Hi,

 

I'm a web/graphic designer doing freelance work. A client of mine was offended I charged the briefing time for a project the same price I'm charging for doing the actual design work.

 

What I did was to bill her 3,5 hours for time I spent at her place discussing a project. I usually work from home and she's the one who asked me to go to her place to discuss and start working on the project. I've been working for her for about 10 weeks designing stuff for the same client.

 

So she says I should have billed her half my usual rate for these hours, since they were briefing hours. I replied that I'm hired at an hourly rate whatever the nature of the work is. She's paying me for my time and not for the kind of work I do. Plus, I did not charge her for the time I spent on the bus going to her place (about 90 minutes round-trip) and for the price of the ticket of the bus.

 

I have also billed her 1.5 hours for a briefing we had on the phone. Again, she says I should have charged her half my usual rate for the briefing time. I do not agree.

 

What do you think?

 

Thanks!

Ben.

Well unless you have different rates for different types of work then what you're doing is perfectly normal.

Maybe for future reference insert it in your contract but as far as I am concerned you a indeed correct and she is lucky you are not billing her for mileage

I thnik better charge base on per project. The reason is 5 Big Reasons Why You Should Charge Per Project, Task Or Program And Not Per Hour

Ive been learning the hard way that clients take the p*** out of web designers all the time, they expect you to do that kind of thing for free half the time,, I decided to charge a consultation fee which i deduct from the job if they decide to go ahead, some have not even replied to me when I mentioned this, but honestly, i am sick of people trying to pick my brain for free, and then just go off with your ideas and either try and do it themselves, or go to another designer with the info/design ideas.

 

Nowadays i am very clear from the start about my cost's as Nelyshark said, make sure your clients know this from the start to save you from this hassle.

 

Best of luck with the future

 

T

Thanks a lot everyone for your comments!

 

Ive been learning the hard way that clients take the p*** out of web designers all the time, they expect you to do that kind of thing for free half the time,, I decided to charge a consultation fee which i deduct from the job if they decide to go ahead, some have not even replied to me when I mentioned this, but honestly, i am sick of people trying to pick my brain for free, and then just go off with your ideas and either try and do it themselves, or go to another designer with the info/design ideas.

 

Nowadays i am very clear from the start about my cost's as Nelyshark said, make sure your clients know this from the start to save you from this hassle.

 

Best of luck with the future

 

T

 

The worst is that my client is also a graphic designer and this is a project that has been going on for 3 months now. The briefings were for another part of the project. Go figure...

 

Ben.

Out of interest Tobes, do you have this written in your contract?

 

Ive been learning the hard way that clients take the p*** out of web designers all the time, they expect you to do that kind of thing for free half the time,, I decided to charge a consultation fee which i deduct from the job if they decide to go ahead, some have not even replied to me when I mentioned this, but honestly, i am sick of people trying to pick my brain for free, and then just go off with your ideas and either try and do it themselves, or go to another designer with the info/design ideas.

 

Nowadays i am very clear from the start about my cost's as Nelyshark said, make sure your clients know this from the start to save you from this hassle.

 

Best of luck with the future

 

T

Out of interest Tobes, do you have this written in your contract?

 

 

actually no i dont, because i charge ( not all projects) for consultancy before the project has started and contract is signed.

 

I dont always charge consultancy, but when I know some one wants a large project and could be just fishing for info, thats when I decide to drop in "I charge consultancy", quikly I fond out if the client is serious, does anyone else charge for consultancy here? I normally ask 100 euros and this can also include a mock of my design idea, in no way does it cover my time, but at least i can rule out time wasters.

Like yourself I drop the line that I charge fees for consultancy etc but that is done through email. I would love to see/have some form of formal document however. I don't mind people who are genuine its the timewasters (one can see clearly who they are tbf) that I want to have some form of written/legal document for.

 

Sorry for hijacking thread too btw ben

actually no i dont, because i charge ( not all projects) for consultancy before the project has started and contract is signed.

 

I dont always charge consultancy, but when I know some one wants a large project and could be just fishing for info, thats when I decide to drop in "I charge consultancy", quikly I fond out if the client is serious, does anyone else charge for consultancy here? I normally ask 100 euros and this can also include a mock of my design idea, in no way does it cover my time, but at least i can rule out time wasters.