please help with logo costing

[dbh_21]

i have designed a logo for a small company who deals in womens tights. i am a young freelancer with 3 years experience in graphic design and dont know what to charge for logo design. if they are happy with my work and happy with the price, they will purchase the design from me, and i will get more work from them. please help!!!

[blastradius]

My advise is to look around on the web and see what the average price that other are charging. I think the last time I looked arround it was in the $100 to $150 range. Now look at how long it took you to create the logo ( I usually subtract some time from this for the playing around with ideas ) Figure out what you consider to be a good hourly wage. now calculate what your price is from this. Now is the logo worth what you are charging? If the logo looks like you created it in 5 minutes and your charging the client $75.00 the client may feel ripped off. But if your work is good don't be afraid to charge what the average price is out there. Worst thing you can do is if your work is good and you under charge what is the average price. You would think it would get you more work, but for the most part it doesn't. People think they are getting a better graphic if that have to pay for it. If you under charge they will think that the desinger would have done a better job.

All that said my biggest suggestion is don't do any freelance work without having a signed contract with the client. They may try to barter you down to nothing after you have already done the work, or they might say they don't like you have done and decide to go with someone else and now you have done the work for nothing.

[grease]

A deposit speaks even louder than a contract. We never accept a client who is not willing to put down a deposit. This is not a game of "lets see what he can do, and maybe we'll consider buying it". You are not selling a painting, you are selling a service. Why should you design a custom logo without committment? They could easily snatch up your idea and send it along to the next guy. If someone approaches you with this in mind 1)they do not see you as a professional and they feel a considerable amount of risk or 2)They are not worth the time of day!

Get what you deserve!
The standard deposit is 50% for most design projects. Larger projects can be broken down into a payment schedule.

I am not sure what level your design work is at, but I would consider $100-150 quite low for a professional logo design - unless you consider it a 'quickie'.

Do not fall for the "I'll get more work for you" line. You will hear this quite a bit when you are first starting out. Small business owners can smell start-up freelancers and often use this tactic to bring your price down, but usually nothing will become of it. And if you did a good design, you deserve a referral anyway! Your perfect comeback is "My price remains firm, however I will give you a 10% commission on any referals." Now you have your *** covered ;)

Grease

[dbh_21]

thanks guys much appreciated