FAQ: How to Charge Your Holy Fuck Pricing
September 23, 2020
I get a lot of questions about how I find well-paying clients as a designer and muralist. In this tell-all blog, I’m here to spill the tea (well, the coffee). Let me start with a story first.
If you’re new around here, I used to be someone who held herself back and was weighed down by perfectionism, over-achieving tendencies, and a lot of limiting beliefs. I didn’t go after what I wanted and I certainly didn’t value myself and my work.
Emphasis on “used to.”
Things have changed. I still struggle with those feelings sometimes, but the biggest shift has been that I feel enough now. If you’re in the space of holding yourself back because you don’t feel worthy, I know it can change for you as it did for me.
Because I’ve seen the shift in myself and how that’s affected my business, I want the same for you. It’s time to celebrate yourself, what you do, and how well you do it. And what better way to show the universe you value yourself than to start charging your Holy Fuck Pricing?!
What does Holy Fuck Pricing mean?
Holy Fuck Pricing is my way of raising the industry standards for designers and muralists (and all creatives, for that matter!). The starving artist stereotype runs deep, but it’s time we challenged it. Charging your Holy Fuck Pricing for every damn project means:
Doing what you love and getting paid appropriately for it
Valuing yourself enough to charge for your skills and time
Valuing the project for what it’s actually worth to the client
Raising (and setting) the industry standards as a community
Empowering you to feel good about your pricing and not undersell your services and what you bring to the table
How do you find a community of like-minded creatives to discuss pricing?
I found my community where I hang out online the most: Instagram. Specifically, in the DMs. I’ve also had a lot of luck meeting and connecting with other creatives in Facebook Groups.
That’s why I created one just for people who want to charge their Holy Fuck Pricing! Join the community here.
If you’re a Baltimore local, here are some to check out:
If you’re a creative business owner, here are my suggestions for you:
When I meet other creatives, I see a chance to collaborate, not compete. I think it’s important to adopt the mindset that there’s enough money and business out there for us all.
Where do you find clients?
There are two main ways I find clients: Outreach and referrals.
I talk a lot about outreach in 2 of my courses — Beginner to Business Badass and The Mural Business Course. Mainly about how if your ideal clients aren’t finding you, it might be time to reach out to them! Back in the day, cold calling was the only way to get clients. Now, it’s easier than ever to find the email address of the exact person you need to get in contact with at the organization or business you want to work with. It’s one of the primary ways I find new clients.
The other way isn’t really about finding clients… it’s about getting them. Referrals are one of the highest compliments you can receive in the business world. Typically, a referral comes from past clients but sometimes it’s through friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. This way of “finding clients” lets me do more connecting that pitching. Through building a community online, I’ve found incredible people who refer me to others who need my services.
How do I get my first paid design/mural project?
There are a lot of different avenues you can take depending on your goals, but I began my design and mural business with my first sign painting job for a local brewery that my partner started. I didn’t get paid but they did purchase all the supplies I needed, which allowed me to start building up my mural toolkit (grab a free checklist here!). That lead to a paid project for an axe-throwing company down the street.
I encourage you to reach out to local businesses, schools, and nonprofits. Let them know this is your first mural and that you're doing it for a lower rate than usual. That lower rate isn’t forever, it’s just a start to get your name out there and get you connected with clients in your community. By all means, I don’t recommend doing your first one for free like I did. At the very least, consider having them reimburse you for the supplies.
When I look back, I realize that the way to get what you want is to go after it. It wasn’t until I started believing in myself and my inevitable success that things started clicking and clients started coming.
How much should I charge for a project?
This is a hard one to answer because every project is so different, but I’ll give you a few avenues to explore.
Check out the free pricing breakdowns on the shop for design and mural projects. If you’re a visual learner (aren’t all creatives, though?), check out this CreativeLive infographic illustrating how to calculate your freelance hourly rate. If you want to see a breakdown of my 2019 yearly expenses and learn about what my minimum price is for murals, you can find that in this post.
I’m all about pricing transparency, so I have even more to recommend. I’ve compiled a great list of books for you to read if you have questions about pricing design projects:
Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines
You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth
Pricing and rates are something I talk about so much so follow #holyfuckpricing on Instagram. If you’d like to receive emails about how to charge your Holy Fuck Pricing, join the club here.
How can I charge as much as you?
One thing I know for certain that helped me charge what I charge now? Setting boundaries.
When I first started my business, I took on as many clients as possible, I didn’t speak up when projects went over budget, and I had no idea what I wanted to do or who I wanted to work with. Some of this is part of growing a business. But mostly, it kept happening because I didn’t realize I was repeating patterns I had experienced as a kid. I had very little boundaries. My to-do list was always miles long and I was full of new ideas that were half-assed and never came to fruition.
What I came to realize is that by not feeling enough internally, I wasn’t at my true potential. These business problems — overachieving, constantly stressed, adding on extra work and to do’s to feel busy and worthy — were really life problems in disguise.
Saying yes to the right project is just as important as the power of saying no to the wrong projects. Once I did that, I was able to increase my prices and set real minimums on projects. I was able to create better boundaries within my business. The realization was that quality was better than quantity.
How do you explain the value of a project price to a client?
I am super clear with my clients about what they are paying for, when, and outlining the timeline for payments while attaching them to tangible goals. When you have detailed deliverables, it makes an abstract and creative process easy to follow. This helps your client have even more trust in you and your vision for the project.
Craving more answers to your questions about how to move past the starving artist mentality? There’s more where that came from. Join the Holy Fuck Pricing Facebook group here and read more about the movement here.
Sharing to Pinterest? Here’s a few images.
