Anishka Clarke came from Wall Street, while Niya Bascom had spent much of his career as a self-employed artist. When they founded their Brooklyn-based firm Ishka Designs, the duo knew what financial pitfalls they wanted to avoid.
How have you come to a place where you feel like you’re charging what you’re worth?
Niya Bascom: When we started, our pricing was all over the place. We have found that charging hourly has been best for us. With other approaches, clients would call us at 8 o’clock on a Sunday, and I’d want to be like, “Dude, I’m with my family. I don’t want to talk about it now,” but a lot of clients felt that we worked for them. Since then, we’ve moved forward with an approach that makes it clear that we don’t work for you, we work with you. It’s a relationship, not ownership. That business aspect is the most challenging, but it’s also how you quantify your worth.
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