134. Start Getting Paid for Strategy, Today

[upbeat music] How will I charge for brand strategy? If I bring this thing into my process, is the client gonna value it? How am I going to charge for it? How do I even price it? We get really stuck in our heads about it, and I understand all of those questions.

But what I want to do today is take a step back from that.

What I want to say to you is, if you're currently not charging for brand strategy, start by charging for the strategy you are doing.

That might sound a little bit stupid, but hear me out.

What I see is lots and lots of designers doing some form of strategy, but it's buried.

They never talk about it with the client.

They never wear it on the outside.

So if you're wondering if you can charge for strategy, what I want to talk about in this podcast is how you can charge for what you already do.

Let's start there.

Now, I know I can be a little bit rude about things like mission, vision, and values, but if you are doing something like that, if you're developing personality traits before you get into your design work, if you're working with your client to develop a positioning strategy, any of those things, that is thinking work that you should be charging for.

What I want to give you in, in this podcast is some strategies for how you can show the value in those things so that you can charge for them.

Of course, your other alternative is just to give them a dollar figure [laughs] and start charging for them.

But if you feel like having some strategies to show the client the value in them would be helpful, then you are in the right place today.

[upbeat music] How will I charge for brand strategy? If I bring this thing into my process, is the client gonna value it? How am I going to charge for it? How do I even price it? We get really stuck in our heads about it, and I understand all of those questions.

But what I want to do today is take a step back from that.

What I want to say to you is, if you're currently not charging for brand strategy, start by charging for the strategy you are doing.

That might sound a little bit stupid, but hear me out.

What I see is lots and lots of designers doing some form of strategy, but it's buried.

They never talk about it with the client.

They never wear it on the outside.

So if you're wondering if you can charge for strategy, what I want to talk about in this podcast is how you can charge for what you already do.

Let's start there.

Now, I know I can be a little bit rude about things like mission, vision, and values, but if you are doing something like that, if you're developing personality traits before you get into your design work, if you're working with your client to develop a positioning strategy, any of those things, that is thinking work that you should be charging for.

What I want to give you in, in this podcast is some strategies for how you can show the value in those things so that you can charge for them.

Of course, your other alternative is just to give them a dollar figure [laughs] and start charging for them.

But if you feel like having some strategies to show the client the value in them would be helpful, then you are in the right place today.