Why Does Design Cost So Much?
No one is a stranger to things costing money in the world. You have to pay for plumbers, electricians and contractors to make sure your house is built correctly, right? That’s an investment you are making to make sure your house doesn’t look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa or burst into flames if you turn on a light. Sure it’s expensive, but it’s necessary.
Design is the same way for a business. Are you sitting there asking yourself the following?
“Why do I have to pay a bunch of money for design work?”
“Maybe I could do this work myself, how hard could it be?”
“What am I even paying for?”
Then you need to know why design work is an investment. I’ll tell you why:
“What Am I Even Paying For?” Time
Delegate that sh*t! Don’t spend a solid week trying to make a logo when you have better things to do. You could have someone else creating an amazing branding suite for you without having to lift your little finger. Having a designer work for you is way easier because we know how to synthesize and break down the things swirling around in your head and turn it into something great. Trust me, I hear this literally every time I work for a client. Use your time to do things for your business that only you can do. You can’t clone yourself and your unique talents, but you can delegate creative work out to a designer and take that off your plate.
What Am I Even Paying For? Experience
There’s an apocryphal quote about Picasso that circulates around the internet when talking about paying for experience. Basically, some nosy woman at a restaurant asks him to draw on a napkin and he scribbles a drawing out in 30 seconds. Then he hands it to her and asks $10,000 (or some variation of that number) for the drawing. She’s shocked and Picasso tells her, “You aren’t paying for the time it takes, you are paying for 40 years of experience”. True story or not–this applies to paying for a designer. You are buying their experience in their field of work. It’s more than a pretty picture or simple scribble. Designers have seen a lot of decisions that are made for better or for worse and that experience is invaluable.
What Am I Even Paying For? Advice
Designers help you make decisions quicker. I’ve seen a lot of cases where overwhelm from creative choices has led to a small business owner not being able to make a choice or hesitate to make choices. A lot of my time on projects is spent helping to guide the decision making using my skills and good taste.
Remember: Potential clients are always looking at your business presentation and making the snap judgement whether to use your services or buy your product, so don’t be out there looking like you don’t care. Be out there looking like a million bucks!
What Am I Even Paying For? A Person’s Livelihood
Designers can’t live off of exposure, free, or discounted work. Just like any other business when we get paid we can live our lives! Once I get paid I can pay my rent, pay for health insurance, go grocery shopping or treat my partner to a coffee (since he hasn’t seen me because I’ve turned into a design hermit–it happens).
I spend a lot of time working on an hourly rate that is fair for me and use that to estimate my project pricing. I’m planning to do a follow-up post that will show how I calculate that. (Spoiler alert: I totally invest in paying someone to help me do this)
Paying for Design is an Investment: Invest in Yourself!
I hope this clears up why paying for design is an investment. You wouldn’t want a discounted, cheap house painter or a mechanic that worked for free but didn’t know what they were doing. Therefore, you don’t want to cheap out on how your business looks to the world. It’s important to invest in your business, and if you find a great designer that can be a long partnership that is mutually beneficial.
Now, go out there and find your perfect designer match. Ask them questions, get a quote, set a big budget for investing in this part of your business. If you believe in the designer and their work it can be so great for you. As always, if you need advice or want to work with me, feel free to drop me a line. I love helping people!
