Learn to Price Yourself as a Squarespace Designer
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When you're new to the game, it’s common to experience a little bit (or a lot) of imposter syndrome when you rate yourself to match the market. Of course, you don’t want to overcharge your clients and turn them off from investing in your services. However, you also don’t want to undercharge and hinder your ability to run a profitable business.
If you’re confused about where to start when valuing your services, this guide can help. Below, you’ll learn about essential factors to consider when pricing projects from $0 to $30K.
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Value-Based Pricing
There are several ways that you can set prices for products and services, including value-based pricing. This strategy involves setting prices based on the consumer’s perceived value.
For example, say consumers value an iPhone at $1,500. That’s what the seller would charge, even if it’s only worth $500. The added cost reflects the consumer’s belief about the phone’s value.
The Problem with Value-Based Pricing
Value-based pricing might seem like a good idea to some, at least in theory. However, it often doesn’t work well for professionals selling services like website design.
Imagine a client wants you to build a website for something they value at $10-50 million. It wouldn’t make sense to price the project based on its perceived value or even a percentage of that value. Nobody will charge $100K for a Squarespace website, after all.
What’s a More Effective Pricing Process?
What approach should you take if value-based pricing doesn’t work for your business? Here are some helpful factors to consider when deciding what to charge your clients:
What Problem Are You Solving?
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When building a website or designing a logo, focus less on the project. Instead, think about the problem you’re solving for the client. What pain point do they have, and how are you helping them to resolve it?
Asking clients what they hope to accomplish and why helps them understand exactly what you’re doing for their business. This approach allows you and the client to develop more confidence in your ability to handle the problem and the value of your services.
Deadlines Can Affect Charge Rate
How soon does the client want something accomplished?
Do they have a reasonable timeline for the project, or do they want it completed immediately? If they want it completed right away, will it interrupt your schedule and prevent you from addressing other projects?
In general, the shorter the timeline, the higher the price. The client is asking more from you, and you may end up working extra hours to complete the project on time, so you need to charge them accordingly. You might ask $15K to $20K for this project to ensure it’s worth your time.
High Liability Projects
When working with a tight deadline, you take on a great deal of responsibility.
Imagine a client comes to you and says they need an update to their website completed by tomorrow. Their website regularly gets around 400,000 visitors.
If your update doesn’t work and affects the website’s performance, that’s a big deal for the company and can cost them a lot of money. As a result, the liability is much higher than it would be for a company that just launched its website and only gets about four visitors per day.
High-liability projects typically come with higher price tags. This situation is one where it might make sense to ask for $20K or $30K. There’s more pressure on you to get it done correctly the first time, so you must adjust your prices to match that pressure.
How To Price For Your Client
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Finally, consider who your client is and what makes their situation unique.
Are they a well-known company with a large audience and particular branding that you need to keep in mind when working on their project? Are they a brand new business that just barely launched its first website?
The type of client you’re working with will play a key role in helping you decide how much to charge for your services. For example, compare a Motel 6 to a Hyatt. Both businesses do the same thing, but one charges its clients much more than the other.
With this information in mind, the business that charges more would likely have more specific requirements from you, which means you’ll probably charge them more for your services. You might ask $25K or $30K from the “Hyatt” client, whereas the “Motel 6” client might be charged $10K to $15K.
Set the Right Prices for Your Projects
Learning how to price projects can feel intimidating at first. Keeping this guideline in mind you’ll have an easier time evaluating each potential client individually and setting prices that are fair for both of you.
Designer Starter Kit
This is made for people who want to design websites for clients. But if you’re just designing one website, we still recommend it because there are plugins, tools, tips, and tricks that will be great for you to get your site up and running fast. Check it out here.
YouTube Channel and SEO Services
We have a ton of videos on our YouTube channel that will help you do a lot of different things, so don’t forget to check that out. At Launch Happy, we even have SEO services on our company that can help you grow and scale. If you want to explore SEO on your own, check out the SEO guides on our website!
Plus, if you use the code ISKANDER when you check out, you can get a discount on the Squarespace site.
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