how much should I charge for a slogan

Eileen S · ‎11-04-2021

A new client asked me for a rate for 2 blog posts, an about us page and a slogan. I told her Id do the about us for $100 and each blog for $100, but my rate is $50/hr. and I told her id charge her by the hour for the slogan. But now she wants a fixed price. I'm top-rated and very experienced. I've charge $1,000 in the past, but she is a new brands and I know she won't spend that. Suggestions?

Anthony H · ‎11-04-2021

There are likely a hundred answers to this, but one option is to stick to your guns. When you hire a plumber and they say they charge by the hour, you normally don't say, "Well, in my case I want you to charge by the project." You pay by the hour, because that's how the plumber set it up. Why should the client get to tell you how to run your business? If you charge by the hour, so be it.

Of course, you could just toss a nice round number at her and see what happens.

Piotr O · ‎11-04-2021

Anthony H wrote:
When you hire a plumber and they say they charge by the hour, you normally don't say, "Well, in my case I want you to charge by the project." You pay by the hour, because that's how the plumber set it up.

I would never hire a plumber by the hour to watch them sit, browse the FB, and smoke cigarettes while looking at the watch with a wide grin on their faces. No F way.

Tonya P · ‎11-05-2021

Piotr O wrote:
Anthony H wrote:
When you hire a plumber and they say they charge by the hour, you normally don't say, "Well, in my case I want you to charge by the project." You pay by the hour, because that's how the plumber set it up.

I would never hire a plumber by the hour to watch them sit, browse the FB, and smoke cigarettes while looking at the watch with a wide grin on their faces. No F way.

Depends on how desperate you are to get your pipes fixed. LOL

Preston H · ‎11-04-2021

re: "how much should I charge for a slogan"

As much as the market will bear.

Piotr O · ‎11-04-2021

Hi,

I can relate to her idea of a fixed rate for the slogan. You ask $50 per hour - how can she even get an estimate of how many hours does it take you to come up with a slogan? If you come back to her tomorrow and tell her "well, it took me 24 hrs and here it is", she might get a heart attack. Maybe at least give her time estimation.

Tonya P · ‎11-05-2021

Eileen S wrote:
A new client asked me for a rate for 2 blog posts, an about us page and a slogan. I told her Id do the about us for $100 and each blog for $100, but my rate is $50/hr. and I told her id charge her by the hour for the slogan. But now she wants a fixed price. I'm top-rated and very experienced. I've charge $1,000 in the past, but she is a new brands and I know she won't spend that. Suggestions?

It seems like you already have an idea as to what your answer should be. Your client likely views a slogan in terms of word count and doesn't realize the time it takes to craft a brand's primary message. I might convert my hourly to a fixed amount (e.g., 2 hours = $100), then spend no more than that amount of time on the slogan project. Inform the client in advance that you will limit your input to what you come up with in that amount of time. You could also explain what more comes in a 20-hour package vs a 2-hour one and let her choose her maximum.

Mikko R · ‎11-05-2021

Hourly pricing is hard in creative domains for tasks that depend on mainly non-physical activities.

Considering how Upwork and its payment protection for hourly paid jobs works, it is nearly impossible for the client to verify what was "done"... inside the freelancer's head. Nor it is possible for the freelancer to measure it accurately either.

I have a bit of a similar issue with IP generation jobs. Sometimes I figure out something rather complicated and patentable when cycling or eating coconuts, sometimes it comes to me in shower or even at sleep. Rarely it happens when I sit at my desk.

As I have no way to track the time spent on the work, I don't even try.

The only way I can set a price tag is by researching about the client's business and value chain, and by setting a very rough but rather high price tag and make it a fixed-price, value-based project. There may or may not be several milestones depending on how the client wants to structure the deliverables.

In highly creative jobs, hourly-based pricing is prone to critique. Value-based fixed pricing is fairer to the client and probably better business for the freelancer.

I hope this helps. I've been there. 👍

Piotr O · ‎11-06-2021

A real-life example from...yesterday (outside of UpWork, but it doesn't matter):

Client: a new wine bar in a large European city

Task: text content for the whole website to replace the existing one

Price: fixed, nothing exorbitant

I have submitted the work that I am quite sure is of pretty high quality (later on asked for external feedback from people who never pat me on the back and they confirmed).

The feedback I received was: we don't like it, and we think it was done during one day only (sic!)

As funny as it sounds now, a was speechless for a while. I did not find it suitable to correct their assumptions and tell them that it actually took me about 3 hours as I had a nice "flow" and the topic was pleasurable. I told them to either give me very specific guidelines for changes ("we don't like it" is bollocks) or I'll refund the advance and use this work for some other client, no problem with that. Now THEY have a problem 😉

Anyway, just a funny situation showing that some clients do have not much of the idea if it is the result they need or they need to see the sweat and tears of the author to feel that their money is well spent.

Another example: I was offered a job as a copywriter to write blog posts and on-line course content - the prerequisite was that I need to be present at the office in some skyscraper downtown while writing. Why on earth? Would watching me rubbing my forehead make them feel they wisely spend their money? I told them that I need my cats and dogs to assist me with writing, and, as a chain smoker, I am not willing to ride down and up 21 floors every 30 minutes to light one up 😉

Martina P · ‎11-06-2021

Piotr O wrote:

Another example: I was offered a job as a copywriter to write blog posts and on-line course content - the prerequisite was that I need to be present at the office in some skyscraper downtown while writing. Why on earth? Would watching me rubbing my forehead make them feel they wisely spend their money? I told them that I need my cats and dogs to assist me with writing, and, as a chain smoker, I am not willing to ride down and up 21 floors every 30 minutes to light one up 😉

LOL, but unwise to tell them that. Next time, say you will be happy to come to their office, if they accomodate some small requirements you have to have in your environment to facilitate your work-flow, namely a tiny corner to set up an altar for a short but not unpleasant spell-casting ritual. Also, you need to smoke the office with sage roughly every 30 minutes. Plus, you drink a lot of coffee, which you hope is not a dealbreaker.