Are the fees or prices you’re charging for your creative services too low? I bet they are.
Try doubling the money. You have to deliver the goods, of course, but that’s true in any work. Chances are that the clients you ditched needed ditching, the clients you carry forward and the new clients you land will pay those fees happily and will better understand the value you bring.
And I’m guessing you’ll be happier and much better off in the long run.
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(via Mark Anderson/Andertoons.com)
All sounds fine, but how do you break it to good, close, long-standing customers you need to increase rates significantly for pretty much the same product?
If they are long standing customers they already understand your talent.
I can’t agree with this more. It was the scariest thing but once I did it, I got more respect and shook out all the sketchy clients who were taking up most of my time. I still need to charge more but it’s baby steps!
Ian – quite frankly, if that’s your experience, you’re looking in the wrong place for clients.
So where do you look?
Sorry Ahmed – gotta call bullshit. Try doubling your prices, or trippling. And differentiate yourself. Point to the lower price competition as “a lower priced alternative…but that you get what you pay for” and see what happens…
Apple computers, for example, are twice or more the price for a similarly spec’d PC. yet they’re selling like hotcakes because of the brand and perceived value. An theoretically a computer is a commodity… You can be a commodity, or you can differentiate. Its up to you.
Chase,
Other than the Apple part I do agree with what you’ve said. When it comes to charging a higher fee you have to look like someone that earns that fee. It’s something Jasmine Star talks about during your awesome chat, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZqP_rLuNkI
Skip to 1:05:00 for when JStar talks about pricing etc. I couldn’t find the part in the video but Jasmine also mentions the car she drives and how that has to set a good impression.
I agree here on the BS call, glad you did…though I can relate to feeling like Ahmed here at the start of my business. Bend is quite saturated as well, but in learning more about branding and client selection I’ve realized that I can dictate which clients get my message AND what they think and feel about me (which IS branding basically). To paraphrase something I heard recently “stop trying to sell good steak to vegans…they won’t bite no matter what”. A recent workshop from Jen Burgess Thompson helped me realize that I need to market my services to my BEST customer instead of EVERY customer. It’s a good feeling.
It’s easy to simply say, “Double your prices!” in an effort to weed out low value clients, but when EVERYONE wants everything for free, I have to argue agains that. I’ve found that no one is interested in paying for true talent. They just want the best price, even if it means getting a lower quality product.