Hasta La Ideas

This week, we want to know how you go about charging for your creative work…

Tim Fendley, creative director at AIG, recalled the late Alan Fletcher’s advice on how to charge clients on the CR Blog in 2006:

“Think of the right number and then double it. If the client doesn’t have a sharp intake of breath then you’ve shot too low,” was Fletcher’s inimitable take on it.

So how do you go about the business of making money from your work?

Do you work out a day rate for jobs? Charge per hour? Does the size of the client involved make a difference to your pricing?

How do you ensure you get a good rate of return with each job?

Do you ever take on a client knowing that you might even lose money – but that the long term benefits of doing the job outweigh the initial costs?

What about those jobs you do just for the money? During a debate between Rick Poynor and Pentagram’s Michael Bierut that we featured in CR in 2004, Bierut said:

“Speaking as someone who enthusiastically sold out, every time I’ve done something just for the money, no matter how much they paid, it was never enough.”

Let us know what you think.

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