How to Get Paid

Learning Objectives: 6A2

Within this workshop we looked at how much we'd charge a client for different jobs:

How much would you charge for a logo for a student business?
£50-100

How much would you charge for an Indie mag design?
£250-300

How much would you charge for branding a festival?
£1000

This exercise was intersting as I realised I was undercharging once we discussed what others would charge based on experience and time spent on a brief. This discussion helped me realise that clients are paying for experience, knowledge and education therefore confidence is key as perception is important when charging clients, as you need to have confidence in what you do. Therefore to help identify what I need to charge in future we looked at monthly costs to help identify the minimum I would need to make as a freelancer. However the actual amount I'd want to make would be around 3x more than my outgoings to help cover costs and balance income out over the months to cover varying work flow. A key aspect of charging clients is setting a deadline and delivering on that date, asking for 50% upfront also important before starting so not having to wait until end to be paid. 

Monthly Outgoings: £635
Weekly budget - £60 
Rent - £380 
Creative Cloud - £14.50 

Ideally would want to make £1900-£2000 per month 
Another tool suggested to help price freelancers is yourrate.co which helps freelancers work out their rates. 

Contracts and Chasing Payments:
An important part of freelancing is contracts and getting paid on time. 
Contract:

• List deliverable in detail 
• Price and delivery 
• how much £ and when to be paid 
• Rights:
• once delivered client owns work 
• authorship/credit - client owns work but still must credit designer 
• Illustrations:
• renewal fees
• logo sold on yr long term, therefore must be renewed for continued use 
• 50% of original fee
• Cancellations 
• if cancelled or unused still must be paid in full 
• Artist Creative vision 

Tips:

• sending email from an 'accountant' using bold and red, 'accounts@company.com' 

Invoicing:
Include:

• name 
• invoice number
• date
• client 
• reference number 
• Detailed costs 
• Title 
• Item 1
• Item 2 etc.
• Terms 
• Total 

Invoice-generator can also help

If freelancing need to register for self assessment for tax - gov.co.uk unique tax reference number 

Check VAT - over £70k