Ever wondered how to significantly increase your rates?

In this episode, I share my journey from charging $65 for logo designs to landing $20k+ branding projects. You’ll get insider tips on positioning, specializing, and communicating value to attract high-paying clients.

I’ll walk you through the exact steps I took to transform my pricing strategy and attract clients who value my work. From finding your niche to effective sales techniques, this episode is packed with actionable advice you can start implementing today.

 

Listen to the episode here:

Spotify  –  Apple Podcasts  –  Amazon Music

 

You will learn:

• How to transition from low-priced projects to high-value branding.
• The importance of finding and defining your niche.
• Effective sales techniques to highlight the value of your services.
• Tips on building credibility and showcasing your expertise.

Grab a cup of coffee, your notes, and get ready to redefine how you run your design business!

Make sure to subscribe to The Profitable Graphic Designer, as this is Part One of our pricing series. You won’t want to miss Part Two, where I’ll dive even deeper into advanced strategies and tips for maximizing your profitability!

 

Aventive Academy’s Resources:

Free Client Portal for Designers: https://aventiveacademy.com/client-portal/

$12k Client Attraction Masterclass: https://aventiveacademy.com/attract-clients-workshop/

The Wealthy Client Blueprint: ⁠https://aventiveacademy.com/wealthy-client/

12-Week Business Program for Designers: https://aventiveacademy.com/profit

The Creative CEO Accelerator: https://aventiveacademy.com/accelerator

 

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TRANSCRIPT:

0:00
So I want to charge $10,000 for a branding project, and then instead of thinking, do they exist? Do clients like that exist? I started thinking, I know that they exist, but where do I find them?

At that point, I think I already heard that Formula One paid $1 million for their logo, for their visual identity.

0:20
And I was not looking for clients like Formula One. I’m just looking for someone who’s going to pay me $10,000.

0:44
Welcome to the Profitable Graphic Designer podcast brought to you by Aventive Academy. I’m your host, Kady Sandel. I’m a brand strategist, designer, creative director, and the CEO of a successful six-figure design agency based in Austin, TX, serving clients worldwide.

1:02
After mastering the arts of building a profitable and sustainable design business, I decided to help you achieve the same success. I teach brand, graphic, and web design business owners how to attract more clients, increase their pricing, and develop design businesses that provide the financial freedom and time flexibility you’ve always dreamt of.

1:22
We offer online programs, courses, and templates that you can use along with our coaching accelerator and mastermind high-touch experiences for creatives. You can learn more about starting and growing your design business at aventiveacademy.com. But for now, grab a cup of coffee and join me in today’s podcast episode.

1:44
This episode is part one, where I will teach about pricing and how you can price your design work for maximum profitability while still making sure you land clients and grow your business. I will share my story and how I went from chasing clients and charging $65 on Craigslist to now clients finding me and charging them at least $10,000 for a single branding project.

2:12
Of course, this success didn’t happen overnight, and yours probably won’t happen either, but I really want to help you price your design services the right way. Pricing is something most freelance designers struggle with, and not just freelancers, but design agency owners in general.

2:32
There are many options, and that’s why it’s confusing. You can charge per hour, which is something I would never recommend because when you charge per hour, like when you become better in designing, you become faster. So does that mean that the better you are, the less money you should make?

2:52
No. However, many clients think that freelancers charge per hour, and that’s it. We do have contractors in my branding and design agency where we outsource and then look for freelancers who charge per hour. However, there is always product-market fit, you know? So you just have to figure out if that is the right fit for you.

3:14
But if you’re trying to grow your design business, that is probably not the right fit for you. And I would never, ever suggest you charge per hour. Then you can charge per project, which is when you get a client, for example, they need a logo design and a website, and you tell them, OK, the price for that is going to be $10,000.

3:36
This is what’s included. And so that is per project. They don’t care how much time you’re going to spend on it, and you don’t care. I mean, you do care, but it’s always the same. And if something goes out of scope, then you can charge per hour.

3:53
But the main project pricing model is charging per project. Then you can do value-based pricing, which is when you charge based on the value that you provide. This one is a little bit harder to understand. In my branding and design agency, we do value-based pricing, but we attract the same type of clients.

4:14
So our pricing is always kind of the same, about $20,000 per branding and web project. There are many ways to determine the value you provide to your clients, but this episode is not about that.

4:30
Today I’m talking more about pricing in general. If you want to learn more about value-based pricing, we have a whole lesson inside the Profitable Designer program. You can go to aventiveacademy.com/profit and once you enroll, you will be able to learn more about value-based pricing.

4:50
The main reason why I wanted to record this podcast episode is that a lot of people ask me how to get clients. How to get clients? Well, you need to know your pricing before you even look for clients. I know it sounds weird, but if you are charging $2,000 for a logo design, you will be looking at different places to find clients.

5:13
If you’re charging $10,000 for a logo design, you will be looking at different places than when looking for $2,000 clients. What I mean by that is, and this is not a rule, but when you’re looking for low-paying clients or lower-paying clients, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re super low.

5:34
You will be working directly with the business owner and someone who maybe manages their Instagram account on their own. Again, these are just examples. That means that you will be on Instagram as well looking for that type of client. You will be posting for them so that they can find you and things like that.

5:53
When you’re working with someone who’s going to pay you $20,000 or $50,000 for a logo design, maybe visual identity, not just a logo, they are not searching for a designer on Instagram. They’re most likely on LinkedIn.

6:10
You will meet them at networking events, or they will come as a referral from your previous high-paying client. Often, you won’t even be talking to the business owner, but you will be talking to someone who does their marketing, advertising, PR, and things like that.

6:28
So you will not be working directly with the business owner when you work with high-paying clients. Now $20,000-$50,000 still OK, you will still probably work with the business owner, but if you go above that, it’s always a marketing manager or someone within the company.

6:46
I have experienced all of it because I’ve been in this business since 2015. Actually, in 2005 I started as a graphic designer, but in 2015 I started my branding and design agency, and I worked with over 300 clients.

7:02
So you can just imagine how many different companies we worked with. But to go back to pricing, I do want to talk about the importance of shifting your mindset from a freelancer to a business owner.

The reason for that is because when you call yourself a freelancer, you run your business a little bit differently than when you say I’m the CEO or I’m a business owner, I’m an agency owner.

7:29
And it sounds silly, right? But for some reason, and we can go deeper into the mindset shifts and why people believe the way they believe and things like that. But when you even hear that someone is like, let’s say a freelance marketing strategist, you’re like, OK, she’s professional, she’s great, all of that.

7:52
But when you hear that someone is the CEO of a marketing company, it’s different, right? It’s like that trust factor. As soon as someone has an agency or company or is a business owner or CEO or something, it’s like the next level.

8:09
And it really is when you first start your business, you are a freelancer, and you always Google how to get clients as a freelancer, how to position myself as a freelancer, freelancing tips, you know, all those things using the word freelancer.

8:24
From there, when you grow, you’re like, how to increase my pricing, how to get more clients, how to get better clients, how to improve my portfolio, how to go to networking events, should I use LinkedIn? Things like that. It’s the next level. Then you’re like, OK, how can I expand?

8:40
How can I outsource, hire? OK, I’m becoming a business owner. Then when you have your team, you’re like, oh, OK, well, I’m kind of like a manager CEO now. Maybe I need a manager so that I don’t manage people anymore. OK, well, I’m now the CEO. It’s just the continuum and it’s natural.

8:57
It’s normal. It’s what many business owners go through. Some freelancers decide to stay as solo freelancers, and nothing is wrong with that. But I feel like there’s always a cap.

9:13
It’s always limited in how much work you can take as well as how much you can charge. So what I mean by that is that even if you are a high-paying or high-valued freelance designer, you still have to have your team in order to get to the next level.

9:34
That doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to have a branding or design agency, but you at least hire someone to do your taxes, maybe someone to do your sales, someone to help you with your captions, and things like that. Even successful freelancers have help.

9:51
However, the mindset shift in running a design business from calling yourself a freelancer is huge and it really impacts pricing, client perception, client acquisition, and all the growth things.

10:08
So if you want to grow, I always suggest thinking of yourself as a business owner and taking your business seriously. Now, the title of this episode is how I went from $65 logo designs. What I mean by that is how I went from charging $65 for a logo design to $20,000 for a single branding project.

10:30
The reason for that is that I want to explain to you how I was able to increase my pricing and how you can do it

too. I’m sure you don’t care how much I charge or how much I charge now and all of that. We are not here because of me; we are here because of you. I want to help you get to that next level.

10:47
And that doesn’t have to be $20,000. Maybe right now you’re charging $3,000 for a branding package, but you want to get to $5,000. Come up with your numbers and what you feel comfortable with. But I will share my story and how I believe that can translate into your story.

11:05
Honestly, this story can be your story as well. In the past, I used to post on Craigslist and call me crazy, but I was posting 21 posts every single day. It’s literally crazy. Yes, you can call me crazy, but I was really desperate, trying to find clients.

11:23
At that time, social media was around but not so much. So I was posting and getting clients through social media. I was charging $65 for a logo design. Then I got to, I don’t know, like $100, $120, then $240, $480, $960, then even got to $3,000.

11:41
And that was my maximum. I just wasn’t able to go below those $3,000. Then what happened is, instead of looking for more clients, I was trying to figure out how to get better clients. I had this $10,000 project in my mind, and so I googled how to get a $10k client.

12:02
What do I need to do? Not just Googling, but also I would sit down and write, OK, this is my ideal client, this is how much I want to charge. Where can I find them? I had to change that in my head. OK, they do exist, but where instead of do they exist?

12:22
No, I knew that they exist. I mean, I think at that point I even heard that Formula One paid $1 million for their branding. I was like, OK, I’m not looking for a client like Formula One. I’m just looking for someone who’s going to pay me $10,000.

12:40
Before we continue with this podcast episode, I just want to quickly remind you that if you’re a design business owner whose dream is to have a successful and profitable career so you can enjoy the freedom and flexibility that comes with it, then I have something for you.

12:56
The Profitable Designer Program is my signature 12-week system that will help you improve your business, sign amazing high-paying clients, and truly achieve your financial and lifestyle goals. Visit aventiveacademy.com/profit to check if you can join us now or if we are currently not accepting more designers into the program.

13:18
In that case, you will be able to join the waitlist and be the first to know when we open the doors again. Now, we’ll go back to the episode in a second, but I just want to add that designers who completed the program were able to sign five-figure design clients 10 times.

13:35
Their pricing reached six figures and beyond. Make $20,000 per month while working only a few hours a week and more. Here is what Julia said: “It really has everything you could ever ask for to build a six-figure business that will allow you to have financial freedom.”

13:53
That’s why I personally did it. I wanted that flexibility. If you want to be my next success story and achieve results like these, visit aventiveacademy.com/profit. Now, let’s go back to the episode.

I realized that I needed help, so I hired a marketing agency that helped me figure out how to position my business as the best possible option for my ideal clients.

14:20
For example, you can imagine what you want to do, like branding for a candle company, and you can talk all about candles. You can find candle business owners and connect with them, for example, on LinkedIn.

14:38
You can also create a passion project in your portfolio that is like imaginary candle branding. So, for example, you come up with a name of a company, design their logo, labels, packaging, website, whatever you want, and put that in your portfolio. There’s nothing wrong with that.

14:54
All of a sudden, you’re the best possible option for your dream client, right? They will know that, feel that, and hire you. Yes, you can increase rates because just imagine that you’re a candle business owner and you need branding and a website.

15:12
Would you go with a designer or with a designer that has candles in their portfolio? Maybe a blog article as well about candles and a couple of Instagram posts about candles? The answer is obvious, right? So that’s how you position your business as the best possible option for your dream client.

15:31
Now, my candle example was very specific and direct and maybe even too narrow, but you know what I mean. Find your ideal client, find your dream clients, not just find, but think about them, know exactly who they are, and you will find them, I promise you.

15:49
Don’t work just in their demographic, like how old they are, where they live, things like that, but more like what is it that they struggle with? The candle company owner maybe struggles with sales. Yes, you’re not going to work with their sales, but you’re going to develop an amazing logo, packaging, and website that will convert visitors into paying customers.

16:13
Talk about that because that’s how you close clients. Clients don’t care about your specific service. They don’t care if you’re going to provide a logo, colors, typography, how many revisions, and how many options to choose from, things like that.

16:29
They care about growing their business. That’s about finding your niche and defining who you want to work with because specializing in a particular industry or type of client can help you command higher prices.

16:47
That’s how you increase pricing. That’s how I was able to do it too. I imagined that I wanted to work with a skincare line, and I did everything that I just told you to do. That’s how I was able to land my first $10k client, and it was a skincare line.

17:03
The other thing that I did was I added brand strategy to my process. So instead of just working on a logo, colors, fonts, labels, packaging, whatever, even website, I now start all my projects from brand strategy.

17:20
Brand strategy is a long-term plan for how that business is going to succeed. Some brands, some companies, some businesses don’t even need it. But I still have to do it to a certain degree so that I know how to translate that brand strategy, knowing who their ideal client is, what they’re looking for, and things like that.

17:41
So that I can translate that into the visuals such as logo design, colors, fonts, things like that. Yes, I do need brand strategy. Also, some businesses have a very good business plan. If I have access to that business plan, then I don’t even have to develop a full brand strategy.

17:58
Then I would just work on brand attributes so that I can figure out how that brand needs to sound to others. It’s kind of like a brand voice only. OK, so from charging those $3,000, that’s how I got to $10,000 by knowing who I want to work with, positioning myself as the best possible option for my ideal client, and then also adding brand strategy.

18:23
Now, how I went from $10,000 to sending proposals for $15,000, $20,000, $30,000, even $45,000 is by really nailing down how I can market my business in the most profitable and sustainable way, and that is not by posting on social media.

18:45
Posting on social media takes a lot of time, and there are many designers that are very successful. Don’t get me wrong, every marketing strategy does work. You just have to figure out what is going to work for you.

For me, the way my branding and design agency gets clients is through SEO.

19:06
So our blogging, we have a dedicated blog writer who writes for us every single month, and he’s been with us since 2019, I believe. I don’t know, but I just know it’s around that time, 2019, 2020, something like that for sure.

19:24
He’s been working with us for like 4-5 years, and he writes every single post. But even before that, I had someone else who was writing, and before that, I was writing. So I really focused on SEO and I wanted people to find me online.

Whoever types in the certain keywords that I want to be found for, they will get to my website, to my blogs, which will then send them to our service page, to our portfolio, and then eventually to our contact page.

19:52
That’s how we get a lot of clients. We get a lot of inquiries. Then we also figured out how to get qualified inquiries only and things like that. But long story short, the way we did that was by adding pricing to our contact page.

It says starting at $8,000. So that’s why we are not getting anyone who is not qualified or anyone who cannot afford $8,000 for branding or the same project.

20:16
At the same time, I go to networking events. I am an extrovert, and I love meeting people. I work by myself most of the time because my team is all remote, so I need people, and I love talking to people. I

know not everyone is like me, and most creatives.

20:33
Maybe you are introverts, and that’s OK, but I’ll tell you how you can overcome that. Not in a way to become an extrovert, like no, you cannot. Maybe you can’t. But that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to give you different strategies on how you can talk to a lot of people without feeling overwhelmed and without feeling like this is not for me.

20:52
So the way we get clients is SEO, blogging, and then me going to networking events, and then as well as LinkedIn. That is something you can definitely do. It’s not about posting, it’s about connecting with people on LinkedIn and being in your DMs. LinkedIn is all about connecting with people and talking to them.

21:10
Now, of course, no matter what you do, one of the most important factors is the way you sell your design services. We are not born to be salespeople, right? You are creative, you are a designer, you are not meant to be a salesperson.

21:31
But since you run your own business, you simply have to learn how to sell. That doesn’t mean that you have to be annoying and poke people buy from me, buy from me. But you just describe what you do and how you can help them. Be very curious about what they’re trying to do and then figure out how you can help them get to their next level.

21:54
Don’t assume that you know what their next level is. There are many brands that are not even looking into growing, but maybe more connecting with their current customers. So it’s not always about becoming bigger, but maybe becoming better.

22:11
But again, that’s for a different topic, a different podcast episode. What I want to say is that you have to learn how to talk about your design services from the customer’s perspective. Talk about the benefits. It’s not about you get 10 different colors, you get 5 different logos to choose from.

22:31
You get this many website pages, like no, you talk about the end results, whether that is them selling more products, getting more customers, getting more clients, growing their business, expanding, opening a new location.

22:47
If it’s a yoga business, like whatever it is, you have to know the end results that they’re looking for and then talk about them. That’s how you sell your design services.

The main thing I did in terms of increasing my pricing and going from charging $65 for a logo design to now on average charging $20,000 for a single branding project is positioning.

23:13
So knowing my niche, knowing who I want to work with, increasing my pricing in terms of doing value-based pricing and charging per project, and then also nailing down my marketing and finally learning how to sell in a non-sales way.

23:31
I think that’s it for this episode. That is part one on how to increase your pricing. I will be recording part two in the next couple of days. Of course, it will be released next Tuesday, but we are going to talk about how I was able to increase my web design project because it’s a little bit different.

23:52
However, this is the basic like, yes, you have to go through these strategies and then if you also offer website designs or development, then the next episode is going to be for you. Even if not, I still think you’re going to find a lot of valuable advice and yeah, hope to see you in the next episode.

24:12
Don’t forget to subscribe so that you know when that episode is released. Yeah, talk to you soon.

Thanks for tuning in to the Profitable Graphic Designer podcast. But wait before you go. If you enjoyed this podcast episode and want a chance to access one of our online courses for free, simply leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

24:34
Each month, one lucky reviewer gets to pick a course as a token of our appreciation. Here’s a reminder. We are here to help you build the design business of your dreams.

Whether it’s creating compelling proposals, attracting $10k clients, pricing your design services, improving your portfolio, reaching six figures and beyond, or helping you stand out, we’ve got you covered.

25:00
I invite you to join over 1,000 designers in my signature 12-week program, The Profitable Designer. Visit aventiveacademy.com/profit and also don’t forget to hit that subscribe button.

That way, you’ll be the first to know when each new episode drops so you never miss out on future content.

25:20
Until next time, be sure to connect with us on Instagram at @aventiveacademy, where we share valuable business tips, stories, and resources for brand, graphic, and web design business owners. Bye for now, your host Kady Sandel.