My friend wants to start a graphic design business from her home. How much to charge for her service?

A major step when pricing your business is to do a bit of market research, namely: *How much are people willing to pay? *What are similar businesses (in the same or similarly affluent area) charging? *If you can offer a niche, does it justify an increased price tag? The best thing to do 'in the mean time' would be to start advertising for potential customers (approaching businesses directly, poster campaign, advert in local magazines/newspaper) or to research what is 'popular' in business cards (etc) being used by companies similar to your target audience.

A major step when pricing your business is to do a bit of market research, namely: *How much are people willing to pay? *What are similar businesses (in the same or similarly affluent area) charging? *If you can offer a niche, does it justify an increased price tag? The best thing to do 'in the mean time' would be to start advertising for potential customers (approaching businesses directly, poster campaign, advert in local magazines/newspaper) or to research what is 'popular' in business cards (etc) being used by companies similar to your target audience.

She's a beginner, so realistically she's unlikely to find anyone willing to pay for her services. Suggest she does some voluntary stuff to gain experience and build up a portfolio - but she needs to be aware the market is flooded with excellent, experienced graphic designers. She also needs to go on some business skills courses, since she doesn't seem to have any business knowledge. Try to help her see sense! She has no skills and no business acumen - YET. But she can learn...

Ive done my share of freelance and personal designing over the past few years and it can be a very hard thing to price for, It mostly depends on the client and what they are willing to pay, or what your local Competition is! I've seen and undercut, some design companies charging nearly a thousand pounds for a simple leaflet design that took me only a few hours to do including drafts and then only cost me about £150 pounds for the printing. It can be a very profitable thing if you do it right! I personally work full time, designing and printing, so i treat any personal job as a bonus and as such i am fairly cheap. As a guide line i usually Charge around £30 - £50 pound for an initial design, for something like a business card or a poster etc, and then a further 25 per hour i spend on it. A mayor design company in london would probably be charging double both those prices, if not more, and also additional prices like say £50 pound for supplying it in a digital format As for printing something like your friend whats to design, i would use a a company like http://www.rcs.plc.uk/ or urban design and print ( google it, cant remember the url). And then add my own little mark up on that as well. On a closing note, for what your friend is designing, a vector based program such as adobe illustrator and if necessary, adobe indesign can be your best friend, if you can master those two and photoshop, you are well on your way to be coming a Professional designer. Hope that's some help.

if they [when does "my friend" become they?] study writing code, I can show them how to get rich. however, for doing photo shop, they are 1-2 yrs away from doing anything highly skilled.

Ive done my share of freelance and personal designing over the past few years and it can be a very hard thing to price for, It mostly depends on the client and what they are willing to pay, or what your local Competition is! I've seen and undercut, some design companies charging nearly a thousand pounds for a simple leaflet design that took me only a few hours to do including drafts and then only cost me about £150 pounds for the printing. It can be a very profitable thing if you do it right! I personally work full time, designing and printing, so i treat any personal job as a bonus and as such i am fairly cheap. As a guide line i usually Charge around £30 - £50 pound for an initial design, for something like a business card or a poster etc, and then a further 25 per hour i spend on it. A mayor design company in london would probably be charging double both those prices, if not more, and also additional prices like say £50 pound for supplying it in a digital format As for printing something like your friend whats to design, i would use a a company like http://www.rcs.plc.uk/ or urban design and print ( google it, cant remember the url). And then add my own little mark up on that as well. On a closing note, for what your friend is designing, a vector based program such as adobe illustrator and if necessary, adobe indesign can be your best friend, if you can master those two and photoshop, you are well on your way to be coming a Professional designer. Hope that's some help.

if they [when does "my friend" become they?] study writing code, I can show them how to get rich. however, for doing photo shop, they are 1-2 yrs away from doing anything highly skilled.