Am I shortchanging myself?
I do not have a degree; in fact, I am still in college. This probably lowers the price a bit.
Answer:
You are not just a designer now, you are a business owner, so you need to learn how to negotiate. If you dont learn that you will be screwed over and over by people who do. I suggest you learn how to negotiate first.
Ohh yea your short changing yourself, most companies pay no less then 1000 dollars for similar things. I know this because my company paid 3400 dollars for a brochure featuring menu items.
This is what you need to do, keep your brochures that you have already created (this is a portfolio, it increases your worth) now raise the price by 50 dollars each time they ask for a brochure. They will start to argue after 500 dollars, they always do. Its inflation, and you are "hiring" more people so you need the extra money. Attract more clients, but dont be too greedy. I would work out a negotiation with the company. Its called high-ball and low-ball.
They low ball you by saying 100 dollars, you high ball by saying 1000 dollars. You agree somewhere in the middle 400-600 dollars.
YES YOU ARE SHORT CHANGING YOURSELF. A degree means nothing for the work you are doing, only skills, they company doesnt even consider that.
it does look like that
You might consider asking another company for a quote on the same type of job. Then you can compare what they are charging with what you are getting (remember to take a margin for your company into account).
What does the design look like, you get better as you go along don't sell yourself short either.
Sounds like a little greed kicking in, if you are still learning and doing good work you should be happy to have an outlet. When I started doing web design I did it free.
Quality work deserves no negotiations. Its not like your selling a product that is the same to other clients. If your design is tailor made then the customer should know what the price is upfront.
Provide a bonus but never lower your price.
I would suggest having some type of contract when dealing with a client.
Do some research on this subject..check out your local colleges or go to your own local college and find out from a professor that teaches commercial art and web/art designs and find out if the prices you're quoting is a bit too small? It sounds like to me that's pretty cheap. I did a design (I'm a commercial art designer major myself oh about 100 yrs ago when everything was done by hand <grin>) for a company doing a brochure and back then (about 15 yrs ago) the charge was about $250 then. So the company you're freelancing for isn't haggling because they know you're cheap. So do some research, ask around. I don't know for sure what the charges are now a days since I haven't done anything like that in so long, but it's not $200.it's more closer to 500 and up.
Hope this helps!?
Track how much effort you have to put into each assignment - how many hours, how much new learning, client communication, revision etc. Also track how much time you have to spend finding the next client. Then compare the number of hours spent on each assignment to the amount that you make per assignment. You are the only one who can answer if it is sufficient pay for you.
Good Luck
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