: How do you charge for extra non-design related services? I find it very difficult to charge clients for "extras." In my particular case this is usually consulting and copy writing. Clients expect

@Shelley591

Well... the Universe has a way of giving us things we didn't expect to receive which seems to be the case here. No matter HOW MUCH you stress the fact that you do designs, people for some reason naturally trust and seek you out for other things, DON'T BRUSH THAT AWAY!!! Investigate it more and add those services to your Business. I encountered the same exact thing with Business Development. You may want to shift from "Graphic Design" to "Corporate Identity" all together where you get paid to map all these things out for them.... THEN do the design work and get paid for that as well. Study more into that, I guarantee you're already pretty much doing that anyways without knowing it... Just GROW with the flow :)

Vote Up Vote Down

@Speyer780

Clients expect my input and often leave me with little to nothing to work with so I'm doing basically their sales pitch in addition to their deliverables.


This is your problem. Define in your scope of work what exactly you will provide and what exactly the client will provide. If the client is supposed to provide copy, spell out "Client will email a file with the copy for the flyer." Do not accept "Go get it off our website."

If the client is saying "Going to have Acme Co. print it out on some A4," create a Preflight Checklist and make them fill it out, or fill it out on the phone with them.

You have allowed your clients to train you to do their work. Push back.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Holmes874

Just raising my rates seems very difficult


It's pretty easy. Send out an email to your clients:

As of day X my normal hourly rates for work will be increasing from Y to Z.

You may lose a few clients, but eventually, you'll gain new ones that appreciate the work they're getting for the price.

One reason clients start asking you for all the extras is likely because you're inexpensive.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Murray976

Quote a price, then itemize on any estimate/invoice.

If a client sends a broad statement like you've posted....

First ask questions even if you know the answers to them:


Will you be providing the copy to use or is that something you want me to come up with?
Do you have high resolution images you'd like to provide?


Then respond with an itemized list of services and costs. "Okay, that'll be $XXX. Here's the breakout:"


Copy writing : $X
Editing: $X
Photo Retouching: $X
Stock Photography: $X
Design: $X
Total $X


(Be careful not to over itemize.)
You'd include this same break out on final invoices.

Even though they agreed upon the Total cost, asking targeted questions and showing the itemized list allows you room to raise rates based upon specific services. Get your clients used to seeing this break out. It not only assists in informing them about all you are doing for them, but that way later, when you price higher, it is clearly justified. And if they start balking at pricing, you can respond with "If you provide the copy to use, we can eliminate the fees for copy writing (or whatever)."

Vote Up Vote Down

@Smith574

It's not difficult to raise your rates if you can validate them. In your design brief or quote you should bill a few additional hours if you know you're spending time to develop content. I would look at your year-to-date projects and see if you can ball park the time spent wether it be in design, development, customer one-on-one. You should never cheat yourself or your hard time.

I believe it has also been discussed this is why some prefer to price and do jobs based on the particular project instead of hourly rates. Also, this helps when bidding by project. Normally when I bid on a project I give a project price based on what I see and I almost double that and I inform the client this is if there are issues with content, files, time not discussed, etc. etc. Same could be applied to hourly as in it could take you between four to nine hours depending on content. If I were you I would review your time spent and when you inform the client or price to a client you can this is for this. Either way you shouldn't be working for free, wether you add it to your design or on the brief bill it as something entirely different get paid for it.

Vote Up Vote Down