In this instructional video, solo designer Charles Postiaux shares the three most powerful pricing levers that helped him earn over $25,000 a month and work with $2 billion‑valued companies. He argues that most designers stay broke because they lack visibility, price their services incorrectly, and fail to align their offerings with the outcomes clients value. He explains (1) the importance of diversifying lead sources to avoid single‑channel and key‑customer risk, (2) why cheap pricing attracts cheap clients and why price should reflect the designer’s desired market and comfort level, and (3) how to target the right outcomes by reducing perceived risk through strong portfolios, case studies, niche positioning, and clear ROI framing. Throughout, he uses concrete examples (Dribbble reliance, software‑company niche, rebrand ROI) and ends with a call to action for viewers to apply these levers to grow their freelance design business.
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I've personally worked with companies worth $2 billion, making over $25,000 a month as a solo designer. And I'm going to tell you the 3 strongest price levers that I used to get these results so that you can too. First, nobody knows you exist. And if you're not making as much money as you want, then chances are not enough people know about you. And there are 2 risks that come from this. The first one is the single channel risk, which means that you rely on one platform or one source of traffic to get clients for your business. And so for me, for example, that could be my Dribbble. My Dribbble is where I get most of my design leads. And so if it were to suddenly shut down, disappear, or the algorithm changes and I don't get that many views on my designs, then probably it's going to be pretty difficult for me to find clients on this platform, which means that I need to find different ways to get clients and different ways to get seen by the people that I want to work with. For example, that could be me making videos like this one, or that could be me posting on other platforms. And then the second risk is the key customer risk, which means that you have a customer that brings 50% or more of your revenues. It's a big risk for your business. So that means that you would need more clients or actually more clients and more leads so that even if one of them suddenly stops, then you are not in trouble for it. And the reason I'm telling you this is because this risk makes you play safe. For example, if you get 10 leads a year or 1 lead a month, you don't really want to try pushing your price up because you really need that client. You really need that sale. You're going to be more flexible with the delivery is with what they want. It's not really healthy and it doesn't really value your work. And so what ends up happening is that if you get the job, if you get the project, you're never going to be happy working with them. The reason you're not making as much money as you want is because not enough people know about you. And this is what I had to understand as well as a business owner and as a designer is that business is all about volume. It's all about getting as many people as possible to know about your stuff and reminding them as often as you can, because most of the time they will forget it or they will not know about whatever you're selling. Even if you don't change your price, it's just to get seen by more people. And talking about price, that's my second point, which is that price does not matter. And it doesn't matter as much as we like to think. Because as a designer, what I always thought is, oh, if I price myself cheap, so if I offer cheap services, then I'm going to attract expensive clients, right? Because they're going to be like, oh, it's cheap, so it must be a really good deal and I could stay with them for a long time. But what ends up happening is that cheap services attract cheap clients. And for cheap clients, you're not A bargain. You're not an amazing deal. You are just a good deal. And so they're going to have complaints. They're going to have objections. They're going to need multiple calls, multiple emails, and they're also going to require a lot more of your efforts because for them, it's a big deal. If their yearly budget is $5,000, what your service costs is $1,000, that's a pretty big deal for them. They would want something that's really good and that they feel like is worth So much of their money. And so we always think that expensive clients will, will, will get attracted by our cheap services. They are only interested in expensive services because it comes from trust. It comes from risk. It comes from likelihood of achievement. The price doesn't matter. So you can choose whatever you want, whatever feels right for you. Both make a living, but you shouldn't put a cheap price expecting expensive clients to come in. You should put a cheap price because you want the cheap price because you are okay with it because you'll, you're happy working for that price. Maybe you like working for family businesses and maybe they don't have that big of a budget, but you like working with them. It makes you happy. Then by all means, do it because you can succeed. Like most of the time, we don't think about that. We don't think about, oh, if I'm cheap, then I'm going to attract cheap clients. We think cheap means I'm going to attract bigger clients that think it's a really good deal, but oftentimes it's not. And the last price lever is to target the right outcome. That comes from risk and likelihood of achievement, for example. Which is how big of a risk is it working with you? And how likely is it that I'm going to achieve what I want working with you? That's why you need like a good portfolio, good website, case studies, maybe social proof, something that shows that it's not the first time that you do that. And that's why it's expensive because something again that we don't think about is that if the risk is high and the likelihood of achievement is low, then there is a price discount. And so if you see something being so cheap, it's because probably the risk is pretty high or the likelihood of achievement or getting what you want is pretty low. So if I want to rebrand and I work with someone who costs like $500, I'm not going to expect exactly what I want. And I'm going to expect some level of risk of not getting exactly the right outcome. And so that's why it's important. For example, I target software companies. So I will try to showcase work from that I've done for software companies. I, I can do design systems. So I want to showcase that I can think about design systems, components. I also like to work on clean minimalist design. So I want to showcase that. And that's The goal I want to have is to create trust and to show that working with me is very low risk. The likelihood of achievement is very high, and that's going to work hand in hand with your pricing. Most of the time, what matters is the outcome, not the work itself. Let's say again, there is a designer who charges $1,000 for a rebrand, and then there is a designer who charges $1 million for a rebrand. That's pretty much the same thing. Both designers offer a rebrand, and so both clients that work with them are going to want The same outcome. They want to rebrand, but the impact they're going to get, the value they're going to get out of it is going to be different. The one with $1,000, they might want to grow on social media. They might want to rebrand their packaging and they believe that this could increase their sales by maybe $2,000, $4,000 a year. And so that's like a 2x or 4x return on investment, which is very good. And for them, that's like a good deal because at the end of the day, everyone wants a good deal. The expensive company, the big company who wants the $1 million rebrand, what happens is maybe they're doing $10 million a year. And they believe that rebranding strategically with this designer is going to help them reach $20, $40 million a year. And again, that's the same thing. It's 2x, 4x. The same companies get the same outcome, the same benefit from the rebrand, but it's just a different scale. And so that's where also risk and likelihood of achievement comes in. And that's why it's so important in both scenarios to have really good case studies and a really good portfolio. And that's why targeting the right outcomes is so important. You try to be strategic and target the right outcomes that matches with the price of your services. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure to leave a like and subscribe. 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