Pricing Projects, The Sustainable Way

Should you charge your worth?

Sometimes, you’ll see advice online about understanding your worth when it comes to pricing projects. It wasn’t until I took a different approach to my mindset around money that it started to grow and money wasn’t the centerpiece to define business growth. It became clear to me that my focus on money was clouding my decision making, when really my goal is to - build a great business that impacts many with measurable metrics and make a living in this design space.

In order to do that, I need to make selfless decisions that not only benefit myself, but others, and most importantly Crafted Studios - since that’s a living entity in itself. A good friend of mine always tells me “hold onto your bread & re-invest into your company” Whether you’re building a creative company or taking this on as a side business, I want to break this down in a digestible way for you to go implement right away.

A Healthier Approach To Money

Charging your worth is flawed, it’s hard to put a number on worth - and it’s even more difficult living with your worth attached to money. I believe we’re so much greater than the living we make, or the career paths we go down. Instead we go back to the fundamentals, take a look at the following in your business:

• Total of the tools you use in your business (examples: Adobe Cloud, Loom, Slack, Webflow, etc)

• Your total rent (this can be considered an office space)

• Office supplies & hardware (iMac, desk, microphone, etc)

• Your staffs rates (if you have a team)

• Taxes from your staffs payout

• Cost to do the work

• Profit

• Taxes to do business

The idea of this is - is to let the numbers set a foundation for you, you’re running a business and at the end of the day there’s expenses that need to be accounted for in order to make a profit and stay in the green. Then, we have the other aspect of this which is branding or the value someone is going to get from your services because your brand alone also commands a price that’s parallel to whatever position you put yourself in & the problem you solve for a certain person. I wouldn’t even say look at other competitors, because they can be lowballing themselves as well.

The Worth of Your Brand

This is where I believe people get the idea of worth, everyone should believe that their brand is worth something and rightfully so. The thing is, it’s a dangerous measurement on it’s own - it needs numbers behind it to ensure you’re not lowballing it. Your brand will be tested, this is the fun/experimental part about it. When you find that people tell you it’s either “too high” or maybe they’re running away because it’s too low - you need to keep evolving, learning, and growing regardless as you understand your market more & more.

Wrap Up

All in all, let a solid understanding of the cost to keep your business running lead the way. Then, get into the worth of your brand and your position in the market as you learn and grow.

I hope you guys found this one helpful - did I miss anything when it comes to pricing in the bulletpoints? if so, what else would you add? I wanna know, leave your thoughts in the comments below - or you can do what other people like to do and just put me on blast via Twitter 🤝🏽