Earning & Freelancing
This week we went through the brief for making our proposal documents. We also learnt about the importance of a proposal document, and looked at what is included in a proposal document.
If you’re freelancing, you will be assuming the roles of everyone that would take part in the work that comes after a proposal document.
How do we Know What to Charge?
Designers charge for time.
For pricing within a proposal document, you need to think about how many hours the job will take you, and multiply it by your hourly rate.
How do I determine an hourly rate?
Hourly rate will depend on experience level.
If you want a good, cheap result, it won’t be fast. If you want the job done cheap and fast, it won’t be good.
Look at basic minimum wage, and charge MORE. Your design work is worth the minimum wage and you should charge accordingly.
Average yearly wage for a placement UX student is 12-18k.
So, at this level, we should charge at LEAST £10 an hour for any freelance work we are doing at this experience level. But we could charge £15 or so if we are more confident.
Put down what you think is reasonable into the proposal, and if they think it is reasonable – you have the job, if not – you can negotiate.
Keep track of your time. This will allow you to justify why you’re charging what you’re doing. You can keep a task tracking board on the likes of Notion.
Itemise each stage of the job in your quotation in the description with a cost. Do the same with invoices. Having the effort involved shown will justify the cost of your work.
This lecture has been particularly helpful with the pricing element of our proposal documents as I really wasn’t sure of what I would put for that section.