Generating Invoices for Event Styling Services

One task that causes me quite a bit of discomfort is that of generating invoices for event styling services. The reason as to why I struggle with this task is due to the fact that I am often at a loss as to how much I should charge for the services. This is why I envy the folks at My Walmart store (the one in my neighborhood), because for them, the task of putting price tags on the items they sell seems to be so simple and straightforward. Us, the vendors of services, have a much more difficult time in calculating the right fees to charge, as there are so many considerations to be taken into account.

Of course, there are scenarios where I agree with clients upfront on the fees to be charged for event styling services. In such cases, the task of generating invoices becomes an easy one: it becomes just a matter of putting the pre-agreed figure on the invoice slip, and emailing the same to the client. But there are other clients who just give me event styling jobs, and then tell me to figure out, by myself, what I wish to charge for the services. They promise to pay it (whatever I decide to invoice them). Those are the cases that are hard for me to deal with.

On the one hand, I am keen not to charge too much, lest I lose the clients in the future. On the other hand, I am keen not to charge too little, and end up being unable to meet my business expenses. So the task of ascertaining the right amount of money to charge for my services, and putting it on an invoice, becomes a challenging one.

I do, of course, have the option of agreeing upfront with all my clients on the fees I should charge them for my event styling services. But there are clients who would view this is an unprofessional way of doing business. There are clients who are ready to pay reasonable fee for the services, and trying to ask them to agree on a specific fee upfront is like harassing them. So I have to cope with the task of generating invoices, and hope that the figures I cite in those invoices are reasonable charges for the services I offer.