Negotiating fees can be tough. Clients generally want finished work quickly with a clear  ROI and you want to deliver great work and provide value. But developing creative is notoriously difficult to gauge. You may come up with brilliance quickly or it may be a slog – with round after round of executions, client AA’s and the dreaded “scope creep.” How can you possibly estimate fairly?

I recently downloaded the eBook pdf, Breaking the Time Barrier, by Mike McDerment (free, and no sign-up or other info required!). It’s a simple story in which a newbie designer seeks the counsel of a veteran to better understand how to value and price ones work. I’ve written countless proposals and thought we had a pretty tight system. Well, I may be re-thinking some aspects. A few areas Mike details made me think more critically of our approach – and I’m only halfway through! This should be required reading for any designer in business for themselves.