Planning a Budget for Your Next Design Project

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If you have one or more design projects in mind, now is the time to get busy planning your budget.

By creating your design budget now, you’ll have the best chance of meeting your design goals and ensuring projects won’t end up on next year’s project list!

Prioritize Design Projects

When you set your design budget, the amount you allocate will depend on your overall business goals and how the design project fits within those goals. Are you launching any new products or services? Does your website need a new design? Do you need to ensure your website is mobile responsive? Questions like these will highlight the design projects you should prioritize.

Do Some Research

So, you know which design project to tackle. Great! Now how do you determine a realistic budget? Start by doing some research.

Researching costs, features and offerings of products and services before purchasing helps us make more informed buying decisions. Just like you take time to do some research before going on vacation, buying a car or ordering your next pair of polka dot rain boots, you’ll want to do some research on your design project before diving in.

Of course, every project will be unique with requirements specific to your business needs. Keep in mind that high quality work usually comes with a higher price and vice-versa. However, getting an idea of what will be involved and gathering some ballpark figures will help determine if the project is feasible at this time and will give you a start when creating your budget.

Your Expected Budget

In addition to using the information gathered through your research, you can look at what you spent on design in the last year or two. Prior design spend can serve as a good benchmark that can be adjusted to your specific business and design goals. If you don’t have previous design spend to work with, you can create an average based on your researched figures.

Once you have an estimate, you’ll need to look at all your other fixed and variable costs, as well as your expected revenue. Depending on these other areas, you may need to adjust your design estimate up or down.

What if your budget ends up being lower than what you need for the project? Don’t fret just yet. Read on.

Other Options to Consider

If you don’t have the resources for your project, do you just forgo it altogether? Perhaps you should consider a phased plan. This means that, instead of abandoning the project entirely, you can work with your design team to find an alternate solution or revise the project scope in order to meet your current budget.

Look into different payment plans as well. At time4design, we offer milestone payment options and simple financing to help you meet your design goals. These solutions can be factored into your budget, allowing you to allocate smaller amounts over time rather than a large sum all at once.

If you’d like to speak with us about your next design project and see what options are available, feel free to contact us. We’d love to hear from you!