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How Much Should You Charge Your Clients? #EspressoMonday Nr. 6

Posted: 09 Feb 2015 12:40 AM PST

#EspressoMonday Episode Nr.6

Coffee, Charges, Contracts, and CMS

It’s #EspressoMonday again and here’s another dose of Question and Answer video to start your week. In this episode, we will tackle pricing, contracts, and being a jack-of-all trades. Curious about the answer? Let’s jump into it with a cup of coffee in your hands.

Question #1

How do you decide how much should you charge your clients?

First of all, you should not charge base on the number of pages you have created. Conversely, the price should not be the first thing you should discuss with your clients. Instead, you should focus more on what your clients need and what it is they want to achieve. Understand your client’s goals and needs first in order to create a design that suits that goal and need.

Don’t just go for a design because it is popular or cool to look at. The primary goal you should have in mind is how to solve your client’s pain points. Moreover, when you understand what their purpose is, you are also increasing your value to your clients. Why? Because you are setting yourself up to be the answer to their need or their purpose and goal.

Another important thing that you should not forget is to ask what their budget is together with their purpose. Thus, you are making them realize how much they are willing to invest in their purpose. Call that some sort of psychological manipulation but in a positive way because you are taking away the pressure from yourself how much the project should cost.

Truth is, your clients always have always a budget because businesses always have a financial plan. Most of the time, clients ask how much you charge first in order to get a discount. But by asking what their needs are and how much they are willing to invest, you are turning the tables and preventing yourself from under-pricing your value.

Question #2

When do you start using Contracts and Terms of Agreements in projects aside from the regular email correspondence?

When it comes to Contracts and Agreements, you can always ask the advice of a lawyer how you should proceed in crafting the contract. You don’t need to go overboard and furnish a 10-page contract. Instead, a simple contract and agreement which outlines you and your client’s expectations and responsibilities is enough.

It should also mention what type of responsibilities are included in the budget because most often than not, client’s will always try to squeeze everything from you to get every penny’s worth of what they pay for.

Moreover, contracts prevents you from getting sidetracked. What this means is some clients will always ask little favors that are not part of the project. With contracts, however, you are able to determine which are the priority and which are not.

When crafting a contract, some of the most important things to include aside from the pricing or rate are:

Payment schedule – Do you get paid in half now and half later after the project is finished? Or do you get paid in 3 installments or any kind of payment scheme you and your client would agree on.
Single Point of Contact – This is important if your client is an organization or company. Who should do all the feedback and revision requests?
Cancellation Fee – What if your client suddenly cancels the project and you are already half-way with it? This prevents wasting all the time and effort you have invested in the project.
Revisions – How many revisions are included for that certain budget?

Question #3

What is the best route if I know a little about a lot of things? What’s the next step – CMS?

There is no problem about knowing a little a lot or being a jack of all trades. Contrary to popular opinion, you can use this to your advantage by being able to partner effectively with other professionals.

When you know a little about a lot, it gives you an opportunity to get an extra hand into your team and delegate the task to them because you know about the task you have just delegated, you know what to expect as well as the process and effort that goes into it.

With regards to learning CMS, the answer is certainly YES. When it comes to Content Management Systems, I would highly recommend WordPress because it is like a teacher where it enables you to learn from inside out. Why? Because once you install WordPress together with X Theme or Genesis Framework, it is already working but if you want to modify or customize the site, you can tap into the code and change it according to your preferences.