How to get better paying clients in design work.

A lot of new designers reach a point in time where they feel they are not getting enough compensation for their time and effort. I hope to give some insight into how you can start to move towards making more, doing what you love.

No self-respecting designer would take a literal fiver for his time, unless you wanna make the argument that only your time is worth $$, nothing more. You gotta remember the fact that you put years of practice and learning and countless dollars in software and studio supplies to get to where you are.

Accounting for minimum wage, you'd have to make a five dollar gig in well under 30 mins in order to make as much as a McDonald's burger flipper. (No offense to fast food workers :P)

If you are just starting out, do some free stuff for friends and family, but don't sell yourself short to total strangers. If it's worth money, then charge for it!

On a side note, the freelance site Fiverr.com itself even went to great lengths in recent years to re brand it self as much more than "just for a fiver". They realized that this opened up too many opportunities for scammers and poorly skilled/less enthusiastic sellers. At such a low price, who's gonna pursue reimbursement/suing if they are ripped? Also, allowing sellers to raise the bar allows for better diversity in the market and much better livelihoods of those working in it. I feel the site has much better potential now, but it's name is still tainted by bad memories.

Don't get me wrong - some services can be reasonably done dirt cheap, albeit at a quality reduction. Most of the designers selling at such low prices are using mockups/templates and do not exhaust themselves with fully custom work. This is fine, as long as the client is aware of what they are getting. Cuz hey, someone might be making a killin' at small piece work, who knows.

What to DO:

Build that portfolio, and make it shine. Nothing is worse than a shitty portfolio, it'll keep you from reaching higher price points when getting work. Stop sending the wrong portfolios to clients. Separate specific pieces and tailor them to relating to the client needs and interests. I repeat, research your clients!

Question your clients meaningfully, find the "high value" questions like:

"Why do you feel this needs to be made in order to help your business?"

"What is the reason you exist as a business, other than being driven by profits?"

"How can I help you to achieve your long term branding goals?"

It may seem weird at first to ask, but if the client really feels close to their work, it can help them build trust with you, and find the deeper meaning behind what they do.

Finding your VALUE:

Many newcomers to design work seem to totally forget that they have value beyond time alone....stop to think clearly when bidding for work and make an evaluation of the cost based off of your client research. What i mean is to really get to know your clients BEFORE you work with them, if you can, so to prevent any mishaps when trying to forge a meaningful connection with said prospects. You will also find that you can better quality, and more respectful clients too.

I get that some people cannot afford good (expensive) design, but if you only have 10 bucks to get it done, i'd honestly tell you that your better off doing it yourself.

As a designer, your knowledge and expertise is worth far more than the time put in, and you should charge accordingly so.

Also, you will soon learn that value is subjective, one client may want a design more than another. They have different mindsets and value you differently, based on their needs.

So price your work towards the client, not the job itself.

For Example, I'd charge Microsoft a ten-thousand times higher percentile than a mom n' pop shop. They would expect a much more in-depth result, and of course have the deep pockets to afford it.

Why?

Because imagine if Microsoft had to redo about a trillion logos on all the merchandise/assets/websites/etc in circulation and that would cost them FAR more in the end than a small biz with less.

Big clients pay for design SECURITY vs mere design CREATION...they do not want a shit logo/design and have to spend magnitudes more in repairing the situation if it does not help them long term.

Conclusion: