hello people welcome to ProUp Masterclass
my name is Tola Alabi in today's class
we're gonna be talking about how to
charge for logo design
So this is the 20th episode of  ProUp Masterclass and I just
want to thank everyone that has been part
of the journey so far I want to thank everyone
that has taken their time to subscribe
to the channel
everyone that has watched a video and
anyone that has dropped a comment from
this 20th episode I will be addressing the
most popular questions I get from
designers so I would encourage you to
send me your questions if you have any
pressing questions you want us to
discuss in this class we're gonna be
taking the next few episodes to address
those questions so your questions are
gonna form our syllabus for the master
class so please send your question email
your questions to me at proupmasterclass@gmail.com
so we'll be starting off this
class of answering questions with our
topic for today which is how much should
you charge for a logo if I had hundred
naira for every time a designer asked me
that question I probably won't need to
work anymore for the rest of my life I
get asked that question almost every
day it's a really I won't say it's a technical
question it's a really simple question
but I think people really expect to have
a one-size-fits-all kind of answer and
that's something you will never get from
from asking this question a lot of
people ask how much do you charge and so
that they can adopt your own fees for
their for their clients but it can
never work that way because it's a
creative process and each person's
creative process is pretty different in
this class I'm telling you how I come up
with my price and you can use it and can
help you to come up with the price of
yours and I said it's not about the
quality of work that you do or how much
experience you've had I've had
people that are less experienced than I
am in the industry and they charge way
more than I do I have people that are
more talented more experienced than I am
and they charge less than I do so it is
not a one-size-fits-all so I hope by the
end of this class you'll be able to
figure out what your price is for logo
design I'm going to start off by telling you
a story an experience I had with a
gentleman I met a few weeks ago I met
this guy he told me he was a designer he
told me he used to be a designer and he's
no longer a designer and that caught my
attention cause I asked him why 
aren't you practicing design anymore and
he told me because he wasn't getting
paid enough to be a designer and I asked
him how long was he a designer for he
told me for about two years
and that made me ask him in that
span of two years are you telling me that
you never got anyone to pay you a fee
that you were comfortable with and he
told me 
there was only one client that he
enjoyed working with and he felt paid
him what he was comfortable with and
made him happy
this client approached him and asked him
how much he would do some branding for
him and he told him what his fee was
told the client it would take about two weeks
and the client agreed and said that was fine
by him he was gonna pay him to do
the job and give him a duration of two
weeks but he was going to lodge him in a
hotel and pay for his feeding make sure
he had Internet access and steady power
supply he wanted him to concentrate
on the project on the branding
project he was doing for him I asked him
how did that go and he said that was the
best project he had ever done in his life as a
graphic designer
and I said was the client happy with the
results he said yes the client was very happy he was
happy with it and it was really
creative work he ended up doing for the
client and he said after that he never
had any client do that for him and I
can understand I've never had a client
do that for me ever
and that's something I don't think a lot
of us we will ever experience that
brings me to my point a lot of times
when we try to come up with fees for
design for logo design we tend as
creatives to focus on the work itself on
the creative work itself on how much it
would cost to do that thing called a logo so
we charge for the graphics we charge for
what we do and a lot of times we are
blindsided by the fact that there are a
lot of things that need to be put in
place for us to be creative and we do
not charge for those things in the
example I gave you this man I met the
client basically was paying him not to
think about feeding think about internet
access think about power supply the
client wanted him to solely focus on
getting the job done so the client was
actually paying him to get all the other
things off his mind so we must think
about those things that go into creating
that creative environment and we must
factor that into our pricing that's what I
do when when I try to come up with a
price for logo design I think a lot of
us try to come up with some arbitrary
figure and just say I think oh I think
50,000 be okay I think hundred thousand will be okay I think two hundred thousand will be okay but
you really cannot justify that price
so at the end you're either charging too
much or charging too little and the
problem with charging too little is the
fact that when you start the work you
begin to feel like you've been given the
shorter end of the stick to pick
and if you are charging too much you
have this guilt trip that you really do
not deserve what you want because you
cannot justify your price so what I'm
talking about right now is how to charge
for those things that build up a
creative environment for you because
those things are just as important if
not more important than
creative work you are doing what
I do is I think about those things what
are those things that I need as a
designer that to make my environment
creative I think there are some basic
needs
I think the first basic need is that I
need to be alive I need to feed so if
I'm working on a logo I think of it that
how long is it gonna take
I'm given 14 days two weeks a
month and I think I need to feed for
these two weeks now I don't want to be
working on a logo and be thinking of
what would I eat how I afford lunch how would I afford breakfast so I need to know
what it's gonna cost for me to feed in that span of two weeks and that's
gonna be factored into my price so if
I'm going to say it's 1,000 naira to feed for
two weeks of doing that project I don't want
to think of
how I'm going to feed I'm going to put that in
the bill so that's 1,000 naira I'm
gonna think of power supply now power
supply is a big issue especially here in
Nigeria and I'm going to think of how much it
would take to run my generator and you
always have to assume that there isn't going to be any power so I'm going to
think
of how much it's going to take to run my generator for that span of two weeks let's
assume that there is no power at all
and you might feel like that
might be a bit unfair cause there
might be power for the whole two weeks
but truth of the matter is what if there
isn't
what if the transformer in your
area blew up and there was no power for two
weeks the client will still want his work
at the end of that period you stated to
the client so you must plan for the worst case
scenario and put that in how much will
it take to fuel my gen to get that done
and I put that that's another 1,000 naira
I put that in there that makes 2,000 naira so
I'm slowly building up my rates
I also think I need internet access I need good fast internet access
how much is it gonna cost for me to afford
that to do my research and look up
things and communicate to the client and
send files and things like that how much
is that gonna cost me for that period of
time I put that in there I add
that to it if that's 2000 naira I put that
in there
and then I'm already building my cost it's
already 4,000 naira
I think of other things that I might
need rest relaxation how do I relax how
do I get inspired I buy books I buy
magazines there was a time I used to buy a
particular magazine every week just to
get inspiration and I use that
inspiration to better service my client
so if that is something I use for
inspiration I put that in there
the cost of the magazine to get that too
goes in there if what inspires you is
going to the movies once a week that's
cool you have to be able to put that in
there because it's all part of creating that
creative enabling environment that
allows you to do a good work in the
first place so I put that in there also
the bottom line is you need to be able
to consider those things that allow you
to be creative
you must cater for them you must
consider them those things around you
that go into your creative process so if
you have someone that's working with you
you have someone that's interning with you
a staff that is working with
you you must be able to put that how
much do I pay this person per week
much would I pay him for this amount of
two weeks or whatever time you've stipulated
to the client and you must be able to put that in
your bill so you've built up what it
takes for you to be creative that's part
of your bill after which you now go
and charge for the work itself now this
is where most of us start we charge for
the work itself without charging for
what it takes for you to be creative but
when you've done the billing for what it takes for you to be creative then you can now go
on to charge for how much you think it
would take you to do this work how much
work goes into it for you what
what is the value of that logo for you
for the work itself the hours
you are putting in now you can now charge
for that and add that to what you
already have for the fees of creating
that creative conducive environment for
you when you've now
done that you can now go ahead the last
thing you're gonna add to your fee is
your profit because all these
things you've laid down are not your profit
they just allow you to do the work now you
must think of now what are you going to
get
from this work what is your profit and
you can think about
your profit this way that is what goes
back into your business so you
might think at the end of the year I
want to buy two more laptops I want to
rent an office space now you think about
it
how much do I need to put aside each
month for me to end up with these two
laptops I want to get at the end of the
year so if you can
come up with a figure for that and you see if I
add this by the end of the month I
should be able to get this then you put
that into your billing too what
you are meant to get at the end of the
month if you are putting that that
now becomes your
your profit at the end of the day so you
must be able to add your profit to what
your what goes into your creative work
the creative work you are doing that you
must be able to add what it takes for
you those things that help you to be
creative that creative environment when
you add these three figures together you
should be able to come up with a decent
price for you to charge for a logo and
that's why I do not think you can charge 2,000 naira I don't just think 2,000 naira
can work
if you look at all these things I've put
in place you can't charge 2,000 naira
you can't charge 5000 naira you can't
charge 10,000 naira doing logo design as a job to
maintain a particular lifestyle then you
would have to follow this process that
I've told you so think about it to come
up with your price for a logo you have to think of what
goes into creating a creative
environment for yourself what goes into
doing the technical work the grunt work
of creating the logo and what's your
profit and when you add all these things
together you should be able to come up with a
decent fee that makes you happy at the
end of the day so I do hope you've
gotten a lot from this class I hope
this class helps you to be able to come
up with your own personalized rate for
your business when it comes to logo
design remember nothing I've said today
is written in stone the circumstances
could change and you could
get approached by a real big influential brand and in that kind of
circumstance you might not have to use the formula I've given you right
now
to come up with a rate you might just
have to judge by how big you feel an
asset this logo is to that brand but
more times more often than not we get
approached by brands we do not know
people that just have new ideas good
ideas start-ups that do not even know
they are going to be big brands in the
future so how do you now charge these
people you have to charge a rate that
makes you happy so even if the brand
goes ahead to be a big brand you are
still happy that you've got something
that makes you happy and was an
investment towards your own business
I really hope you've enjoyed this class
if you have any questions feel free to
leave your comments remember to send
your questions to proupmasterclass if
you have a topic you want us to discuss
in our next episode I'll like to encourage
you to subscribe to our channel if you
haven't and to also share the video I
will see you in the next class
