Re: FLASH: Salaries

[Chad Byers]

As the co-owner of a creative design company in Louisville, KY, I can tell you

that what David Sparks said is very true.  You need to convince a boss that your

skills are going to be worth what they will pay you.


But you need to really know what the market in your area is.  I have had people

come to freelance for me at rates that are higher than I can get clients to pay

for the work.


As a creative company, the overhead is a heavy cost.  The marketing you do

internally is a heavy cost.  And in many areas of the U.S. (and unfortunately

for me, Louisville is one) convincing people that web design actually costs

anything is very difficult.


Case in point:  Potential client of ours wanted an informational site about

their company.  A reasonable $5000ish figure for what would be an extremely

effective marketing piece.  We give them a detailed proposal with an accounting

of our pricing logic.  They balk at the price.  They don't NEED all that!  After

discussing the importance of good design to communicating credibility and

closing relationships with THEIR clients, they agree to look into things on a

minimal work necessary basis.  We resubmit a proposal a half the original

figure.  After another few weeks of follow-up and waiting, the result:  they

wanted to spend only $500-$800 on the site.  Their budget needs to go to other

concerns.  In all, a waste of probably 10-15 hours of my time in conversation,

research, reading and follow up.  And this is not an exceptional case.


We live and work in an environment which is very protech, future minded.  It is

important to bear in mind that there are still a large number of companies which

don't even have e-mail accounts.  Our house usually manages to bill only $60-$75

an hour for design work, and manages to succeed.  That is about standard in this

area.  If I hire a freelancer at $100 per hour, they need to be able to do the

work in about one third of the time.


Chad H Byers

The Idea Plant, Inc.

Right brained work...left brained reasons.

www.theideaplant.com



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