How to Price Your Work

Theresa Stone

Jason Blumer is no fly-by-night guy; he’s the chief innovation officer of an accounting firm that caters to creative pros. So when he recommends that you price your work higher than you do now, it pays (literally) to listen.
And he doesn’t just say, “Price by the service, not by the hour” and leave it at that. He follows up with logical explanations phrased in a refreshingly frank way; for example: “When you charge by the hour, you and your client begin your relationship with diametrically opposed desires. You want to bill more hours, they want you to bill fewer hours. That is a sucky place to start a relationship.”
And then he continues with practical advice on what you should do instead. For instance, if you ask the client for the best possible outcome of the campaign you’re being hired to create, and they say a 20 percent growth in sales year over year, then you can respond, “My base price is $50,000, but if you sell 20 percent more products than this time last year, I earn a bonus payment of 5 percent on those additional sales.'”
Jason dishes out this advice and more in the article “Pricing Strategy for Creatives” on the website A List Apart. It’s highly recommended reading for all of you who set pricing.