Today we’re super excited to welcome designer, illustrator and longtime listener Meg Sayers to the show. Meg was one of the first daily challenges to come from the podcast and her illustration work has started to really take off. So much so that she is feeling overworked and completely burned out. We try to rally around Meg today to figure out the best solution and discuss at length effective ways for how she can increase her prices.

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Show Notes for This Episode:

[1:30] We’re super excited to be joined by the lovely Meg Sayers @meg_ladoodle on Instagram
[2:15] Meg styles really developed since she started doing the daily design challenge
[2:45] The daily challenge made a huge difference to her life
[3:45] Meg started by doing illustrations on a Wacom tablet
[4:20] The daily challenge was a great starting point for doing hand drawn illustrations
[5:00] Meg now has a portfolio of work after doing 130 days of the daily challenge
[5:45] This brought s huge confidence boost to her work and personal life
[6:50] Meg has a fan base on social and gets a lot of positive feedback on her work
[7:45] She also feels more inspired
[8:20] Meg is currently working on Gmail plugin and she describes the fun drawing she created for this
[9:30] She is really busy with other projects and feels she doesn’t have the time to allocate to the ones she enjoys
[10:00] Meg has been working every evening and every other weekend for the past 6 months
[11:00] She feels overwhelmed trying to cope with the load of work and family life
[11:45] Meg uses Rescue Time to track her work and it’s usually 40 hours a week
[12:20] Out of this 70% is spent on design work
[13:10] When burnout makes an easy task feel like a difficult one
[13:50] Obsessing over the little things
[14:45] Trying to ignore the people around you telling you that you need a break
[15:40] Ian shares his experience with transitioning to full time lettering
[16:20] Meg can have a risk-free transitioning to illustrating
[17:30] Lisa thinks that maybe Meg is undercharging and not billing for all the working hours
[18:15] Meg feels uncomfortable with raising the prices and possibly under delivering
[19:30] Rushing a job on a high pay rate
[20:15] Accepting work and keeping clients happy due to fear of not losing them
[21:00] Don’t be afraid to say no to jobs – you will always get more work
[22:00] Meg had a few quiet months over the summer last year
[22:40] Fear and burnout possibly affecting Meg’s decisions
[23:15] Megan lists work she is not charging for: replying to emails, scheduling work, proposals and managing the freelancers she works with
[25:40] Tom explains how Meg could be working for less people at a higher rate
[26:30] He suggest a hypothetical conversation between Meg and a client
[28:00] Charging clients project management fees when using freelancers to help with work
[29:30] Or explaining that your skill has improved and you got more to offer
[30:45] Dustin accepting an increase in price with the improvement in skill and seeing that really pay off
[31:50] Telling clients that the price includes much more than just the design work
[32:35] Having to increase the rate to accommodate a few select clients
[33:20] Clients will want to work with you when they hear you’re overbooked
[34:15] Meg would prefer working 30h a week to have more time for her family
[35:15] Making sure to include the additional time in the project cost
[36:00] Tom thinks Meg could possibly do both: increase prices and charge for additional time
[37:00] Dustin’s reasoning that if the other hosts bring up their prices, their sale will go down
[37:30] Tom agrees that possibly this would have severe repercussions
[38:00] He explains how it can be less risky for a freelance increasing the prices
[39:20] The market is telling you what your talent is worth
[40:00] Start testing your price increase with one person at a time
[40:35] Meg charges in 2 different ways for different clients: price per hour and project cost
[41:20] Lisa charges per project and includes an hourly cost fee for extra hours
[42:30] Ian stopped doing hourly rates, he prices his work per day
[43:40] Tom thinks the daily rate is more professional
[44:45] Making it easier for you and the client to know the cost and duration of the project
[45:50] Don’t feel like you must justify what your day is
[46:30] Lisa felt she was being penalised because she can do more work in an hour
[47:10] Take advantage of your experience and don’t be afraid to include this in the price
[48:00] Dustin’s hot dog analogy
[48:50] Dealing with the root problem rather than fighting burnout
[49:40] The hosts plan to check if Meg will go ahead with this strategy of increasing her costs
[50:20] The chat helped Meg confirm some of the ideas she already had
[50:50] Getting the clients on the lower rate to the new rate
[51:20] We’re really pleased to have Meg on the show
[52:00] The best way to find Meg is over on Instagram @meg_ladoodle
[52:50] If you don’t already please go and check Meg’s work
[53:45] Thanks so much for listening to this week’s episode


“A must for every creative freelancer (or those aspiring to freelance). Thank you for being so… honest! Such a wealth of information from people I admire who have ‘been there and done that’. Listening to the podcast every week feels like I’m among friends. Can’t wait for more episodes!”AG_GD