Pricing Your Products or Services 7
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What's the going rate?
Following is a list of typical fees charged for a variety of jobs. The figures are based on the stated fees from businesses in various parts of the country and are only presented as a rough guide. In general, even if you quote a flat fee for a job, the fee should be based on what your hourly rate is and should take into consideration overhead costs, benefits, and profit.
Most of the price figures are given in ranges. If you live in an area where salaries and cost of living are relatively low, where there is a lot of competition for your product or service, and where people can't afford to pay small businesses high fees, the fees you can charge are likely to fall in the low end of the range. The same is true if you have limited experience in a field. Some people find it worth their while to charge slightly less than the going rates if they find a client who will give them work on a fairly regular basis and who pays their bills quickly.
If you are highly experienced and work for companies located in a major metropolitan area with a relatively high cost of living, you should be able to command fees in the higher ranges. In fact, the way pricing works in the "real world" is that many businesses start out working at low fees for small businesses, and as their skill in business and their reputation grows, they work their way up the ladder both in terms of the size of companies for which they do work and the fees they charge for that work.
GOING RATES
Accountants (CPA)
$75 to $125 an hour and up. Alternately, some firms charge a yearly fee for routine work, and extra fees for tax returns. An accounting firm will generally bill for its staff at different rates depending on their experience.
Advertising/marketing copywriting
$35 to $75 per hour and up, with a markup of 17.65 percent on other services purchased for the client. Fees increase significantly with experience and fees. Some charge by the project, rather than the hour.
Advertising sales commission, newspaper
15 to 20 percent of the dollar amount of the ad.
Artist's representatives or agents
10 to 15 percent commission in most cases.
Author's agents
15 percent commission US sales. 20% to 25% commission for
Attorney fees
$75 to $300 an hour plus expenses, depending on experience, reputation, and specialty.
Bookkeeping, and payroll services
$20 to $60 an hour. At the low end of the range would be fees charged by bookkeepers to accountants in geographic locations where salaries tend to be low. At the top end would be fees accountants bill their clients.
Brochure writing
$40 to $60 an hour or more. Generally, the bigger the company, or the more experienced the copywriter, the bigger the fee.
desktop publishing or web page design is needed those charges would be in addition to the writing fees.
Commercial art design fees
$30 to $100 per hour or more. The more experience and skill, the higher the fee.
Computer consulting without programming
$30 to $75 per hour for setting up small microcomputer systems with off-the-shelf software, setting up batch files, backing up, and troubleshooting. In some parts of the country, however, consultants get only $20 to $30 per hour for such tasks.
Computer programming, systems analysis
$40 to $125 an hour.
Computer training
$25 to $75 per hour for private tutoring, or for training services supplied to small businesses; $55 to $90 per head for corporate group training classes with all course handouts included. (Note
due to busy staff schedules some personnel directors are choosing computer-based training programs.)
Consulting, marketing/advertising
up to $125 per hour or higher for experienced consultants in major metropolitan areas, but sometimes done free as a special offer to bring in new clients.
Data entry
by individuals working at home, $8 to $15 an hour; billing rate for data entry from a secretarial service can be up to $30.
Desktop publishing production
$25 to $40 per hour for typesetting only; $40 to $75 an hour for designing page layouts.
Desktop publishing consulting
$350 to $1,000 per day, depending on qualifications and experience.
Direct mail package writing
$35 to $100 per hour; $2,000 and up for a 4-page letter, brochure, reply card.
Graphic design
$40 to $125 per hour.
Letters
to type a generic letter and print multiple copies, no merge, cost of typing the letter plus $.50 to $1 per page depending on the type of paper the letter is printed on and who supplies it.
Letters
to type a generic letter and customize by merging with customer addresses, $.50 and up per letter depending on paper plus setup charges and data entry for addresses. Collating, stapling, stuffing letters in envelopes, printing for envelopes or labels would all be extra. A setup fee is sometimes charged for small jobs.
Mailing list data entry
$.25 per record for records that are 3 to 4 lines in length.
Mail order products
at least 4 times your costs for any item. Some people set $19.99 to $29.99 as a minimum price they find profitable to sell products via mail.
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