Ask Nancy: How much to charge?

Dear Brown Bag Readers

Yup, you guessed it - I'm still on the beach so I've asked another vendor friend to fill in for me while I am in Mexico.  Today, we have Nicole Lisanne of Nicole Lisanne Weddings & Events by Design answering questions for "Ask Nancy" column.

Thank you Nicole for helping me out.

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Dear Nancy:

I was reading your blog which I absolutely enjoyed.   I have a small business in event design & decorating.  I have my first wedding, beach theme but I don't know what to charge for my service.   I surfed the net but only can find pricing for wedding planners, florist, but not one precisely for wedding design/decorating.   Please advise!!!   I need some sort of base that is both accurate and competitive. 

Hope to hear from you soon,

Carmen M

Dear Carmen,

Hi! Nancy has asked me to share my wisdom with you on this topic! My name
is Nicole, I'm a Wedding Designer and owner of Nicole Lisanne Weddings &
Events by Design here in Campbell, CA.

There are a few key things to take into consideration when pricing out
your design services:

1.Who is your target market? If they are the high end affluent Bride and
Groom, your prices should be top of the market. If they are mid range,
same thing, and so on.

2.What are you comfortable charging based on your experience? If you only
have a year or two of experience, you can't charge top prices yet, and you
want to be comfortable and confident with the numbers you are telling your
customers.

After you've explored these two questions, you should have a good feel for
whether you should be charging a high price, medium price, or lower price
than others in your market.

You also need to know how to structure your fee for selling your design
services. Here's my advice:

1.Charge one flat rate for your design services to all clients.

2.Provide the same design services to all clients who hire you. i.e.Offer
the same process for design for each client to ensure high customer
service and a good outcome. There's no sense in counting hours spent,
etc...if you have a process you are comfortable with, stick to it!

In our market here in the San Francisco Bay Area the three price points
you'll find for a flat rate fee for design services are around $6-9,000
lower range, $9-12,000 mid-range, and as high as $12,000 and beyond high
end.

Since you are a newer event designer, you should be around the lower range
price point, but if you aren't comfortable with these numbers, lower them
and gradually build up through the years you gain more experience until
you have confidence touting a higher price point.

I hope this helped!

Thank you Nicole for your insight.  Nicole Lisanne runs a successful full service wedding planning and event design business from Campbell, California.