Charging people money for your services

# 1 09-06-2003 , 07:05 AM

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Well, someone out of the blue instant messaged me on AOL and wanted to know if I could do some digital editing for him. He asked me how much I would charge, so I told him it depends on what it is exactly, how long it would take, and how fast he wanted it done. After explaining to me what he wanted done, I told him I would do it for free since it was incredibly easy. All he wants is for a website to appear on a plasma tv screen. So basically, I took two website images, combined them, overlapped them onto the plasma tv image, then scewed the hell out of them until I got it right. It only takes about 5 minutes to do this. Anyway, since I couldn't really understand what he wanted exactly, it took me a few tries to get it right. I'm still not going to charge him however.

Here is my question: In the future, how much should I charge for easy stuff like this? I almost feel bad making anyone pay for something that takes minutes to complete. What should I charge if someone wants me to do something more in-depth like modeling or animation? I have no idea on any of this stuff, which is why I did all that stuff for free for that guy. I was taken by surprise and didn't really know how to handle things. Do I need to get any informaton from him before I do the job? etcetcetc. Please shine some light on this please.

www.Darkware3D.com

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# 2 09-06-2003 , 11:52 AM

The Maya Mountain
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I had a teacher once tell me that he charged a client $200... to save a file to a jpg.

He said that the client had no idea, and was extremely happy to have the file work for her after he was finished.

Everything is a service, and it's only fair to be paid for your services. Although $200 for saving a file to a different format seems high to me, if it is worth it to the client, who's to say it's too much?

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 3 09-06-2003 , 12:17 PM

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lol....man.... this would be a dream job... save a few jpg files for the day and I'm set user added image

-Emo

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# 4 09-06-2003 , 12:18 PM

Kevin

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ask yourself mate:

"how much am I worth per hr"

Also phone companys up and just pretend you are asking for a quote on the exact job!

Its a sure way of getting a ball park figure!

and if you get to much....you can always give me some user added image

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# 5 09-06-2003 , 12:42 PM

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Well.. it goes by how easy the job is. how much time it will take(something can be easy, but time consuming) and then theres usually a tacked on charge depending on the persons attitude.

Dealing with people a lot when i work at my other job with glass art you sometimes have to deal with the most annoying, egotistical madmen you ever met... tack on $20 and your set.

Usually yyou get a set amount of money per hour. Take the difficulty of the project. a scale 1-5 or so. 1 being easiest, 5 hardest.

(per hour * how many hours) * difficulty +/- surcharge.

the surharge is usually used if you think the result is too much or something. for editing purposes.

so if you charge 10 an hour. the work took 1 hour. it was easy. and you liked the guy.

10* 1 * 1 = $10 bt it seems a little short so add on about %50 to make it $15.

Weird thing is with mst other jobs theres a cost of materials which arent a ig deal in this biz. qwhich throws off the equation a lot.

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# 6 09-06-2003 , 01:52 PM

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Originally posted by Kevin
Also phone companys up and just pretend you are asking for a quote on the exact job!

Its a sure way of getting a ball park figure!

Originally Posted by

Surely excellent advice.

adldesigner
Caracas, Venezuela
Hell .. not gone perse, but with a certainly lower post count per day.

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# 7 09-06-2003 , 02:33 PM

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That's what I did to determine my rates for my area way back when user added image

Good tip Kev user added image

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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# 8 09-06-2003 , 02:40 PM

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Originally posted by mtmckinley
I had a teacher once tell me that he charged a client $200... to save a file to a jpg.

Originally Posted by

Sweet mother of ice cream! $200??!! So like, since this guy is doing a poor job at explaining what he wants which causes me to have to give him several examples, which takes 2 and a half hours to do, I could charge him a fair amount couldn't I? (although I won't this time since I already told him it's for free)

And I'm supposed to figure out how much I'm worth per hour? Jee I don't know. That's like that question they ask you when you go to get a job at Wal-Mart - "What salery do you think would be reasonable for you?" and I think "Hell, I don't. Don't you start me off at a set amount, then give me raises if I'm good?"

I can do a fair amount of stuff in Photoshop, am fairly good at combining images and faking stuff out, can model sort of well in Maya (you all haven't really seen much of my work), can't animate worth crap, and can't create realistic textures. So, I think I'm in the middle sort of.

Ok well, thanks for the advice you guys. If anything else comes to mind, post it.

www.Darkware3D.com

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# 9 09-06-2003 , 08:13 PM

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Re: Charging people money for your services

Originally posted by mtmckinley
I had a teacher once tell me that he charged a client $200... to save a file to a jpg.

Originally Posted by

ROTFLMAO!

Originally posted by Kevin
Also phone companys up and just pretend you are asking for a quote on the exact job!

Its a sure way of getting a ball park figure!

Originally Posted by

the perfect advice user added image

Yeah, but no but yeah but no....

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# 10 09-06-2003 , 09:07 PM

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Something to consider when figuring out your rates is the cost of maintaining your equipment and your workspace. You need to pay for the software (and probably hardware) for your setup. You need to pay for electricity to run your equipment. You need to pay for your internet connection to stay in touch with your clients and transfer files to them. I can't remember the exact formula for calculating the percentages and costs of everything, but you should be able to find that information in any guide to freelancing (just look in the graphic design section of any major bookstore).

I used to do a lot of freelance work when I was in school and for a short time afterwards. I did all of the calculations, and it ended up being that it cost me $5/hr just to exist. That covered electricity, hardware maintenance, software purchases and upgrades, the percentage of space of my home that I was using as my studio, a percentage of my internet connection fees, my web hosting charges, and, of course, my cell phone bills. Add on top of that how much I felt I was worth -- $25/hr when I was in school, much higher now. At that point, I was pushing $30/hr. Then I had to figure in taxes, which, depending on how much I made during the calendar year, could have been in the 25% - 35% range. Suddenly, $30-40/hr wasn't very much. Keep in mind, those are rates I charged while I was still in school. Now that I have a few years of professional experience, my rates are way higher.

Also, consider this: you are being paid for what you know and what you can do. Sure, converting images to jpeg's is easy for us, but that's because we know how to do it, we know what software to use, and we can do it really fast. Your client might not understand exactly what all the settings mean, what software to use, and he might not even have the time to even think about it. That's why he contacted you. You shouldn't feel bad about charging for your work, even simple stuff. It's still your time and energy, and, in the business world, time is money.

I would jump into some car maintenance analogies, but I think I've typed too much already... :p

Danny Ngan
Animator | Amaze Entertainment
my website | my blog | my job

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# 11 10-06-2003 , 12:52 AM

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Very good advice indeed Danny.
<-- Taking pointers from this thread like crazy ...

adldesigner
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Hell .. not gone perse, but with a certainly lower post count per day.

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# 12 10-06-2003 , 05:05 AM

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MAN, If I could get some one in my area to teach me for a few days a week I’d pay the hell out of them, I would even Pay Mr. Mike to finish the head Tutorial hehe, but being a newbie I more then appreciate all of the help I’ve been getting on this forum, every one here is grate. :bgreen:

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# 13 10-06-2003 , 07:53 PM

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its all suply and demand...

i once charged somone $50 just to sut up an e-mail adress... whats worse if the person wanted a FREE based e-mail (like hotmail/yahoo)...

The person had absolutely no clue how to do it or what to do...

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# 14 10-06-2003 , 08:54 PM

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How do you go about obtaining payment and when should you expect to be paid? Before or after you do the work? What about getting paid in segments like 1/2 before and the rest after you're done? Is it better to charge by the hour or by the work? I tend to have a lot of free time on my hands, so I can sometimes work on the same project for hours upon hours. I don't want to charge someone $1000 just for one job, though. I think I'd rather charge by the job, then set up a system or something so that after a certain amount of hours I can consider the project completed. This way, no one could ever say I never completed the job. (because if you charge by the job, you have to complete the job to get paid and the client could technically keep wanting you to do stuff to the project making you work non-stop)

www.Darkware3D.com

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# 15 10-06-2003 , 10:54 PM

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Payments in thirds is fairly common

One third upfront, a third when the customer is happy that the project is on its way, and a third on completion, that is of course if your charging by the job.

Generally ill only charge by the hour if its going to take less than a day, then normally you just get paid at the end of the day or rather submit an invoice at the end of the day, expect to wait up to 30 days for company work.

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From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

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