Presented by Abba Studios
If this tool did nothing except give you one number you could say out loud to a client without flinching, would it be worth it? Doctors don't justify their rates. Lawyers don't justify their rates. Plumbers don't justify their rates. You shouldn't either. The Pricing Verdict gives you the private certainty to state your number and move on.
There's an old story about a factory machine that broke down at the worst possible time. After exhausting every option, the manager finally called in an expert plumber.
The plumber walked in, looked the machine over, listened to the hum it was making, and tapped a single pipe once with a hammer. The machine roared back to life.
He handed the manager a bill for a thousand dollars.
The manager was furious. A few minutes of work? He demanded an itemized invoice. So the plumber rewrote it:
Tapping with a hammer: $1
Knowing exactly where to hit: $999
The manager paid.
Every artist reading this already knows where to hit. The only thing missing is the bill.
Most Artists Price the Hours. Professionals Price the Deal.
I'd been freelancing for years before I landed my first Hollywood feature film job. A character's talk show inside the film, and they needed someone to design the set. Someone gave them my name, and I was in. I had the skills, the portfolio, the years of proof I could do the work. What I didn't have was a number.
When they asked what my fee would be, I quoted a few hundred dollars. I thought I was being reasonable, maybe even a little bold. There was silence on the other end of the line, then something that sounded like exhaustion, and finally: "We'll give you $5,000." I felt like a complete amateur, after years of doing the work.
That was the moment I understood the gap. Not the gap between what I'd charged and what they offered, but the gap between how I saw myself and how the industry actually operated.
So I went and did the research I should have done before. I learned the rates. I learned how Hollywood thought about value, about time, about what a professional's work was worth in different rooms. And what I found made it worse before it made it better, because I realized this wasn't just a Hollywood problem. I'd been undercharging everywhere, for years, on every job. Not because the market wouldn't support higher rates, but because I had no system for arriving at a number that felt true. Every quote I gave was a guess dressed up as confidence, and clients could feel it. They pushed back, I folded, and the work got done for less than it was worth.
That's not a market problem. That's a math problem.
The fix wasn't more research, and it wasn't watching what other artists charged and hoping to feel less out of place. The fix was working backwards from real numbers. My actual costs, my actual time, what the specific market I was working in actually supported, and every layer of value I'd been transferring to clients without charging for: the rights, the licensing, the buyouts, the exclusivity, the usage terms I'd been giving away as a freebie.
When I ran those numbers honestly, the result wasn't a guess anymore. It was a verdict. Not a verdict I had to defend, but a verdict I could state.
Because here's the truth nobody tells artists. Doctors don't justify their rates. Lawyers don't justify their rates. Plumbers don't justify their rates. They name the number and the number is the number. We're the only profession that's been trained to apologize for ours.
The math was never meant to be shown to a client. The math was meant to end the argument I was having with myself.
The Pricing Verdict does one thing. It walks you through every variable that determines what a project is actually worth: your time, your costs, your market, the rights you're transferring, the licensing term, the exclusivity window, the geography, the usage, and the buyout if there is one.
Most artists charge for the first three. They give the rest away for free.
The Pricing Verdict makes you face all of it before you name a number, and then it gives you the number. Not a suggestion, not a range, a verdict.
What you do with that number is state it. You don't email it with a paragraph of explanation. You don't itemize it on a PDF. You don't apologize for it, soften it, or ask if it works for them. You say the number. The number is the number. And for the first time in your career, you know it's right.
| Component | Value |
|---|---|
| The Pricing Verdict System Walks you through the full economic shape of any deal: your time, your costs, your market, plus the rights, licensing, buyouts, usage terms, exclusivity, and geography most artists never charge for. Outputs a single verdict number. |
$97 |
| The Imposter Syndrome Tax Report Shows you, privately, how much undercharging has cost you. The receipt you needed. |
$27 |
| The Conviction Sheet Your number, your floor, your walk-away. For your eyes only, never the client's. |
$19 |
| Total Value | $143 |
| You Pay Today | $9 |
| Component | Value |
|---|---|
| Everything above, for 3 projects | $291 |
| Quarterly Rate Audit Prompt Catches inflation drift before clients lock you in. |
$27 |
| Total Value | $318 |
| You Pay | $19 |
If this tool did nothing except give you one number you could say out loud to a client without flinching, would $9 be worth it?
If it ended the silent argument you have with yourself every time you sit down to send a quote, would $9 be worth it?
If it stopped you from giving away licensing, rights, and exclusivity for free on every project, would $9 be worth it?
You already know where to hit. This tool just helps you write the bill.
Run your numbers. If you don't feel more certain about your rate, email me. I'll refund every cent, no explanation needed. I built this for artists, not against them.
"I ran about three different project types, from illustration to character design, as different art industries have various standard rates, and after running a few different projects through the test and seeing how the suggested pricing changes, I think this would be a great resource for artists, especially those like me who are new to the process. I do hope to use this tool for my first real commission so I know where to start with pricing."
Erin Wall
Illustrator (advertising & branding)
"I liked the way it helps to organize expenses and factor in things like having to put aside taxes, my daily expenditures, and really thinking on how many hours a project should take me. As someone who does freelance but is intimidated by determining a price range, this tool provides me extra confidence to know I am factoring in everything while still remaining fair to both me and the client!"
Aria Feliciano Santiago
Freelance Illustrator
"The interface is straightforward and easy to navigate, and the dropdown menus are especially helpful in reminding any creative person to include things they might forget when estimating a job. I loved that the job estimate you get at the end is designed like an invoice with easily readable, clear explanations for how the price was determined. It helped me cost out my own creative time and I discovered I owed myself over $600! It hits the important points of legal ownership, licensing, usage and more. I view this as a real change agent for creatives who struggle to quote projects for clients."
Margie Labadie, MFA
Owner & Creative, Steppingstone Arts, LLC
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