Graphic Design: What is Your Work Worth?

SOURCE: http://alldesigntalk.com/

Why am I Interested in this Topic?

I am a graphic designer.  As such, there are a couple different career paths that I could follow.  I could work as a creative at a large design firm or I could start as a freelancer.  I have a good idea of what the pay would be like working as a creative at a design firm because of the fact that is more or less a traditional job with a set salary, benefits, set hours, etc.  However, as a freelancer, many of these things are unknown.  Since you are working for yourself, there is no salary set by a higher up, you have to pay for what would have come with benefits at a firm, and you are responsible for how much you work.

Overall Question

By the end of this project, I want to know what it is that determines how much a freelancer is paid.  It is hard to judge this without in depth research due to the fact that when one does a search for a freelancer’s salary, there are results that can range from $20,000/year, to $100,000 per year, to $10/hr, to $90/hr, just to name a few.

Sub Questions

In order to answer this overall question, there are a couple smaller questions that I must address first.  How much does it cost to run your own business?  How often would equipment need to be bought?  How much would the necessary insurance cost?  How much is a client willing to pay?  How do you determine how many hours you have worked on a project?  Do you present an upfront cost or an hourly rate to a client?  All of these questions, and I am sure many more as I research, must be answered before I can give an answer to my overall question.

Plan of Research

In terms of research, I believe that the best plan of action is to just start searching around and making sure that the sources that I use are credible.  I do not know of any specific database, website, author, etc. at the moment that will provide the answers that I am looking for.  As such, I believe it best to try and find websites that are credible that have information on the topic and dig deeper from there.