Should I be aiming to book $10k design clients? - Creative Confessions™
- Robin Son
- Nov 29, 2025
- 3 min read
This is by far one of the most commonly talked about things in the online design space at the minute. How can we get bigger and better clients, and how low prices are damaging to the industry.
I received an anonymous creative confession from a podcast listener about this topic, so let's talk about it.
The Confession
“I really hate the "you have to book $10k clients" mindset. I do think that designers need to charge their worth and that we need to elevate our industry but it's not all about the money. Some of us are quite happy sitting in a middle tier if it means less anxiety and a better work life balance. It's not all about the dollar amount. And to be honest, high ticket products can be stressful. AF,”
Want to listen to this episode instead of reading? ↓
Originally aired: 29 September 2024
Why This Confession Hits a Nerve
As I've mentioned before in the past, no one likes to talk about how to price your work as a designer. When you're a beginner it's complicated and it seems like the only time people are talking about pricing is when they're telling you to raise them. There's so much pressure in the creative space to be 'doing the right thing' when a lot of the time, the right way of doing things is whatever way works best for you and your clients.
High ticket clients vs low ticket clients
'High ticket' or 'low ticket' refers to the amount of money the clients are spending on a project. some consider a $10,000 project to be a 'high ticket' project, and other consider it mid tier. Some consider a $3000 project to be a 'low ticket' project while others see this as normal, or even high for them. That's just it; it varies so much.
Whatever you consider high ticket vs low ticket, there are pros and cons to each:
Pros and Cons of High Ticket Client work
Pros of high ticket client work:
Charging more for your work and offering high ticket projects can mean you take on less clients per month. You could be doing 1 big project rather than 5 small ones. This is great because finding one client is often easier than finding 5.
Higher tickets often means you can position yourself as a premium service provider, building trust and securing more serious work.
Cons of high ticket client work:
If you're doing 1 big project rather than multiple small ones, you're often working on the same thing for a longer period of time.
As this confession showed, for some people, higher priced projects come with more pressure and anxiety.
Pros of low ticket client work:
With smaller projects, the work is often much more manageable and you may not be working on them for such a long time.
Lower prices make your work more accessible. As long as you're not selling yourself short, you can provide work to businesses who aren't able to invest in others.
Cons of low ticket client work:
Setting your prices too low can actually scare clients away. You may end up accidentally positioning yourself as someone who's not an expert.
There's a lower income per project, so you'll need to take on more projects to fill the income gap. For example, if you charge $8000 per project and your goal is to make that in a month, you only need one client. But if your goal is still $8000 per month and you charge $2000 per project, you're going to need to find 4 clients a month.
Right, so what should I do?
In the episode, I break down my personal approach. I discuss pricing, finding your own definition of success, how value-based-pricing works and when you should and shouldn't lower your prices
Pricing your work as a designer is hard and it looks different for everyone (that's literally what makes it difficult lmao).
If you want the full breakdown of this confession plus my opinion, listen to the Archived episode of Brand Your Brain at the top of this post
Got a Creative Confession™ of your own?
Brand Your Brain is the podcast that collects and shares anonymous confessions from creatives to normalise the messy reality of creative life.
Every episode starts with a confession submitted by a creative like you and me. Some are deep. Some are funny. Some are wildly relatable. All of them are real. (it’s 100% anonymous, and always free)
If you've got a hot take, unpopular opinion, or personal story about life as a creative then you can share it anonymously below:
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