How to price your graphic design services and other small business pricing tips

Jul 15

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When I first started freelancing, I went straight for uploading my portfolio and experience to UpWork. I knew it wouldn’t be the lucrative jobs search utopia I was looking for, but it would allow me to learn to be a freelancer with plenty of options.

I created my profile and applied for a few jobs here and there.

I heard crickets for many of my responses.

Some employers were helpful and offered a rejection letter, politely but professionally.

Either way, I tried applying for more jobs than I wanted to admit. That said, I became very comfortable identifying jobs that employers priced within my graphic design services.

UpWork is an excellent tool for seeing how much you should be pricing your services in your small business. Glassdoor is helpful to research for corporate companies, whether you’re looking at salary or reviews. Still, UpWork is a much better business tool when looking at the demand for graphic design services.

UpWork is typically on the lower end of your competitive pricing, but it will allow you to engage in a threshold where you can start pricing your graphic design services.

When finding small business pricing tips, it can be overwhelming on where to start and how to price your graphic design services competitively. It’s not an easy topic to discuss with most small business owners. However, it is one area where creative business owners need to educate themselves on and learn how to implement the resources that they have at their disposal.

Here are a few small business pricing tips that I’d like for graphic design business owners to know when pricing their services.

Do your market research

Where are your competitors setting their prices? Should you configure your prices below or above theirs? How much experience do you bring to the table compared to them?

These are some of the questions you should be asking yourself when looking at another graphic design services page. You don’t want to undervalue your services and always offer a lower price point, but you also want to be fair to your ideal client.

You’ll also want to make sure you are searching for local competitors and ideal clients as well. Your competitors will have their pricing set for them to make a profit, but your ideal client might be a different story about how much they can spend on your products or services.

Remember, the price point for someone in New York is different for someone who is in Oklahoma. While you could offer the same prices, you might need to justify your caliber with experience or expertise compared to local small businesses.

Know your creative services wholesale value

Consider how much it costs to purchase the goods for your service or product for your small business. As a graphic designer, I would factor in education, programs or apps, and printing costs to determine the wholesale price of my graphic design services. Other creative business owners might need to factor in goods to create their products or how much a resource cost, like a kiln or fabric maker.

Each small business owner should consider how much it costs to make a product. It should be Business 101 information.

Once you determine how much your service costs to produce, you can add a service fee to make a profit.

Know your small business’ services retail value

A small business’ retail value allows a business owner to obtain a profit. It will depend on how much a small business wants to profit compared to the wholesale cost of an item, but this is where the competitive industry factor comes into play.

This value is what business owners will sell their ideal clients. They can accept the product back for up to or less than a retail price if a client returns the item. Depending on the returned condition and other ramifications of a product, a business owner might impose restrictions on their refund policy.

The retail value should be fair when compared to your experience and expertise as a graphic designer. If you have more knowledge to offer your ideal clients than it stands to show, you might have a higher retail value than a beginner’s graphic design business.

Determine how much and what you need to sell to make a profit

There are a few things that come into running a small creative business. You might include your website host, Adobe Creative Cloud software, and printing costs as a few of your small business expenses.

Once you determine your monthly expenses and see how many and which graphic design services you have to sell to make a profit, subtract those expenditures. It might not seem like a lot when you first tally up your small business expenses, but as your creative business grows, you will need to increase your sales.

You should also see various options for achieving your money goals. If you have graphic design services, you should tally up how many and offer yourself different scenarios to reach your financial goals. This way, you can see your graphic design services as flexible in your business plan and see where your ideal clients need the most help with their business.

Determine how much you need to sell to make ends meet

Not everyone needs a $1 million paycheck. You might be able to live off of $1500 a month, but to other small business owners, that won’t be enough.

Look through your finances and determine how much money you will need to cover bills and expenses as a small business owner. Your necessities, such as house payments, food, and utilities, should make up the most and account for an emergency fund so you can cover unexpected expenses.

When you consider your small business’ retail value, make sure you are factoring in what your business is covering for your expenses. It might be for a new car or saving for that emergency fund you so desperately need.

Finances are not a fun aspect to work on. However, it’s important that you know key financial terms to start your small business with a profit.

If you’re unsure about your financial business plan, consult a CPA. They will know what you can do to remain afloat and where you need to cut back or can spend more when it comes to your products and services.

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Caitlin Shogren