Do runs an education business aimed at creative professionals, and his most useful territory is the one most of them avoid: money. How to price, how to handle the budget question, how to run the conversation before the proposal.
The recurring theme is that creative businesses undercharge because they price the deliverable — a logo, a website, a campaign — rather than what it is worth to the client.
Any business selling expertise by the hour has the same problem: getting faster and better reduces your income. The move to pricing the outcome is the same move whatever the trade.
Writing a proposal before you know the range is unpaid work with poor odds. The question is uncomfortable exactly once, and it saves days.
The client is not buying a website; they are buying more enquiries. The same file can be worth wildly different amounts to different clients, and hourly pricing throws that difference away.
The conversation where you understand the problem properly is where the value is set. Quote too early and you compete on price, because you have given them nothing else to compare.
These links go to their own work. We summarise and point — we do not republish it.
Designers, agencies, consultants, freelancers — anyone who has ever been asked for 'a rough price' and regretted answering.
Aimed squarely at creative services. If you sell products, the pricing principles hold but the examples will not.
