Freelance Fees

[ivanjay]

Good evening all,

 

I am thinking about trying to do some freelance evening / weekend work to pick up a few extra bucks. I am proficient in AutoCAD / Architectural Desktop and Max Design. My background is actually with the foodservice industry. Currently, I work for a foodservice consulting firm who handles design of restaurants, employee cafeteria's, etc. I am not looking to compete with where I work now, just supplement the income on my own time.

 

My question is what do freelance visual artists typically charge per rendering? To date everything has been still shots although animations are not out of the question. I am not sure if there is a cut and dry answer but any insight would be appreciated.

[Dave Buckley]

I'm not really sure your competition will tell you directly what they charge

 

However, there are plenty of threads on here that discuss what you have asked, do a quick search

[Tommy L]

Charge whatever your client will pay and produce accordingly.

[anejo]

I am not sure if there is a cut and dry answer but any insight would be appreciated.

 

There really is not. You have to honestly evaluate your quality of work and ask yourself what you would pay for that still or animation. Being that you are in NY, you will be a bit pricey than most.

 

Since every project is going to be different, there's no typical charge. Some can be charged hourly or by render, i would base it on the complexity of the project.

 

I realize this is not a perfect answer to your question, however this question has been debated over and over with different opinions.

[Jonathan Sanchez]

The great "how much should I charge" question. Bottom line Ivan is nobody can answer that for you. Me personally, I estimate how many hours the work will take me and estimate accordingly. Artists can charge from 20 all the way to over 100 an hour, but you must take into account the quality of your work vs that of your competition.

[ivanjay]

I guess the intention of my question, understandably, was misunderstood.

 

As a designer for a firm I know what my firms charges for these types of services. I also have a very strong handle on estimating the ours and complexity of the work involved... My question (to be more accurate) is what should my expectations be fee wise as a freelancer vs part of a design firm. There is a tremendous reduction in overhead, and obviously I am not sharing profits. So the fee can be less, but to what extent is what I am trying to grab a handle of.

[Jonathan Sanchez]

hmm... as a freelancer you definitely have a lower overhead. However, I would say charge the highest number you think the client would pay. If the quality of your work is the same as the work of a bigger firm, then there is no reason for price to be considerably lower. As a matter of fact, some of my clients tell me that they prefer working with freelancers because they feel a more "personal" relationship (which is not always good :-). So when pricing, just figure out how much your time is worth, and the project/client's budget and usually it should be lower than a competing "larger" firm, but don't make it your main focus to be a certain percentage cheaper than a firm.

Edited August 31, 2010 by sancheuz

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

This method may seem a little cumbersome, and overly thought out, but hopefully it will give you some insight on developing an hourly rate for yourself. Keep in mind, I rarely freelance so this method has not been tested by me.

 

If you work through these numbers, and your rate is out of whack with what others are charging, then you should probably abandon the idea of freelancing.

_____________

 

Maybe you can look at how firms calculate hour rate, and use a similar method to come up with a number.

 

Let’s also say that your firm has this multiplier formula that states that you need to have a 2.8 multiplier in order to make a profit or break even on a project. This multiplier is based on your hourly salary, and how much more they need to bill you at in order to cover equipment expenses, administration expenses, software, insurance, rent, electric, etc… Basically anything that is associated with the cost of running the business, or the cost of employing you.

 

So, your firm needs to have a 2.8 multiplier. Your firm bills you at $100 an hour. This means your hourly rate at your firm is $35.71, or $74,285 a year.

 

So, now you need to add your personal expenses of software, office space, cell phone, printing, computer equipment, and whatever else you need in order to complete your work. Let’s say you get all of these numbers for freelancing, and discover that your yearly cost for freelancing will be $5,000 of direct expense to you by freelancing.

 

Ok, now you need to figure out how much you need to make per hour in order to be happy, and make the less amount of free time you will have worthwhile to you. We will say that you need to make $45 an hour to make you happy with giving up your free time, and to keep you above pace as to what you earn in your daily job. This is also a random number based on how much you feel your worth.

 

Ok, next step, …how many freelance projects are you going to have, or how many hours are you going to target for freelancing. Let’s say you plan on averaging 8 hours of freelance a week. 8 hours time 52 weeks, assuming you will be able to finesse the vacation time yourself. This means you will be freelancing 416 hours in 1 year.

 

So, now lets take the $5,000 of operating cost, and divide it by the number of hours you will be operating. So we get a figure of $12.01. This number will need to be added to your $45 an hour that you need to be happy. So, $57 would be the amount you need to bill your client to break even if you think you can manage an average of 8 hours of freelancing per week.

 

Now, if your happy with less than $45 an hour for your profit, then your hourly rate will come down, but I would not adjust your operating cost based on equipment and software you currently own, because you will need to upgrade at some point, and that upgrade is part of your operating cost.

 

All of this after taxes would probably give you $12,000 to $15,000 of extra income for the year.

[jinsley]

This method may seem a little cumbersome, and overly thought out, but hopefully it will give you some insight on developing an hourly rate for yourself. Keep in mind, I rarely freelance so this method has not been tested by me.

 

If you work through these numbers, and your rate is out of whack with what others are charging, then you should probably abandon the idea of freelancing.

_____________

 

Maybe you can look at how firms calculate hour rate, and use a similar method to come up with a number.

 

Let’s also say that your firm has this multiplier formula that states that you need to have a 2.8 multiplier in order to make a profit or break even on a project. This multiplier is based on your hourly salary, and how much more they need to bill you at in order to cover equipment expenses, administration expenses, software, insurance, rent, electric, etc… Basically anything that is associated with the cost of running the business, or the cost of employing you.

 

So, your firm needs to have a 2.8 multiplier. Your firm bills you at $100 an hour. This means your hourly rate at your firm is $35.71, or $74,285 a year.

 

So, now you need to add your personal expenses of software, office space, cell phone, printing, computer equipment, and whatever else you need in order to complete your work. Let’s say you get all of these numbers for freelancing, and discover that your yearly cost for freelancing will be $5,000 of direct expense to you by freelancing.

 

Ok, now you need to figure out how much you need to make per hour in order to be happy, and make the less amount of free time you will have worthwhile to you. We will say that you need to make $45 an hour to make you happy with giving up your free time, and to keep you above pace as to what you earn in your daily job. This is also a random number based on how much you feel your worth.

 

Ok, next step, …how many freelance projects are you going to have, or how many hours are you going to target for freelancing. Let’s say you plan on averaging 8 hours of freelance a week. 8 hours time 52 weeks, assuming you will be able to finesse the vacation time yourself. This means you will be freelancing 416 hours in 1 year.

 

So, now lets take the $5,000 of operating cost, and divide it by the number of hours you will be operating. So we get a figure of $12.01. This number will need to be added to your $45 an hour that you need to be happy. So, $57 would be the amount you need to bill your client to break even if you think you can manage an average of 8 hours of freelancing per week.

 

Now, if your happy with less than $45 an hour for your profit, then your hourly rate will come down, but I would not adjust your operating cost based on equipment and software you currently own, because you will need to upgrade at some point, and that upgrade is part of your operating cost.

 

All of this after taxes would probably give you $12,000 to $15,000 of extra income for the year.

 

nice. not cumbersome at all, and well thought out.

[heni30]

To see what the market is doing, you can also go to different websites, say you're shopping around and want to get some prices and pick out samples from their portfolio and just ask how much they would be.

 

Nic, you keep saying "what would you be happy with?" - Happiness was tossed out of the equation a long time ago; now it's

"what would keep you from becoming a homeless person?"

[Tommy L]

To see what the market is doing, you can also go to different websites, say you're shopping around and want to get some prices and pick out samples from their portfolio and just ask how much they would be.

 

I find this very annoying.

[jinsley]

yeah, bad practice. Lets not waste each other's time...

[Tommy L]

Yes, my prices are not confidential, anyone asks I tell them. But the mystery shopper routine just makes you plan your schedule around something thats not going to happen.

[heni30]

I guess when I was starting out a lot of people did keep pricing very confidential and wouldn't give any info out, not even ballpark, unless you sent detailed acad drawings. I think having a pricing section with representative portfolio samples and their

respective prices with a disclaimer about individual project price variance eliminates all problems.

 

Or you can take Steve Oles' (did giant charcoal pencil drawings for the likes of I.M.Pei and others) approach. Way back when, he

he had a simple minimalist line: Pricing - $10,000. No explanations, break-downs, elaborations or anything.