When I started off with my venture I had no experience with quoting the right prices. Initially I used to ask my friends who were into designing but eventually I started feeling that it was not the right price. I realized that due to lot of competition they were doing projects at dirt cheap prices. I also had the same intention to do projects at a very low price. Moreover I was in the infant stage of doing business and I needed projects in my portfolio. But, I slowly realized that I ended up working so hard for nothing. Some clients just left me stranded alone with several hours of effort put in their designs and finally gaining nothing but peanuts, in some cases not even those. Well, that’s how we learn it.

Here I want to stress about the importance of quoting the right price for your services. And I would like to stress this specially for designers. It is a general misconception around that designers are just people spending lot of time with Photoshop and eventually creating things randomly. There has been a huge crowd that is offering services at such a cheap price that it is actually ruining the whole market. You can start off with low prices but don’t make it a routine. Remember no business can stand upon hard work and low costs. Why? because to sustain quality you need to be rewarded properly and in this case “payments” are your rewards. You portfolio might be your another reward but you are not doing business for your portfolio. You are doing it to improve the economy and economy can only improve by quoting the right prices for the services.

I have competed with people who were ready to develop websites for mere $80. $80 for a full fledged static website? I would rather sit and improve my skills than working so cheaply. We need to understand that this is not a long term thing. We need to realize that this is ruining the whole market. What we are doing is like a disease which will eventually spread around. There are people who are offering cheap services but I can assure that they don’t have quality. Moreover they might be able to deliver quality for sometime but eventually they will be forced to compromise on it. It is simple economics. If you don’t charge the right price you are bound to fail or, a little better, retard your business. You might be able to sustain but not grow for sure.

We need to separate ourselves from the crowd. Let’s not just create the same usual stuff the people create. Inspire yourself, experiment and start creating something authentic. I can bet you it will give you immense pleasure, confidence and a reason to quote rightly for your services. Good Luck !

Filed in Freelancing on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 · 2 Comments »