068: How to charge for motion design with Kyle Hamrick and Hayley Akins
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Release Date: 06/09/2020
101: How to niche down as a motion designer w/ Giuseppe Forestieri
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Should you niche down as a designer? We’ve all heard this advice! So, does niching down help you to win more clients or empower you to be seen as an expert? In this podcast, Hayley speaks with one of our students, Giuseppe about how he niched down his animation studio to work on projects he loves. About Giuseppe Forestieri Giuseppe Forestieri is the Animation Director of his own studio, and has a background in visual communication, specialising in animation and Illustration. Motion Aptitude is the fusion of two of Giuseppe’s biggest passions in life: creativity, and the great outdoors....
info_outline
100: Lessons learnt from making 100 podcast episodes w/ Hayley Akins
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Hayley Akins is a motion designer, animator and the founder of Motion Hatch. Hayley launched this podcast in November 2017! In this episode, Hayley explains how and why she started this motion design podcast and what she’s learnt along the way. She hopes these
info_outline
99: How to create motion design side projects that complement your day job w/ Charli Marie
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
info_outline
98: How Giant Ant became a leading motion design studio w/ Jay Grandin
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Jay is Co-Founder of Giant Ant, an animation studio in Vancouver. As Creative Director, Jay oversees nearly every project in the studio—leading the concept development and script writing processes as well as being actively involved in design and animation. In this episode, Jay unpacks how Giant Ant became a leading motion design studio.
info_outline
097: How to make six figures as a motion designer w/ John Filipkowski
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
John Filipkowski is a freelance motion designer from Chicagoland, with over ten years of experience. He’s worked with some huge brands on projects such as Dr Strange and Ant Man! In this episode we discuss how to earn six figures as a motion designer, the importance of outreach and how to build trust with clients.
info_outline
096: How to scale your income through productized services w/ Brad Hussey
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Brad Hussey is a web designer, online educator and digital marketing consultant based out of Canada. Brad has taught more than 600,000 indie designers, developers and professionals how to get better at their craft and make a living doing work they love. In this episode we explore how you can use a productized service model to scale your motion design business.
info_outline
095: How to make passive income as a motion designer w/ Justin Archer
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Justin Archer is a freelance motion designer who also makes passive income selling templates for final cut pro editors. He has almost 22k sales from Envato alone! In this episode we explore how he started making money through After Effects templates and how you can still be successful even if a market is saturated.
info_outline
094: How to get signed by a motion graphic design agent w/ Drew Melton
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
For some people, the idea of having an agent seems like a dream come true. But how do you actually get signed by a motion graphic design agent? What are the benefits? And once you’ve been signed, how do you make sure you get the most out of the relationship? Find out in our latest episode!
info_outline
093: How to work effectively with difficult clients w/ Ryan Koral
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Ryan Koral has spent the past 13 years telling brand stories through video storytelling. In that time, he’s learned a thing or two about working with all different kinds of clients. Join us as he shares his top takeaways on how to build a great working relationship, no matter the brief or project.
info_outline
092: How to use brand strategy to grow your motion design business w/ Melinda Livsey
Motion Hatch: Helping Motion Designers Do Better Business
Melinda Livsey is a former graphic designer turned brand strategist. In this episode, she’ll teach you how you can use brand strategy to grow your motion design business and how to price your projects based on the value they’ll provide.
info_outlineComing up with a budget for clients and knowing what to charge for your motion design work is a common point of confusion. To shed some light on this, I’ve brought on a special co-host to answer some tough questions on charging for your projects and building industry relationships.
Kyle Hamrick is a motion designer and educator based in Kansas City. He hosts a weekly live show on YouTube with Evan Abrams, Motion Design Hotline. As a freelancer, Kyle creates everything from animated explainer videos to live event visuals; from IMAX documentaries to full graphics packages for professional sports franchises.
How to charge for motion design
Today, we get into how to determine what you charge prospective clients and how to understand their wants and needs. There’s no single answer here. Rather, there are many factors that all need to be considered.
Determine how long a motion design project will take
A particular challenge of freelancers is time management. Kyle and I recommend tracking your time. This will help you determine your actual productivity. It will also increase your efficiency and help you determine what your time is actually worth.
Recognize the value you provide as a motion designer
Most of all, it comes down to recognizing the value you provide. What you do helps others save time and make money. Understanding this leads to a mindset in which you can be of real service for your clients while earning the right compensation for what you do.
In this episode
- Factors to consider when determining clients’ budgets
- Managing the challenges of time management as a freelancer
- The importance of advocating for yourself when factors are outside of your control
- How to know when to say no to a client
- Building connections within your industry as a way to get referrals
Quotes
“If you want to be making $300,000 a year, then figure out what you need to be charging to do that. If you want to make $20,000 a year and spend most of your time surfing in Asia, figure out what you need to do that. That’s the thing about freelancing. You get to decide what these things mean for you.” [8:07]
“You’re going to make mistakes and that’s okay. You’re going to underbid a project and regret it and be mad at yourself.” [11:08]
“Don’t forget to advocate for yourself. Just because someone works at an agency does not necessarily mean they know what they’re doing. And just because someone works at a cool production company, they very well might know what they’re doing, but they’re too busy to pay attention to your project.” [25:23]
“If you say yes to that crumby project today and then a really good project falls into your lap tomorrow, which one are you going to have to do? The one you already agreed to, right?” [36:47]
Links
Follow Kyle on Twitter | Linkedin | Instagram
Join the Client Quest Waitlist
Thanks for Listening!
To share your thoughts:
To help out the show:
Podcast music licensed by Big Waves
Some of the links above are affiliate links. Basically, this means that if you decide to make a purchase through one of these links, we will earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. You can be sure that we would recommend these products whether or not we made any commission on them. Please don’t spend your money on them if you don’t think that they will truly help you improve your business, although, in our experience, they will.