Tis the season. The question I get over and over is, how do I price my work? Here is the real answer, more than any number, concept (i.e., percentage, hourly, flat fee, etc.) or market convention (i.e., here is what we get for being florists in Chicago): value and process define price, not the other way around.
Think about that for a second. When you get asked your price and you give one number, you are defining your entire worth to your client. What you are not doing when you give the number is telling your client what each component of the price is worth. How much for your reputation, your design, your production? Nope, it is just one number. So you leave it to your client to define the components, a job for which they are uniquely unqualified.
Instead, what if you came at it the other way and answered the price question with: “Well, here is how we are going to get from here to there. First we are going to understand what we are to create, then we will show you the art we would like to create, then we will tell you what it will cost to create the art, and then we will go ahead and create it.” Each stage has a price and that price is relative to what you believe is most valuable about you, your art and your creative business. Some prices you can give right away, others not until you know what you will be creating. Value and process drive price, not the other way around.
Why is this so important? A fool’s paradise makes it all about price. Any client that tells you are too expensive does not value what you are going to create for them enough to hire you. Ironically, getting cheaper just reinforces the idea and does not solve the problem. What if you tried to hear the statement as a compliment instead of a criticism? You might focus on what it is that you do that is so valuable to those that will pay you appropriately. Yes, we all have to eat, but compromise is its own rabbit hole. Knowing you are too expensive is a definition of what a client really values and does not. That is priceless information. Then again if you are unwilling to define value, you do not really know why you are too expensive. $500,000 for a sofa is absurd. $490,000 for the idea of the sofa as it will exist in a client’s space and $10,000 for the sofa, not as crazy.
It all goes back to the very notion underlying ALL creative businesses. NOBODY needs what you do. NOBODY. In a world defined by subjective wants, yours is to create the need simply by being the only one that can provide the subjective want. For that you have to be willing to define yourself, not only by what you, your art and your creative business do, more importantly by how and primarily by why. Your clients have to believe in you before they will pay you. Hiding behind a single number or a pretty portfolio will never make that happen, not really. You might get business, sure, but the ever-elusive right clients will be few and far between.
Go the other way. Lay out your value for all to see. Put your money where your mouth is — say what each part of your creative business is worth and live in that truth. Give your clients a chance to find their own faith in you without being a chameleon. From there you will get what you need. Promise. Value and process define price.
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This is great Sean! And it’s too true- nobody NEEDS the creative professional. NOBODY! We must create our own value.
Thanks for the read.
-Adrienne Maples
Wise as always Sean! Clients _must_ see the value and process in what we, as creative, do. A simple thing like talking with a lead/client on the phone or in person instead of just sending a PDF price list over email makes a big difference. When we speak with them, we can explain the process and by hearing our experience they can see the value.. price then becomes almost an afterthought. At least that has been my experience. 🙂