How much should I charge for my custom planner design services?
You have the skills, you have the creativity, and you've put your packages together. You just have one little thing left to figure out before you're able to launch your custom planner design services – how much are you going to charge?
There are many variables to consider when deciding how much your services are worth. It can be scary and intimidating! That's how I felt when I first started.
In this blog post, we're going to consider some factors that influence your pricing and what you can learn from my personal experience when I launched my service offerings. Make sure to stick around until the end, because I have a special tool for you that will make this process easier for you!
Let's dive in with a short overview of what we're going to be covering...
Creating defined packages
Understanding how the type of services you offer affects your pricing
How income goals and monthly expenses can impact how many design projects you take on
Creating Defined Packages
When I booked my first custom planner design project, I had no packages. I didn't even officially offer my services yet! All I had done was post behind-the-scenes content and share my work on social media and the inquiries started rolling in. In fact, I only charged $300 for my first project! As my experience level increased and I did more research, I was able to set package rates that led to me quoting $3000 for the next client that inquired. She came to me wanting designs for a product line. When I sent the package details to her, she signed the contract and paid in full the next day!
Clear packages will make it easy for your clients to determine how you can help them and set expectations for working together. Having an offering at each level of service will also make pricing your packages even easier! Here's how you can do it:
Know Your Audience: Start by understanding who your clients are. Are they overbooked service providers looking for a way to avoid burnout? Are they creative entrepreneurs looking to release a digital stationery collection to expand their reach? Knowing your audience will help you tailor your packages to their needs and preferences. You can even give them names that are catchy and fun!
Identify Your Offerings: Next, brainstorm the different types of services you want to offer. Will you focus solely on digital planners, or will you also include digital stationery collections and physical planners? And the possibilities don't stop there! You can even offer monthly retainers for clients who need ongoing design support or day rates for those who have a variety of smaller design projects they want you to complete from time to time.
Create Tiered Packages: Once you've identified your offerings, create tiered packages that will work with the budgets and needs of your ideal clients. For example, you could offer a basic package that includes one custom digital planner, a standard package for a digital stationery collection, and a premium level of service package with unlimited revisions and personalized design consultations! By having a different option for clients to choose from, you're able to cater to their unique needs and have the opportunity to work with business owners from more niches! This means you can work with clients who have larger budgets, will grow your mind, and expand your skills.
Define Package Features: Clearly outline the features included in each package to help clients understand the value they'll receive. This could include the number of product designs, rounds of revisions, customization options, turnaround times, and additional services like access to exclusive add-ons or priority support. Think about what makes you unique and lean into it!
👉 Psst! Want to learn more about how you can use your special skills to offer design services? Read this blog post.
Types of Services That Affect Pricing
When it comes to design services you can offer with the skillset you've cultivated designing digital planners, there isn't just one right way to go. You can design physical planners and digital stationery collections, or offer design retainers to provide clients with ongoing support! Just like your offerings may vary, the way you price them can too. There are four common pricing structures...
Hourly rate vs. flat rate: Which is better for your business?
Value-Based Pricing: Designing a planner means taking someone's signature process and turning it into a budget-friendly option for them to sell an unlimited number of times. Think about how much value that can bring your clients for years to come! With value-based pricing, you're not just charging for the hours you put in, you're valuing the impact your design has on their business. It's like saying, "I'm not just selling you a planner; I'm offering you a tool that will transform your business and the lives of your clients." Value-based pricing is my favorite way to price my packages and the option I recommend the most!
Hourly Rate: This means that you're billing your clients for all the time you spend on their projects. You'd have to keep close track of when you're working and for how long. This is the most "traditional" method of pricing your services – similar to how you would clock in and out if you weren't your own boss! The drawback to charging an hourly rate? The more experience you get, the faster you'll be able to work. So as your skills and experience increase, the amount of money you're making will decrease. Charging an hourly rate may be a great place to start, but in the long run, it may be worth it to choose value-based pricing.
Take the guesswork out of pricing your products with a pricing calculator that does all the math for you! Save yourself time and energy while also implementing strategies that will help you book out your services from the very beginning. My course, Planner Design Services Mastery, will equip you with the perfect pricing calculator and everything you need to know to use it and launch your services successfully. Enroll now here!
Project-based pricing: How to determine a fair cost for your design projects
Work for Hire: Let's say a client approaches you with a specific vision for their planner design, but they want full ownership of the final product. Enter work-for-hire agreements. In this scenario, you're renting out your creative talents to bring their vision to life. Imagine you were a contractor hired to build a house. Once the project is complete, the client owns the finished product and your role comes to an end. This is a great option for monthly retainers since you'll be working with clients to create content specifically for their businesses, courses, or collections.
Licensing: What if instead of giving your client full ownership of your products and selling them the rights to the design outright, you were able to come to a licensing agreement? This would mean that you'll remain the owner of your design while allowing your clients to use it for a specific period or purpose. You could even receive royalties for this! Licensing can also mean that you can create products with a commercial license that people can buy to edit and resell to their potential clients. You can take a look at some commercially licensed products for inspiration here!
Related read: Looking for other ways to scale your digital stationery business? Give this blog post a read!
How Income Goals and Monthly Expenses Can Impact How Many Design Projects You Take On
Just like creating defined packages and setting your prices requires careful consideration, setting income goals and understanding how your monthly expenses affect how much work you need to take on is an essential step to take before launching your offerings.
Start by listing your monthly expenses - rent/mortgage, utilities, software subscriptions, design tools, and your other monthly living expenses. Next, break down your income goals into achievable milestones. How many design projects do you need each month to meet your financial needs? Will you focus on long-term client relationships with monthly retainers, or offer your services as a day rate package?
Don't forget! You're still a successful digital stationery shop owner. Make sure to take into consideration how much money your shop is bringing in and how much free time you'll need to create new stationery collections and provide customer service to those who have purchased your products. Adding a new offering to your business is exciting, but we want to avoid burnout!
👉 Psst! Running a business and launching services can be stressful. Check out this blog post to get some mindset tips!
As you crunch the numbers, remember that pricing is crucial. Offer packages tailored to different budgets and needs to attract a diverse range of clients. So, grab your calculator, and work backward to create offerings that will lead you to financial success! Whether you're designing digital stationery collections, physical planners, or anything in between, with careful planning and practical strategies, you can grow your business one project at a time!
Breaking Down the Numbers
We’ve talked a lot about how to price your services if you’re a creative expert. But what if you’re just getting started in the world of planner design and want to dive into the services side of things – not the stationery collection side? This can also affect your pricing! Let’s break down the numbers and how the pricing of your services may vary depending on your experience level.
When you’re just starting out
Maybe digital planning is an industry that you’ve been interested in and you’d love to design them for other people instead of yourself. How can you figure out how much to charge for your custom planner design services?
Download this free guide and worksheet
Decide what kind of pricing structure you want to use for your packages (we suggest value-based pricing!)
Take into consideration the number of pages, design phases, complexity of hyperlinks, and any additional features that will be added to the planner
Let’s say you choose to price your services according to their value, so you start by setting an hourly rate and breaking down how long each design phase will take you to complete. For example, you choose an hourly rate of $50 an hour and include three design phases in your base package. Let’s say planning takes 3 hours, designing takes 8, and testing & finalization takes 2. You have ten hours into this project at $50, plus an additional 20% for any scope creep, unexpected revisions, or anything else that may come up and you have your package price of $780!
Pro tip: no matter how much experience, you have, when you’re calculating your hourly rate, take into consideration your monthly expenses, business overhead, work hours, and how many projects you’ll be taking on. This will help you ensure you’ll be paying yourself enough so that offering design services will be worth it for you.
When you’re a creative expert
It could be that you’ve been in the digital planner industry for a little while now and are looking to expand your business by offering design services. You’ve already designed countless planners for yourself, so you have the experience to do the same thing for someone else! With a bit more experience, customization options, and package details, you can put together some more premium packages. Here’s how you can do it:
Start by downloading the free guide and worksheet to see a sample package option so you can create your own
Set your hourly rate. For this example, let’s say $75 – a bit higher than your hourly rate just starting out
Decide what you’ll include in your planner package and how long each phase will take.
Let’s use the following example 👇
4. Now you have 26 hours into this package and we’ll add the 20% on top to account for revisions and add-ons since this is more of a premium package. We now have our package rate of $2,340. This can be adjusted based on the complexity of the add-ons you provide and if you’re offering a payout license or not with your services
Get Expert Help Launching Your Services
Now that you've gained valuable insights into creating defined packages, understanding the impact of different service types on pricing, and aligning your income goals with your design projects, it's time to take your custom planner design journey to the next level. Introducing "Planner Design Services Mastery: Steady Income Through Custom Services," your roadmap to mastering the art of packaging, pricing, and positioning your unique offerings.
In this course, I'll share with you my expert guidance on proper pricing strategies, including how to set prices based on value and time investment. I'll even share with you a special pricing calculator that will help you set prices for custom stationery and planners! It will help you anticipate how long a project for each of your packages will take and save you the time it takes to calculate everything manually.
This self-paced online course is designed to equip you with all the tools and strategies you need to thrive in the world of custom planner design. From crafting compelling packages to confidently presenting your services to clients, this course provides everything you need to turn your passion into a steady source of income.
Read next!
What can you do once you’ve mastered a design skill? The answer is in this blog post: https://the-pinkink.com/blog/how-mastering-design-skill-help-scale-digital-stationery-shop
Don’t forget about your mental health as you grow your business! Read this blog post for practical tips: https://the-pinkink.com/blog/mindset-tips-online-business-owner
Inspired to scale? Find more ways to grow in this blog post: https://the-pinkink.com/blog/scale-online-digital-stationery-shop
Learn more about my story!: https://the-pinkink.com/blog/5-lessons-learned-from-selling-my-first-digital-planner?rq=launch
Scaling your business can be overwhelming. Here’s how I stay organized! https://the-pinkink.com/blog/how-i-stay-organized-as-digital-planner-and-product-designer