Desktop Publishing FAQ

Q. What should I charge for general desktop publishing services such as business cards, stationary, greeting cards, Wedding Invitations, brochures - everything?

A. Keep in mind in your pricing that no matter what you charge or how you figure out what to charge the important thing is that you show your customers the value they are getting. If possible, talk with your client about the project rather than saying 'I charge $50.00 for a brochure' or 'My brochure pricing starts at $600.00' or whatever. Because either price could be way too low or way too high depending on what is involved. You may end up charging one customer $75.00 on a tri-fold brochure and another $750.00 for what on the surface looks like the same thing (excluding printing & such) simply because of the complexity of the tasks involved.

Backing up, probably the way to start is to set an hourly rate for your time. What is your TIME worth? A lot of factors are involved including how much you need to make to keep your business alive, what the market in your area will tolerate (i.e. what your competition charges and what clients are willing to pay). Design charges vary from as low as $15.00 to $20.00 an hour to as high as $100-$200 an hour.

Since you generally only bill the client for time actually spent on a project, your hourly rate should have built in buffers (i.e. extra amount of money) to cover other non-revenue producing parts of your business -- bookkeeping, maintenance, supplies not billed direct to client, utilities, etc.

You may not quote an hourly rate to the customer -- usually that's not the best way. But you use your hourly rate and the tasks involved in the project to quote a final price (because clients are usually looking for 'the bottom line.')

For each type of project you do, determine the tasks involved. For example, for brochures your work might involve some (but not necessarily all) of these different tasks, for items such as copywriting you may have material provided by the client or someone else they hired for that part:

• Conceptualizing (developing from scratch the concept or theme of the brochure or the entire marketing program)
• Copywriting/Editing (writing copy from scratch; editing provided text)
• Artwork (selecting graphics and photos; scanning; creating custom artwork)
• Layout/Design (developing layout or design based on the purpose and concept of the brochure; selecting type; placing graphics)

(and there is proofreading/editing in there at various stages as the project goes back & forth between you & the client)

Estimate the number of hours involved for each portion based on your discussions with the client. That's the price you would quote for that project. Every project is different. You may come up with a more or less set price for certain types of projects -- say X amount for black & white business cards using one of several pre-designed templates you've created -- because you know that something like that almost always takes you about X hours. But generally you'll want to quote jobs individually. And if the customer starts making big changes in the middle of the project -- talk to them about how those changes might affect 'the bottom line.'

When customers balk at 'the bottom line' be sure to go back and discuss the various aspects of the project -- maybe they'll decide to do some part differently or maybe they'll realize that 'a simple brochure' really is more involved than they originally thought. Rather than cutting your price to please the customer -- work with them to alter the parameters of the project to meet your needs and theirs. That way you get paid what your time & knowledge are worth AND the customer is happy too.

Q. What should I charge for writing, designing, or publishing a newsletter? How do I set a price?

A. For pricing newsletters specifically... here are some random thoughts and comments in no particular order.

• Break the job down into its component parts.

  A client might want a per page or per newsletter figure but before you can give them that you'll need to determine what the job involves. Estimate time for the various components such as initial design (and all that involves such as creating a nameplate, selecting fonts, setting up a grid, drafts, experimenting, etc.), writing (short articles, long articles, headlines, fillers???), editing/copyediting, proofreading, typing (such as when they don't give you text on disk), selecting graphics, scanning photos, photo touch-up, actual page layout, printing (yourself or preparing for an outside printer, etc.) -- whatever you and the client determine is needed for that job. From there you could multiply your time estimate by your hourly rate to get a 'full package' price, divide it by number of pages to give an average per page price, or provide a breakdown 'by task' ($X for writing X articles, $X for design/layout of X pages) etc.

• Create 'dummy' newsletters for fictional businesses similiar to your target clients.

  These dummy newsletters can serve multiple purposes: hone your skills (and build your confidence), help you in estimating the amount of time required for various newsletter writing/design tasks so you can determine pricing better, provide examples for your portfolio, allow you to create a variety of different styles of newsletters to show clients to help them see/decide what kind of n/l they want or need.

• Create newsletter 'packages' to offer clients.

  Resume consultants often offer different 'packages' to clients such as "1/2 hour consultation, 10 originals, a cover letter, and choice of white or beige paper for $XX.XX" or "1 hour consultation, 15 originals, 5 cover letters, free envelopes for $XX.XX" etc. Based in part on your experiments with creating 'dummy' newsletters and other research you might create 2 or 3 specific newsletter 'packages' that you specialize in, such as "1 four page, b&w monthly newsletter, using X-amount client-supplied copy and X-amount copyright-free filler for $XX.XX" or "single page quarterly, 2 color, blah, blah, blah, for $XX.XX" One way this can help you and the client: - simplify decision-making and pricing for both of you (client can pick a plan that fits his budget and needs; because you use a pre-designed template and have done your research (right?!!!) you know how to budget your time for this job and not lose money and can crank it out quickly/efficiently.

LEARN MORE:
Pricing your Desktop Publishing Services - Learn how to set the right price for design and production services, raise your rates, and discuss pricing options with your desktop publishing clients.

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