[ad_1]
[ad_2]
Hi!
So, long story short, I'm (19F) """trying to set up""" a Digital Marketing Agency with my boss(He's a real estate investor, so, no knowledge at all). Before this job, I also worked in marketing in a beauty salon.
Turns out, the beauty salon wants my services again (I did the whole website + a new logo and image editing) but last time i did it with no added cost to my salary (dumb, i know. I'm young, and very shy for asking for money)
This time, though, they asked about the pricing, and i have a meeting within 3 hrs.
How do I price these services? What do I do??!?! Please WordPress Warriors, forgive my unpaid labour sins and save me!!!
Check out any maintenance services for WordPress and see how they priced their services.
You can visit WPBeginner Pro Services and check their pricing and services for WordPress Maintenance.
Estimate time and multiply with desired hour wage.
It’s pretty old but this can give you an idea of starting prices – https://www.behance.net/gallery/67384009/Official-DU-Design-Minimum-Price-List
Also this is for Webflow, but still another tool to use which is kind of handy when figuring out pricing – https://www.cashyourflow.com/
Prices vary country to country as well, where are you and the client based?
Speaking from experience, don’t sell yourself short or you’ll regret it later. If you’re unsure about the pricing, don’t give one yet. Listen to what’s needed and take your time to know the market prices, then get back to them later.
Ok we don’t know much from your message. But let’s try..
Set an hourly rate card based on the types of skills/roles that clients may require from this “agency”. E.g. WordPress developer, UI Designer, Project Manager, Copywriter, Marketing Specialist, SEO expert, etc.
PayScale or ChatGPT can give good estimates on what’s the market rate for each of those roles in your location if you’re completely clueless.
In the meeting, gather the requirements, and tell them you will come back with a quote/proposal.
If you have the rate card, you can share it as a reference and explain that discounts will apply if they sign a retainer contract. If it’s a project, you need to go back, define the approach with “your team” and estimate the effort required, then get back with a proposal that includes scope, timelines, cost, etc.
Work out what weekly income you want, including taxes. Divide it by 5. That’s your day rate. Divide that by 7. That’s your hourly rate. Add 25% for accountants, marketing, time lost due to chasing clients.
For a job quote, work out how long it will take. Multiply that by 2.5 because it always takes much longer than you expect.
If they won’t pay that, you can’t do the job because you would be loosing money. That is effectively paying them to work for them. If your competitors are charging less, good – eventually they will go out of business or live in their cars.
This formula is how big agencies do it. And has kept me in business for 25 years. A key trick is never drop prices and act like you have so much business you don’t care if they don’t give you the job. But if you have already worked for them, they will expect the same rate forever, so if your previous people got it for next to nothing, you have little chance of getting a profitable rate out of them now.
you might find this calculator useful [Web Design Cost Calculator](https://awezzom.com/tools/web-design-cost-calculator)
When I first started, I asked ChatGPT 😅. Told it exactly the type of website I was making, all the features, pages etc and ask for an estimated price valuation. Now I’m better at judging what prices to charge, but using ChatGPT at the start is how I did it.
sit with the client, gather their requirements and tell them you’ll get back to them in a a few days with a written proposal that includes pricing.
then, go home and estimate how long you think the project will take.
add maybe 25% to that as a buffer.
multiply that number by your hourly rate (which, literally, can be anything) and you have one part of your project cost.
the other part is any plugins, etc that need to be purchased on behalf of the client.
If you don’t know what they are asking for, choose an hourly fee for your services and then you can also offer like something “depending on the volume you can do some kind of an discount”.
not sure what a common rate for your area is, depending on your experience you can just set an anchor for them to know. wouldn’t commit to a binding offer without knowing the details.
Start at $1500 for a template site.
Then add $1000 for custom designs.
Then say you can work hourly for detailed features/functions. Need a monthly fee for Ads and managing them.
Start there and go then go for broke.
Make sure that you include a charge for both changes and for endless revisions (usual fix is to give 1 or 2 versions included and additional versions cost extra).
Is gender supposed to influence the calculation?
Well how did it go?
There are so many approaches and beliefs around pricing. Whatever you tried, it probably was not wrong so don’t stress, your goal on projects now is to try and make it so that you won’t regret taking a project later. I have done many projects that calculated out to $3/hr until I learned to quote better, build better, etc. and that took time. It is a learning process – because you don’t know yet how is best to charge for your services and how you work, or who you like working with even. Don’t worry about “doing it right” or trying to appear like you know everything, people see through that right away. Clients appreciate honesty above all else, well and promptness. Just do your best.