What kind of pricing structure do you use for your WordPress development services? How do you ensure that you do not price yourself out of the market? We polled our professional web developer members to obtain the inside scoop and provide you with information that will assist you in resolving the frequent challenge of cost. It will help you price your services better in front of people who are looking forward to hire wordpress developers or any other.
The challenge of setting prices for your design services is one that all web designers must confront. The worth of your time and the experience you’ve gained might be extremely difficult to quantify into monetary terms. Whether you like this facet of design or not, if you own a web design business or are a freelance web designer, you will need to do this task regardless of how much you enjoy it.
Unfortunately, there is no precise science to determine the prices for your services. In order to provide an accurate pricing estimate for a project, there are several considerations that need to be made. You could also discover that you need to price the various tasks in a different manner in order to ensure that you are reimbursed in an equitable manner.
Discuss the Variables Of Web Development
In this post, I’d like to discuss the variables that you have to take into consideration when determining the prices for your web design services. Should you bill clients by the hour or by the project instead? The process of coming up with a quotation is as follows: Perhaps you provided a customer with an estimate but did not get a response from them.
If customers have ever thought you to be pricey, you have most likely heard the following while asking around for guidance, regardless of whether you work as a freelancer or are beginning your own website development company:
Or maybe you aren’t sure how much to charge for your services, so you think “bartering” would be a wonderful way to get your firm off the ground…
Although what you said is accurate, much of it does not apply to those who are just starting out as freelancers or who are intermediate-level web developers and who manage their own businesses.
You don’t need to worry about the going rates or what other people are charging if you have a gleaming portfolio or if your schedule is full for many months in advance (since you are that excellent), for example. In such cases, you won’t need to compete with anyone else for business.
The fact of the matter is that no one wants to work for very little pay. When developing your pricing model, there are a number of factors that you need to take into consideration.
Because we have access to a community of web developers that has more than 50,000 members, we were able to collect the data that is provided in this article by conducting polls and participating in online conversations.
This article will focus on how to set up pricing for your services rather than discussing specific pricing and what to charge (which are topics that are covered in other articles; see the links at the end of this article for more information). This will allow you to put these ideas into practice and develop a pricing model that is suitable for your company.
To continue, here in this post:
We will walk you through a foolproof method for pricing your work so that you are never paid too little. If you aren’t sure what your hourly rate ought to be, we’ll look at the feedback we received from our web developer members, as well as crowd sourced data and the going rates on popular freelance marketplaces. In other words, if you aren’t sure what your hourly rate ought to be, we’ll help you figure it out.
We will also look at various tools that can assist you in validating the estimate you have created for the project and ensuring that it is not wildly inaccurate. We’ll wrap things off by discussing several great freelancing rate calculators and demonstrating how you can use them to reach your yearly financial goals.
Pricing that is Either Fixed or Adjustable
A short while ago, we contacted our community of web developers with a question: “How do you now charge your web development clients?”
It’s not as simple as it seems. The responses lead to the discovery of several intriguing outcomes and trends. Fixed vs. adjustable? Is it preferable to have a fixed pricing so that you’ll always know how much money you’ll make? Or, do you modify the amount such that the final payment is different each time?
The following are some observations that, perhaps, can shed some light on the situation…
In the design industry, projects are often priced either as a flat fee or on an hourly basis. It is essential to have a thorough understanding of the benefits and drawbacks associated with each price structure.
Clients often choose to pay a set fee for design work since this allows them to anticipate and budget for the whole cost of a project in advance. The advantage of this is that all parties are aware, from the beginning, of what the cost will be; for example, if a customer wants a design, they will pay you a price equal to X.
If you are a designer, charging by the hour can be the most practical choice since it guarantees that you will not suffer a financial loss even if the project takes longer than expected. Think about the design of a website that you anticipate will take you twenty hours to finish. Before you commit to working on the web development project, you may provide the customer with a pricing proposal that includes either a flat rate of $1,000 or an hourly rate of $50 per hour.
You will have effectively earned an extra 10 hours of money if you charge a predetermined amount and manage to finish the website within the allotted time frame, which is ten hours.
But what if it takes longer to complete the job than anticipated? What if it takes twenty-five hours, thirty hours, or even forty hours to finish the web development? It is possible that you may wind up spending twice as much time as you had anticipated with no increase in revenues.
As you get more experience as a freelancer, you will have a greater grasp of everything that goes into a project as a result of this insight. Therefore, it may be worthwhile to charge the customer a set fee if you are certain that the design in question will not provide any challenges to you in the future.
On the other hand, things do not always go according to plan, and it may be impossible to anticipate the difficulties that may be posed by a specific design. Because of this, many designers choose to bill their clients on an hourly basis. One viable solution is to quote a flat rate for the job up front, and then adjust the price accordingly if it takes longer than the estimated amount of hours to accomplish.
Even if you prefer to bill clients by the hour, you can find yourself in a position where you have to decide whether or not it is worthwhile to take on a project that has a predetermined fee (e.g. a project advertised on a freelancing website or because a client wants to know the final cost up front).
Before agreeing to the terms with the customer, you need to be sure that you have evaluated each project and are aware of the benefits and drawbacks of each possible billing choice.
Find out What the Going Rate is
If you are familiar with the going pricing for design work, you will be able to more accurately price your own services. You may do this by looking at the prices offered by rivals on freelancing marketplaces and on the websites where they conduct business.
Gain an understanding of the market that you want to compete in:
When it comes to where you provide your services, will it be domestic or international?
Are you primarily interested in working with medium-sized or big businesses?
Will you be more interested in taking on more manageable work, such as logos and banners, or larger projects, such as whole websites?
Make sure that you are comparing apples to apples to ensure that you have a reasonable estimate of the going pricing for your services in the market.
Assess the Level of Your Own Capabilities
It is important to evaluate the quality of your services in comparison to those of your rivals, but doing so requires you to set your pride aside. This will assist you in determining whether or not you are able to charge higher prices than the going rate.
Do you have more experience than the other companies who provide the same service?
Are you in a position to provide something that others cannot, such as expertise in the field of design or technology?
Do you have a positive reputation among the customers in your market?
If you are aware of your own competence level, you will be able to price your services appropriately and defend these prices to customers if they have questions about them.
Are People Looking to Hire You?
If you are just getting started, it is possible that you may need to reduce your rates in the beginning in order to construct a portfolio. This will assist you in regaining any projects that you may have lost as a result of your relatively recent arrival into the industry.
You will be in a position to raise your prices in response to increased demand for the web development services that you provide. If you have to decline customers because you already have too much work on your plate, this is a clear indication that there is a high demand for your services and that you are probably not charging enough. If you find that you are getting a lot of inquiries regarding employment, you shouldn’t be scared to raise your fees.
Determine Your Own Individual Costs
When setting the price for your web development services, you should do it with an awareness of the expenses of running your company. You need to make sure that the cost of any stock pictures or templates that you need to acquire for the web development project is included into the overall budget for each individual project. You need to add any expenses associated with hiring another programmer or designer to assist you with any difficulties that may arise in this calculation as well.
Also include continuing expenditures associated with freelancing, such as marketing charges, phone calls, and insurance premiums, as well as any travel fees that may be incurred in order to see a customer. Remember that any expenditures you rack up will cut into the earnings you make, since this is the most crucial factor to keep in mind while web development. As a result, they must be included into your price structure from the very beginning in the appropriate manner.
Put Your Name on a Paper
Before beginning to work together, it is in both of your best interests and the best interests of your customers to sign a contract. Your contract should detail:
- The time it is anticipated to take to finish the project, as well as the actions that will be taken in the event that it takes longer than anticipated to finish.
- What is the total number of modifications that come with your first draft?
- If you will be working a specific number of days per week and if you will be taking any vacations in the near future.
- The manner in which payments will be made
- What are the repercussions if the customer changes their mind and requests modifications to the design?
- What are the prerequisites for calling off the project before its scheduled completion?
- If the project ends up requiring more effort than originally anticipated, should the customer be charged an extra fee?
- Determine whether the customer is willing to spend an extra charge in order to have their project given priority and the design completed sooner.
- The extent of the assistance, if any, that is offered after the design has been finished being developed.
- It is not sufficient to obtain verbal confirmation from the customer that they have accepted your terms and conditions. You need to get yourself a written agreement if you want the law to be on your side. At the absolute least, you need to make it very obvious on your website what will take place in certain scenarios, and you should have the customer sign an online declaration form agreeing to the terms of the agreement. This will prevent difficulties that are not essential from occurring in the future.
Support Following a Purchase
It’s possible that providing help to customers may take up a significant amount of your time. If you are going to provide after sales assistance to your customers, you need to come to an agreement with them ahead about the scope of the help that will be supplied at no additional cost after you have handed over the completed design.
You may, for instance, provide two hours of email assistance following the delivery of a website design in order to assist in elucidating the operation of significant functionalities. In addition to that, you might provide further help for a predetermined fee.
Establishing a contract for two or three days of maintenance work and assistance each month on an ongoing basis is an excellent strategy for generating additional income in the foreseeable future (perhaps under a retainer). You will have a much easier time growing your passive income if you can get a few customers to join up for this.
Rewards for Loyal Customers in the Form of Discounts
It is in your best interest to maintain some degree of price flexibility at all times, but this is especially true when it comes to providing discounts to repeat buyers.
- If I place more than one order, would I be eligible for a discount of any kind?
- If the project is bigger and commits you to working on it for a longer length of time, do you think you could provide a discount?
- Will you provide a discount to customers that buy from you repeatedly?
- If an existing customer brings you a new business, would you reward them with a discount or a referral fee of any kind?
Although it’s not a good idea to make lowering prices a regular practice for your business, you could think about rewarding loyal clients with special deals and discounts.
Always keep in mind the 80/20 rule. As a result of the fact that 20% of your customers are responsible for 80% of your revenue, it is in your best interest to provide special pricing to your most valuable consumers.
Competence in Negotiations
This demonstrates that the quality of your designs, as well as the price that you charge for your web development services, are both open to interpretation. Because of this, your branding and the degree to which you are confident in your own skills will be significant factors in the manner in which you market yourself to customers.
In the end, success will depend on how well you are able to negotiate a price and sell yourself to the customer. If a customer is not willing to satisfy your standards, you should not be scared to walk away from the deal. Otherwise, you may find yourself having to reject a better paying client in the future since you have already promised to work for a lesser rate.
Taking Into Account Payment
It is typical practice for designers to agree to take a deposit of up to half of the total cost of the web development project. While some designers may only hand over the finished product upon receipt of the full payment, others will charge their customers in stages.
As an example, the first payment would be made prior to the first draught, another payment would follow the subsequent draught, the third payment would be made upon completion, and so on. The risk is mitigated for both you and your customers when payments are made in installments.
The mode of payment is yet another essential aspect of the transaction that needs your attention. Have a conversation with the customer about how they will pay you before you do any work for them. You should be aware of the fees involved with taking money via a service such as PayPal, as well as the associated risk of a customer lodging a complaint about non-delivery through a payment provider. Because of this, many designers choose to receive money in the form of a check or an electronic bank transfer instead.
I highly suggest reading this wonderful series of articles written by David Airey in 2008, as it will provide you with a better knowledge of how other designers charge their customers. A total of sixty different designers discuss the process they use to bill customers and the reasoning behind their decision to adopt that specific process. It provides a wonderful look into the processes used by different designers.
Although you may feel tempted to begin working on a project for a customer before you have been paid, it is in your best interest to wait until you have received the first payment before beginning any work for that client. If not, you face the danger of performing design work for a customer that does not pay you what you are owed for your services.
A Few Parting Thoughts
Developing a price list for your web development services is an essential step in working as a designer. If you take into account all of the elements that affect pricing, you should be able to accurately price your services.
However, keep in mind that setting the price of your web development services is not an exact science; thus, you need to be willing to accept the possibility that you may sometimes under price your services. This is something that, as one gains experience, becomes less of a problem.
Be cautious that if you price your web development services at too low of a rate, you may attract people who are only interested in seeing what they can get for their money but don’t really intend to buy anything from you. These people are known as “tyre kickers,” and they will waste a lot of your time.
We are quite pleased with the fact that web designers from all around the globe choose designs from us when developing websites for their customers. As a result, one of our goals is for you to get a satisfactory wage for the job that you do by taking into account all of the aspects that are discussed in this article.
