Friday’s article got me thinking over the weekend. There’s a wider frustration about working as a web designer. It doesn’t impact my enjoyment of a job, it influences my taking a job in the first place. Many businesses simply refuse to acknowledge the value of web design. I’m not talking about deliberately lowballing a price to get a good deal, but about not understanding the relevant costs they’re going to have to pay.
Good Work Costs Good Prices
An effective and powerful website, with a wide scope and functionality (particularly custom functionality) can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more. Bespoke design work, even using free open source platforms, incurs a reasonable cost. Many prospective clients will talk excitedly about their needs, concepts and options. Then they’ll talk about a budget that’s minimal at best – and genuinely believe that they’re being reasonable in what they offer.
Crazy Quoting
I don’t blame those prospective clients for their initial misunderstanding. I’ll explain working practices, benefits and provide detailed quotes that outline where their money is going. Many businesses understand that explanation and realise that they’d be happy to pay similar costs for the likes of print media.
Others will point to competing quotes that simply make no business sense. I’ve looked at various freelancing job boards, and I’ve heard comments from potential clients that “I know a guy who can do it for $xxx”. Quotes that are sometimes less than $100 for what is at a minimum twenty hours work. There was a great article recently that worked out a quote for a particular job was equivalent to $3.17 an hour.
You Get What You Pay For
A gifted amateur might do a decent job for a friend’s site. It’s rarely a good business option. You can also get great design for cheap prices by choosing templated options. Some of them are excellent. The Twicet template on ThemeForest costs $35. That price is economical for the designers because they’ve sold nearly 1,000 copies. That’s cool, but it means there are 1,000 websites out there that all look pretty much the same. That’s your choice for dirt cheap web design – amateur, or a template.
Good professionally designed websites add value and are unique to your needs. There are varying prices and varying standards of quality, like any other service. No reasonable business would choose one of the “do it yourself” business card machines at a bus station. Nor would you ask a friend of a friend to build an office extension if they didn’t work in the construction trade. Why would you take a cheap option for what’s likely to be one of the most visible aspects of your business? Why would you think that it’s unreasonable for a good designer to charge a good price?
A professional web designer will treat a client well. They’ll discuss a brief and offer a quote. 99% of the time that quote will be a reasonable price. I hope that soon those quotes start getting treated with a little more respect.
8 Comments
Good stuff Robin. This is so true and in probably every discipline of design nowadays, don’t you reckon? The $5 logos and $50 websites are the by product of crowdsourcing and template websites. I think it does more damage to the client who is caught in the crossfire of cheap temptation and possibly being ripped off of huge amounts of money than us freelancers because there are still educated clients out there who value the importance of good work.
I think it is more common in web and logo design, as opposed to print design. I think that people still value more something that they can physically touch.
Can be frustrating when you’re pitching to small businesses, because web design seems to be the place where they limit their budget particularly. In general though I think you’re right, it’s potentially more damaging to clients given the difficulty of them effectively judging what’s a good service and what’s just rubbish.
From a freelance designer’s point of view, it can be beneficial in one area. The need to explain the value in good web design is important. We’ve (thankfully) moved past the stage where designers could simply throw together a pretty Flash intro and never have to outline the practical and business benefits of what they’re doing. Designers are being forced to do that now, and understanding the importance of those factors is something that they can then apply directly to their designs.
Yeah, I hear ya. This is also similar to the many businesses that use Word templates to print business letters or those that use the completely generic invoice template provided by QuickBooks. I recognize them and whenever I see them. Although it’s still a business letter or just an invoice, it tells me that the details and appearance is not unique or important to that business. It also leaves me in wonder what other possible corners that business may be cutting (or details they are overlooking).
Very much so – I want to see a business trying to be unique and owning its own brand – and that’s both as a consumer and as a potential contractor. Using generic options suggests that the business itself is generic.
That’s not to say that every small business should be spending excessively on unnecessary branding and design. It doesn’t take a great deal of effort, and very little money, for a new business to come up with an original look and feel.
To me this is the biggest hurdle facing the web industry(specifically freelancing) right now. Like you said it really isn’t the clients fault when they see ads and signs for $500 websites. I recently saw a request for a fully featured real-estate site where they were willing to pay $30, it actually had several quotes around that price.
Noah Stokes recently posted about bringing a more professional attitude to everything. Since the industry is relatively young I think that’s really all we can do. Separate ourselves with professionalism and quality, and try to educate people when we can. But if people aren’t willing to pay, be courteous and warm, then charge them double in 6 months when they need you to fix the site their cousin’s friend didn’t finish. ;)
Yeah, it’s the fact that the real estate company actually got some quotes that worries me. They can’t get any kind of service for that, so not only are they going to get an inaccurate idea of the price of web design, they’ll probably also get a negative image of the industry as a whole.
I agree with Stoke’s article (here’s the link). Being professional, demonstrating in our behaviour and service that we do add value is the only way to prove the relevance and value of our work.
Highly capable designers whose value is appreciated by many, need not worry.
Those responding to a $30 real-estate site should not be taken seriously.
Hi All,
This new trend has started back in the days of hotmail subscription offered for free. I would advice to change the business model to offer the design free with an annual maintenance contract and/or content management on monthly subscription.
I am sure people here may be opposed to my views. I am really not into web design business. However, change is the only thing that is permanent in this universe. Things are changing and we have to change. Necessity is the mother of invention. So, we need to invent new ways and means through Web 2.0 or even 3.0.
Take for example, linkedIn. It is free (basic) and that is how you and me are communicating.
My two cents :)
Thanks,
Om, PMP
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