How to Price Freelance Design Work — Without Undercharging

If the money conversation makes your stomach drop, this one's for you. After 25 years as a designer, I'm sharing exactly how I price my work — not by the hour, but by the value it creates — and the brave questions to ask before you ever say a number.

Here's what we get into:

• Why you're not bad at money — you're just scared of the conversation
• The phone call that told me I was "hurting the industry" by charging too little
• Why having a baby made me switch from hourly to project-based pricing
• What value-based pricing actually means, and how to explain your worth
• Chris Do's "price the client, not the job" — the exact questions to ask every time
• My real steps: your private floor, one project price, three options, deposits in stages
• Why you should never drop your price (cut the scope instead)
• Design days — the fun, slightly glamorous way to charge
• The one thing nobody teaches us at design school: communication

Prefer to read it? The full written version — every step, laid out — is in the show notes on my site:

Shownotes and all the tools are here.

If it helped, leave a review and subscribe. It's how another designer finds this and feels a little less alone in it.

Want the tools? I'm building the Studio Desk and the Beyond Design membership to take the guesswork out of pricing for good. Get on the waitlist: https://kunshuis.com/membership

I'm Nelett — designer of 25 years, here to show you that freelancing and design isn't difficult. It's small things, done right, consistently.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Hi, and if you're new here, I'm Nalet, a designer with over 25 years in this industry. I'm here to show you that freelancing and design isn't difficult. It's small things done right consistently. That's really the whole secret. Today we're talking about how to price your freelance design work. Now years ago, my phone rang. It was another designer. And the message was more or less like, Nalate, you're hurting the industry. You charge too little. You're making the rest of us look bad. And I sat there thinking, how dare you? Because guess what? They never asked me. They never asked me what I actually wanted. They just assumed we all wanted the same thing. The big studio, the big rate, the long client list, the team, the office, the name on the door. I didn't want any of that. I never wanted a studio that blew up into something huge with staff and overheads and a diary I didn't recognize. I wanted a studio that let me be creative on my own term, on my own way. Doing work I actually love. I needed enough. Enough work, enough turnaround, enough money to live the life I wanted. And I had it. So no, I wasn't hurting the industry. I was running my business to fit my life. Those are the very, very two different things. And nobody gets to decide which one is right for you. But then something changed. And it wasn't a business decision, it was a baby. When I hired my son, my whole model fell apart overnight. All those small jobs, the quick high turnaround work that kept me financially strong, I couldn't do them anymore. There just weren't enough hours in the day. Not with a newborn on my hip or on my side. But I could do one big project, one proper piece of work priced well that took its time. I could invoice it in stages, on a schedule, on my terms, and suddenly it clicked. Project based pricing, not hourly, because hourly punished me for the very thing that made me good, being fast. Then came my second baby in even fewer hours, and project pricing didn't just make sense anymore, it saved me. So how do you actually price yourself as a freelancer? Here's the hard part. We don't sell a thing, we're not a factory, there's no cost of material plus a markup. Service work is always an open target because there's nothing physical to point to and say, that is why it costs this. A client has to trust they're paying for a skill. Same as they trust a plumber, a builder, accountant, the photographer. You have a specialized ability and how on earth do you put a number on that? You price it in value. And I know value is one of those words people throw around. So let me tell you what I actually mean by it. Value is the impact your work has after you've handed it over. It's what your work keeps doing long after you've been paid and moved on. Say you design a packaging. The value isn't the pretty label. The value is the shopper who spots it on a shelf, picks it up and buys it, and does it again and again and again. That recognition turns into sales. Sales keep a business alive. That's your work still working years later. I've got logos and branding out there that clients are still using 10 years on. Ten years of that business being recognized, trusted, chosen. Off the back of something that I charge, let's say 2500 for ten years of value for one small invoice. So please stop seeing your work as just an hour of your time. Stop seeing it as less than. Think about the man who designed the the I Love New York logo, Milton Glazer. He did it for free, never took a cent, and it became one of the most recognized images on the planet, with who knows for what? For decades for that city. Or the Nike Swish. It was designed by a young woman, Caroline Davidson, back when she was still a student. Do you know what she got paid? thirty five dollars. Only thirty five for Mark that now sits on billions of shoes and means something to people without even a single word next to it. thirty five dollars okay she got stock now as well. But that's the whole gap between price and value. It's just right there. That car branding that turns heads and brings leads, the value of that has no ceiling. None. So how do you find the nerve to charge properly? Well honestly it's practice. That the thing that you do is worth paying for. But I'm not going to leave you on a feeling. You want steps, something to hold on to, and you're right. Charge for the value is lovely, but it's useless on a Tuesday when a client is sitting there waiting for a number. So I went and looked at how the people I really admire in the industry do this. There's a man called Chris Doe. He runs a whole platform called The Future. He built a serious design studio before that, and he says something I wish someone kind of explained to me earlier. You price the client, not the job. That's exactly what I've been doing all these years. I just never had the words for it. So what does all of this mean? Value-based pricing. It kind of starts by not saying a number yet. You ask questions first. You get curious about their business instead of counting up the hours it will take. So I know it sounds a bit vague, but let me show you what that actually means. So firstly, if they say they want a logo, ask them what do you want this to do for you? Because nobody actually won only the logo. They want people to trust them, they want to be remembered, let them tell you in their own words. Then ask how they'll know it worked after you've designed the logo. Will it be more sales, more people phoning? Or is that they they finally look good enough to charge what they should be charging? Whatever it is, let them say it out loud, not you. Then ask what's that worth to them? So if this brings in fifty more clients, what does that do for your business? And then go quiet. And they'll tell you. And now there's a number. It's not your number, it's theirs. You didn't make it up, they did. And then you price against that number. Chris Doe says a fair cut is somewhere around 10 to 20% of that value you're helping them to create, which I love, because now you're not just guessing anymore. You're taking a fair slice of the money you're about to help them make. That's not cheeky. That's really, really fair. And honestly, that's a bit that changed everything for me. When your price comes from their value instead of your own nerves, the whole conversation feels different. You stop apologizing. Now the actual mechanics, the stuff that goes on in my head every time. Number one, know your flaw, which is your bottom price quietly. You don't sell it to anyone. For example, I know a logo takes me about eight hours. Eight hours times my rate, and there's the bottom line. That's the number I won't go under. But the client never sees that number. Never. That's the one just for me. Number two, then I go into the quoting program and I write out the whole job they want, I add that bottom line number and never per hour on my quote. One number, one rate. Because the minute someone sees an hourly rate, they start watching the clock. They start wondering why is it taking six hours and not four? And then you get punished for being quick, which is mad because being quick took you years to learn. Now after I've added it to my quoting program, I sit back and I think, what is the value? What is the value for the person I just met? What is it going to keep doing for them long after we've moved on? And who am I actually talking to? Is it a big client with a proper budget? Or is it a small startup with more heart than budget? And I go up and I come a bit down depending on the type of client. There is a bit of feeling in this and a little bit of strategy. That's fine. That is part of this job. And then number four, I give them three options, not just one. A small one, a middle, and a proper full, full project. So for example, it might number one be a logo and a business card, number three is a logo, business card, email signature, and social media graphics, and the fourth one will be all of the above, plus a bit of brand strategy, or a few other collateral items. Because now they're not deciding a yes or no. They can decide on options and they get to feel in control. And I'll tell you, nine out of ten, they never go for the cheapest. And now number five, always, deposit up front. If they go for the bigger one, work out a payment schedule and get paid as the project goes along. You're not a bank, get paid as you work. And when they say that a lot, and someone always does, please don't panic and drop your price. It's the worst thing you can do because it tells them that the first number were made up. Just explain the value again. Or if you really have to take something out, less work, less money. You never cut your price, you cut the scope. Remember that one. And that's value-based pricing. And then there's a fun one you can also try. This one I've never tried myself, but I won't do. It's called design days or VIP days. I love how it sounds. You clear your whole diary, one client, one full day, just you and that project, start to finish everything you've got. And the wonderful thing about this is they clear their schedule, you clear your schedule, and you're there for each other for that one project. Usually smaller projects like a flyer or collateral branding, smaller things, obviously not a whole brand strategy in one day. But that's a wonderful way of quoting the client for the whole day and getting paid by the end of the day, and the client gets the work at the end of the day. I love that. Isn't that so clean? Kind of walking into a shop and walking out with your milk. Just quick. I love that principle. Now, here's the one thing that kind of glues everything together when it comes to quoting your work. It's communication all the way, always. Don't go quiet. When you're pricing, when you're working, when there's a delay, talk to the client. Show your thinking, explain the why. Educate your client gently the whole way along. Because silence is where your client sits and one is what are they paying for? Show up and explain. And then the price stops being a fight and starts being obvious. I've had clients come sit right next to me while I worked. I didn't like that, but some really insisted. And then by the end of the project or the changes we did, they were like, I'd never realized how much work this is. Design and business should work hand in hand. In August, I launched the studio desk. And there's a part of it that I'm absolutely excited about. It's the finance section. This is where you sit down and actually work out your price. It's not a generic calculator of the internet. It's not average numbers scraped from a thousand strangers who don't do what you do. It's my method, the exact why I price. You literally put in the brief and it gives you instant feedback on how to price it. This is not some generic tool telling you what the market says. It's me, my work, my knowledge, my 25 years, my gut feeling, the way I feel about a job, my words, all of it built in for you. Obviously, you use your industry, your season of life, the area in the world that you're from to just make sure it is on point, but it's this 100% guidance, so you don't have to thumb stuck everything. It's like having me sitting right there next to you while you quote, going, yes, that feels right, or no, you're going way too low. Instantly, I'm in your corner. It's based on how I would actually do it. Oh, that's something that I wanted when I started. I Googled every day how to price my work. So this is not more information. It's really from someone who've done it. Right there, sitting virtually beside you, saying, you're worth more than that. I'm working on the digital planner for good notes, a membership coming later this year, which I kind of want to call not membership, just the studio. It's coming later this year or early next year. It's where you go properly deep on all the things together. Because I mean it when I say I want you to enjoy this, to love what you do, to make good money doing it on your terms, without burning yourself out to get there. So that's how you price your freelance design work without undercharging yourself into the ground. Ask before you quote, price the client, not the job. Give them options, charge for the value, never drop your price, drop the scope of work, and talk the whole way through. If this helped you even a little bit, please leave a review and subscribe. It's a small thing, but it is how another designer finds this and feels a bit less alone in all of this. So until next time, remember it's not difficult, it's really small things done right consistently. Talk again soon. Bye.