What to charge for event flyers?

[JonDuke]

I didn't know if this should go here, in the Food and Ent, Tech talk, or Buy n Sell, so I'm just posting here.

I've been doing event flyers for my own business for over a year now. Word of mouth has brought quite a few people to me, and I am going to charge them, but have NO idea what the going rate is. Google gives a too broad average price range anywhere from $25-$500/hour.

So, my question is, what is the going rate for event flyers? (like music/dj events at clubs, Sunday football drink specials at a pub, etc)

I have no idea if I should be charging per hour, or per flyer, and what to charge.

I am not trying to advertise my services here at all, but here's a sample of some stuff I've done. Just looking for suggestions on what is a reasonable rate I should be charging

Spoiler for size

Spoiler!

[CMPunk]

I dunno, I don't think you need to change anything, they look good.

What does it cost you to print them? $1 a piece? Less?

[JonDuke]

No, I mean how much should I charge to design flyer like that. I don't print them at all. I want to know how much to charge people to design a flyer, similar to those, for them, and send them the finished file.

[CMPunk]

Originally Posted by JonDuke

No, I mean how much should I charge to design flyer like that. I don't print them at all. I want to know how much to charge people to design a flyer, similar to those, for them, and send them the finished file.

How long do they take? I'd say $100-$150 to design one

[RogerWilco]

Originally Posted by JonDuke

No, I mean how much should I charge to design flyer like that. I don't print them at all. I want to know how much to charge people to design a flyer, similar to those, for them, and send them the finished file.

Creative work is always hard to quantify. Most people have no idea about the amount of work that goes into creative work. When the work is done it looks simple and crisp but the time behind the work is what counts when you are looking for fees.

Some of this is hard to quantify. If you are starting your own little company some times you need to charge less to get a client base. This all may depend upon if this is what you are doing full time or part time. If it is a side job to make some money on the side you may want to charge a bit less just to get going.

If this is your full time job now to pay the bills you may need to figure out how much you need to bring in per month.

This may not be all that helpfull but once you have a client base that demands what you do it will be hard to name the price.

Maybe charge a fixed fee to do the design work. If it takes a week to design charge a fixed fee for the work. Think about around $100.00 per hour more or less. Then get some printing costs and add 15% for your printing costs.

[RogerWilco]

Just to add to this. Some times you can come up with a great concept, your client may love or hate it.

The you need to redesign and go back and forth. It could easly take a week or two or more to get exactly what the client wants. Factor that in.

[Boblobla]

I have no ideas about your posters but I would give Rachael Jackson the best 30 seconds of her life.

[Jimmy Stang]

Speaking of Rachel Jackson (and a couple of other photos), it looks like they were very slightly stretched to fit, as opposed to simply cropping. It is a minor detail, but it just looks a little "off".

Regarding your pricing, my best advice is to set an hourly rate that you'd like to pay yourself, and base your design work off of that. Don't lowball yourself and try and stick to it as much as practical. And keep in mind that there will always be someone willing to work for less or free, and that's just how it goes. You can spend the time on 5 jobs and get paid properly for 1 and lowballed on 4, or you can do 1 and get paid properly for 1. Your wallet will look the same and you won't have wasted your time.

Then prepare to be dismayed at how little your clients will value creative work, even though they'll be using these to promote and make money for their events.

[RogerWilco]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Speaking of Rachel Jackson (and a couple of other photos), it looks like they were very slightly stretched to fit, as opposed to simply cropping. It is a minor detail, but it just looks a little "off".

Regarding your pricing, my best advice is to set an hourly rate that you'd like to pay yourself, and base your design work off of that. Don't lowball yourself and try and stick to it as much as practical. And keep in mind that there will always be someone willing to work for less or free, and that's just how it goes. You can spend the time on 5 jobs and get paid properly for 1 and lowballed on 4, or you can do 1 and get paid properly for 1. Your wallet will look the same and you won't have wasted your time.

Then prepare to be dismayed at how little your clients will value creative work, even though they'll be using these to promote and make money for their events.

I agree with this. Always remeber that if you never lose a job due to price, you are not charging enough.

[RogerWilco]

Originally Posted by CMPunk

How long do they take? I'd say $100-$150 to design one

Not to pick on you CMPunk, but this is what I mean when I say most people have no idea what it takes to do good design work. I would imagine that the OP would make less than min. wage for $150.00 to design a poster.

[Jacks]

I think it kinda depends on who is supplying the artwork. If the client is giving you all the photos and graphics and you just need to put it all together and make it look good that is one thing. If you are actually doing the graphics yourself or having to find them on the internet and then arranging (paying) for the usage then you would be able to charge a bunch more.

[JonDuke]

I didn't take offense to the comment at all. My wife criticizes my lack of vision when it comes to stretching people all the time. I, for some reason, never see it, but she, and CMPunk pick it our right away. I am super new to all of this and 100% self taught with help from a few YouTube videos. For the last year or 2, I've just loved messing around with PS. I actually just learned about holding the shift key while you free transform to keep the aspect ratio intact, which will #### my wife up about stretched out images.

I don't do this for a living at all and I know I am far from a pro. I have done flyers for many of my company events and since being approached by a number of people to do other work, figure it's time to actually start making some coin and putting what has been a hobby to good use. Just have no idea what to charge and where to start, but appreciate the advice thus far.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by RogerWilco

Not to pick on you CMPunk, but this is what I mean when I say most people have no idea what it takes to do good design work. I would imagine that the OP would make less than min. wage for $150.00 to design a poster.

I don't know about that. I know some people who run a print/design shop that does fantastic work and their rate is $50 an hour. If you provide them with a rough layout, the text, and the photos and/or logos they'll need you're looking at $50-100 for a poster design. If you have basically nothing then it can get a little more expensive and you're looking at $200-300. If someone can't produce a fairly simple poster at $150 and make decent money then they're not fast enough.

[opendoor]

Also, I wouldn't get too hung up on hourly rates if you're just learning still. When people pay someone a shop rate of $50-100 there's the expectation that the person can produce work at the speed of a professional. They're not going to want to pay someone less experienced for 3 hours when they could pay a pro for 1 hour to get similar results.

Speed will come with time, so you might have to take less per hour now. But with experience you'll get better and faster so you can make more money. If you're getting paid for work while still learning you're already way ahead of a lot of people.

[RogerWilco]

Originally Posted by opendoor

I don't know about that. I know some people who run a print/design shop that does fantastic work and their rate is $50 an hour. If you provide them with a rough layout, the text, and the photos and/or logos they'll need you're looking at $50-100 for a poster design. If you have basically nothing then it can get a little more expensive and you're looking at $200-300. If someone can't produce a fairly simple poster at $150 and make decent money then they're not fast enough.

Yeah, no ####. Low end is low end. Most people have no idea what good work is either.

[bc-chris]

ummmm.... i'm hoping this is still in the draft stage....





I'm not sure if there is an enterprise way in kamloops, but there sure is one in kelowna

[First Lady]

Originally Posted by bc-chris

ummmm.... i'm hoping this is still in the draft stage....


I'm not sure if there is an enterprise way in kamloops, but there sure is one in kelowna

So it turns out the thread title IS correct.

[Baxter Renegade]

Start by charging a set rate for designs. Depending on the time required to design something like this, I'd say start around $75.00/hr w/ a 1 or 2 hr minimum. Meet with your clients to talk about their expectations and then throw in your artistic flair to exceed their expectations. provide them with a couple drafts and gauge their reactions. Then charge a small amount per flyer printed should they decide to go with one of your designs. (Invest in a good laser printer! Make money on the documents and shipping!!)

Maybe offer a "back to the drawing board" rate that is slightly reduced from your original rate should your customer not feel it's quite right, or they're picky.

I could see you having to deal with some hellish customers, so having concrete rates in place and communicated to them properly is a must.

[RogerWilco]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Also, I wouldn't get too hung up on hourly rates if you're just learning still. When people pay someone a shop rate of $50-100 there's the expectation that the person can produce work at the speed of a professional. They're not going to want to pay someone less experienced for 3 hours when they could pay a pro for 1 hour to get similar results.

Speed will come with time, so you might have to take less per hour now. But with experience you'll get better and faster so you can make more money. If you're getting paid for work while still learning you're already way ahead of a lot of people.

Do a little math. We all know that everyone on CP makes $100,000 per year. So let's say that the people you know make $150 per design. So either the people you know have over 600 clients that have endless work and pump out 3 new designs per day (this is assuming the people you know never take a day off ever) or the people you know live in their parents basement and don't pay rent. This also must assume that the people you know have no business expenses at all?

Must be one hell of a labour of love for these people you know?

Well that is assuming that they don't own a printing service and hide the design work in the printing costs. That could never happen.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by RogerWilco

Not to pick on you CMPunk, but this is what I mean when I say most people have no idea what it takes to do good design work. I would imagine that the OP would make less than min. wage for $150.00 to design a poster.

Doing the math, it would take him more than 15 hours to put one of those posters together for less than minimum wage. It's pretty straightforward stuff, so I kinda doubt that's how long it takes.

You seem to be suggesting that he charge the rate of a professional graphic designer, when he's said he messes around with Photoshop and has no training other than youtube videos. In other words, he's not a designer.

If you are going to charge pro rates, you should be a pro. If you are a guy who knows how to put a simple poster together, you charge accordingly. That number ain't a hundred bucks an hour.

I can't imagine he'll get very far asking for 1500 bucks to make a poster for a drink special.

My advice to the OP is get what you can, but don't expect that kind of dough.

(and fix the spelling of "location" in your first sample )