each step of my process with her to create the website with her.

Option 2 - project fee $Y ($100?) or hourly fee ($50 per hour?)- Do most of the work myself to set up the basic architecture in a design of my choosing (1 hour), and do a basic tutorial with her to show her what I did and hand the keys over to her.

Other options???

I am really having trouble with the next steps. Are my amounts about on par with going rates? I just made them up based on gut feeling. Do I pitch all above options to her and get her input to decide? Do I estimate the time it will take, with my hourly rate fixed, and create an invoice for her to approve? How do I set my hourly rate? Is there a forum/website other than askmefi to bounce these kind of questions and ideas off of design professionals?

I'm a verbal processor, so I'm grateful for askmefi input, but am stumped as to how to move forward both on this one and on future design jobs. I don't want to run to askmefi every time someone asks me to do paid design work for them.

Thanks in advance.

posted by seemoorglass to Work & Money (3 answers total)

So, this is not business advice because this arrangement is outside of the bounds of a regular business relationship and should not be foundational for what you would charge someone else going forward. I have a somewhat dim view of the “life coach, career coach” industry so this may color my advice somewhat. Here are the only two options I would recommend having done work in the past for friends and family (and continue to do so). The closer the relationship, the less I charge, and in this scenario, I would assume: your roommate will be hard to work with, no matter the agreement you won’t collect all of the money and possibly none of it, if you do collect money it won’t be without damage to the relationship. Your options are:

1-one-time, very low payment with specific scope: I will spend x hours setting up the site and will provide x hours of ongoing support. Charge a very nominal fee like, “$250.” Or “cover my part of the electric and water bill this month.” Don’t forget to put your name in the site footer so you can start building your portfolio.

2-trade skills. She’ll help you with her career coaching and you’ll help her with her site. Again, set up the scope. She’ll work you through her process and you’ll give her X hours.
posted by amanda at 8:53 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm a graphic designer, specializing in type design and font creation. (So I can't really help with pricing for web design.)

The most valuable resources I've found for setting prices are: [1] others in the field who are open to discussing money (though as with a lot of fields, these people are hard to find), and [2] the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook. (They do a new version about every 5 years or so; the newest 15th edition is from 2018, so it's still very fresh.) Be aware in advance, the suggested pricing in here will shock you with how high it is, because we're all used to scraping for gigs and drastically underpricing ourselves.

I have done websites in the past, though it's been over a decade and the technology has passed me by. That said, the thing that would make me not take a job the fastest would be any variation of "make the site, then teach me to maintain it." The teaching will be the most time-consuming and frustrating part, and it will not end when you think it does. They'll come back repeatedly for refreshers, and "I don't remember how...", and "can you just do X, it's faster if you do it." And it could possibly end the friendship. (Ask me how I know.)
posted by themissy at 9:06 AM on November 18, 2019 [3 favorites]

UX designer (formerly web designer) here. $50/hour is a good rate for a web designer, but too high in my opinion for someone just customizing Squarespace with no professional web design experience. You are savvy with the tools, great! As you probably realize, knowing how to *do* Squarespace is not actually design, just as knowing how to *do* Photoshop doesn't make someone a designer either. $50/hour seems too high to ask your roommate to pay, and you are way underestimating the hours required to build a good website. One of the frustrations of just starting out is that you really don't know what you don't know, making it hard to estimate how many hours a seemingly simple project will take you. If I were to hire you as a web designer at that hourly rate, I would expect you to have the following:

• A full written project proposal and estimate, including scope of work
• Awareness of how long tasks will take for you to complete
• Ability to organize content/information into clear visual hierarchy
• Ability to create multiple options for distinct visual design systems that the client can choose from to match their needs
• Ability to ask the right questions to get to a design solution the client likes
• Ability to listen and react to client feedback with an open mind
• Ability to customize templates so they don't look like off-the-shelf solutions
• Awareness of all the other CMS options out there and why someone should use Squarespace
• Ability to build a site using other CMS options
• Content strategy & management
• Knowledge of typography (history, trends, composition, readability)
• Color theory
• Accessibility
• SEO best practices
• HTML & CSS
• Setting up a domain

People go through full degree programs to learn this stuff, and yes, it's also possible to learn it on your own, and that will take dedicated time and experience with some screwups along the way. So, in the absence of the above qualifications, I would agree with amanda above and suggest a barter arrangement or nominal fee, since your roommate is also starting out her career. Think of it as a learning experience and if it helps, try to visualize how much that experience is worth to you. For example, would you design that website in exchange for a really nice dinner at a restaurant ($250 gift certificate) and the experience of learning how to design a website for a client? Could be a good deal for you, assuming that you have the time to spare and it doesn't risk your friendship too much.

Best of luck to you!
posted by oxisos at 2:00 PM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]