5 Things To Help You Know How Much To Charge

5 Things To Help You Know How Much To Charge

on Oct 31st 2012 with 28 comments

As a followup to our previous video about 5 Things That Tell Me You’re Not A Professional, today’s post is about deciding how much to charge for your work and what your time is worth. There’s really no magical formula to use, but hopefully the points in this video can help you better decide what you ought to be making.

Full Video

Download Tutorial .mp4

File size: 843.4 MB

Here are the 5 principles covered in this video:

  1. Look Around You
  2. Different Stages, Different Wages
  3. What You Cost x3
  4. What’s Easy For You Isn’t For Them
  5. Avoid Percentages

Adam Everett Miller is everettoptions on Videohive
 
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I am the editor of Aetuts+. I also run Hello Studios as my 9-5 job. I'd love any feedback about Aetuts+ so don't hesitate to drop me a line. ae@tutsplus.com  

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  • Mads Hansen

    How do you deal with the issue of comming out of school and working with the first clients and dealing with buying software licenses? Do you go to the bank and take a loan or charge alittle more to be able to pay for both living and license expenses. Would love to hear peoples thoughts and oppinions on that topic.

    • Steven

      what school are we talking about?
      art-school? –> there is a discount on software for that during school!
      “regular”-school? –> well, don´t think it´s that easy to get a job involving AE… in the first place!

      • http://twitter.com/ZimosAnimation Donnie Ferguson

        There is a discount on licenses for students, but those are educational licenses which cannot legally be used for commercial work. In the case of Adobe software, the creative cloud is a very nice way to pay a small monthly amount rather than a huge upfront cost. That doesn’t factor in plug-in licenses and other software, like a 3D package, for which a startup loan might make sense. Another solid option is to find a job with an established business that has licenses for you to use as an employee while you’re saving up to set out on your own.

    • Kevin

      Why not just use Adobe Cloud and get all of their software for $50 a month? Surly you can skip the daily coffee to be able to pay $50 a month for every single Adobe software.

  • Steven

    WHAT I CHARGE_1 = (All my expenses (Rent, Food, Inshurenses, Cellphone, Internet…etc –> EVERYTHING! during one year) / (the hours i WANT to work in one year))

    WHAT I CHARGE_2 = (What do i want to EARN on top of all my expenses, during a year) / (the hours i WANT to work in one year)

    **divide WHAT I CHARGE_1 only throu the count of hours you are WILLING to work, NOT the hours you CAN work (we all know that there is a difference in that!)
    **if i let you divide trou a YEAR i mean the hours of work in one year – in germany it´s about (250 days of work * 9h a day = 2250h of productiv time (we all know that this is just a number tor calculate with…))

    WHAT I CHARGE = WHAT I CHARGE_1 + WHAT I CHARGE_2

    this is just a little hint, how to calculate your -houre Rate-
    and yes –> AVOID DISCOUNTS, PROMISSES AND PRECENTAGES!!!

    don´t be the “newbee” that makes the market harder… all the cheap-guys i know… don´t work in this job anymore!!

    i hope this helps

    keep it up!

    ;)

  • http://www.facebook.com/nkurunzy Nkurunziza Mufti Guez

    I kinda see it exactly the same way. Massive thank you, I like it

  • http://twitter.com/ClarkeSurrey ClarkeSurrey

    Very informative! Thank you for posting these. I’ve been struggling with this quite a bit lately and I definitely have more confidence now that I’ve heard it from someone who knows what they’re talking about. :)

  • http://www.uniquefx.net/ uniquefx

    Thanks for the advice! Nice to see you’re creating more of these.

  • http://twitter.com/EFEKT_Studio EFEKT Studio

    Very good Adam.For the last advice, sometimes I also catch myself into doing it. Thanks for the reminder :)

  • http://twitter.com/BenWubbleyou Ben Waardenburg

    Mentoring with Adam. I feel like I can take on life now.

  • http://www.facebook.com/CheeseggProductions Kevin Stiller

    Very great lecture. I wil definitely be using these tips in the future!

  • Oula

    It’s really funny to know that we’re all going on the same road … video copilot, aetuts and spending hours on the internet …
    i’m really enjoying this road … thank u Adam … :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/playplaynirmal Nagesh Kandel

    this one, the previous one and those typography tips… these are the ones i loved to watch and just came back and watched again today… refreshes me everytime..

  • http://www.facebook.com/rob.hamilton.37 Rob Hamilton

    Very interesting points Adam. Glad to know that i have been happening things the right way. Keep up the 5 Things talks i have really enjoyed them.

  • RICHARD RHULE

    wow,that very Good of you…i ove love the ideas and the techniques….Thanks alot…God Bless You for Sharing this with us…………

  • http://www.facebook.com/RaahulSaxnea Raahul Saxena

    i like the tutorial but one question!!! u guys are professional video artist.. but can’t you compress ur video in lower size an still keep the quality!! this is a very easy technique and when just a 4yr old video artist like me knows it then how come u don’t!!!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/kwaku.nyantekyi.1 Kwaku Nyantekyi

    Adam, that’s for the advice. Quick question. Because some projects are significantly more work than others, how do you adjust your rate based on workload?

    • everettoptions

      Somebody once told me that if you’re too busy or just don’t want to do a project, charge enough to make you want to do it… though this can work at times, there is also the chance you’ll just offend somebody (especially if you throw out a crazy high number). I try to gauge how many day or hours it will roughly take me and use that number as my starting point… $2,500- $3,000 if I think I could do it with $2,500… then if they take that and I only charge the bottom number, it makes me look good. If it goes long and I have to charge the larger, it won’t be too much of a shocker.

  • http://www.facebook.com/chas.fries Chas Fries

    Really enjoying these “sit downs” with tips about the industry! Hoping to see more soon :D

  • http://twitter.com/ParasUniversal Parasuniversal.com

    Great info, not so great file size for just 5 points.

  • http://twitter.com/Aedaddy AeDaddy

    Thank you for advices Adam!

  • George P

    I have an experience I’d like to share: started a website for somebody I met, published the website online with a logo, a tweaked theme, some PHP and Javascript (the person bought the domain), the person liked it, then I announced that I wanted 300 Euros overall and asked 100 for a deposit, the person was hesitant to pay and I pulled the plug and walked away. So I had a bad experience…

    Based on this and assume you know the overall cost, is it common practice to ask for a deposit? How much would that be? Do you even start the project without a deposit? Also if a project doesn’t progress as you expect and you want to quit, how do you go about doing it? I mean is it common practice to fully or partially refund the deposit? Any experience pointers on this matter from others would be appreciated.

    • DABRA

      You are suppose to get the deposit before you do any work! I will ask around 25-30%, depending on if it’s a new client or someone I’m not completely sure about, or if it’s a long term kind of deal. Another thing you could work out is negotiating small payments that coincide with the agreed upon deadlines for the project. Like for instance say you are going to shoot/edit a wedding or something , so you get a payment the day of the event , a payment when you screen the rough cut with client and final payment when you deliver the final product.

      I think in your case the problem was not about a deposit it’s that you didn’t negotiate the $$$ beforehand, he might have said thanks but no thanks and saved you that extra work.

  • http://www.facebook.com/mariodmp Mario Pereira

    These are great advices, thanks man :) cheers from Portugal!

  • Guest

    I LOVE these sit downs . Thank you. I wish I had this years ago. Have any of you ever been in a situation, my current one, where you take a job and are told you are booked for 4 days but you are unable to finish it due to the client having equipment and asset issues ? Do you finish it and work for free for another day or two or do you request compensation for the delay?

  • http://www.facebook.com/heatherknoxrocks Heather Knox

    I LOVE these sit downs . Thank you. I wish I had this years ago. Have any of you ever been in a situation, my current one, where you take a job and are told you are booked for 4 days but you are unable to finish it due to the client having equipment and asset issues ? Do you finish it and work for free for another day or two or do you request compensation for the delay?

    • Adam Everett Miller
      Author

      Every principle has exceptions and at some point crap will always happen. The goal is to minimize “unfortunate” unforeseen situations AND to be prepared when they do slip through. With your current project, it sounds like you might need to bite the bullet if you don’t have any contract in place addressing “additional work”. You’ll know now to have an “Acts of God” clause in your agreements. If you drive 3 hours to shoot a wedding and the bride doesn’t show up, YOU can’t be punished for that because YOU didn’t drop the ball. You need to at least be paid for the travel along with maybe a small cancellation fee since they robbed your day.

      Sorry to hear about the burn! hopefully you’ll still have something nice at the end to walk away with. :)

      • http://www.facebook.com/heatherknoxrocks Heather Knox

        Thanks Adam! Will you do a video on how to negotiate or direct me to a site? I would like to know how the conversation should or may go, what to say and how to approach it. As always your advice is appreciated.