1. Verdict

Safia’s sheet is competitive and unusually specific about deliverables, but it protects the client’s budget better than her own income. The $2,500 identity package is defensible locally; the $1,500 website sits near Edmonton’s entry level, while many add-ons allow too little time for professional delivery. Overall: 6/10 — a credible foundation that needs stronger minimums, more realistic production allowances and clearer commercial terms.

2. Scores

The income illustration assumes Alberta residency, no other income and basic personal/CPP credits only. CPP uses the self-employed 11.9% rate on applicable net earnings; income tax uses published 2026 federal and Alberta parameters. These are calculated scenarios, not Safia’s actual finances. CPP, CRA 2026 tax parameters

For context, Edmonton’s published 2025 living wage is $22.30/hour. Her modelled business profit before personal tax and CPP is $40,000 ÷ 1,840 working hours = $21.74/hour; that is a rough comparison, since employee and freelance arrangements differ. Alberta Living Wage Network

3. Market benchmarks

Prices researched live on November 4, 2026. USD conversions use US$1 = C$1.3994, the Bank of Canada’s November 3 daily rate; converted amounts are rounded. These are advertised examples, not a representative market average. Exchange-rate source

Interpretation: Safia is not universally cheap. Her identity price exceeds some published local offers and the Contra example, while remaining below Bloc’s package despite including a pattern, mockups and two revision rounds. Her website is entry-priced locally; her own delivery costs provide the strongest reason to increase it.

4. Fixes — errors and inconsistencies

1. Pages 1–9: preserve the correct arithmetic. The website calculation is $900 + 8 × $75 = $1,500. The bundle is $2,500 + $1,500 = $4,000, with zero discount; describe it as a coordinated package rather than implying savings.

2. Page 3: the hours are reverse-calculated, not independently validated. Dividing fees by $50 proves consistency but does not establish how long delivery takes. Replace that explanation with: “The proposal confirms a fixed fee for the agreed deliverables. Working-time estimates are planning estimates and do not determine turnaround.”

3. Pages 2–3: distinguish estimating overruns from changed scope. “If more time is needed” could mean the same deliverables become more expensive because Safia underestimated them. Use: “The agreed fee covers the listed deliverables and revisions. Scope changes and additional revision rounds require an approved change quote.”

4. Page 4: remove the irrelevant “Brand / Solo hours” footer. This table has one price/hour column. Replace it with “Estimated working hours; turnaround confirmed in your proposal.”

5. Pages 4 and 7: consolidate the repeated promotional-banner item. Its $75 standalone price agrees across both pages; there is no numerical conflict. State on page 4: “See Digital Assets for the branding-package rate.”

6. Pages 5 and 7: correct the staff-version allowance. Thirty minutes for a master design and ten staff versions leaves, at most, three minutes per version before any design, communication or revisions. Change both listings to one master design plus one staff version; additional name/contact versions $10 each.

7. Pages 5 and 7: move the stationery qualification. “Stationery uses established branding and supplied text” belongs on page 5. Keep the email-signature file/installation exclusion beside that item on page 7.

8. Pages 2 and 4: clarify website implementation and section allocation. Name the supported platform, whether the fee includes building the functioning site, and who owns its account. Add: “The base package includes eight sections total across up to four pages; a new additional page includes its stated sections without duplicate section charges.” The existing eight-section total is already clear and should remain.

9. Pages 1–9: make global terms visible where clients choose services. Put the order minimum, revision rule and extra-work policy before the add-on tables. Format hour pairs consistently as “3 / 4”, and replace vague “logo designs” with “one identity system: primary logo, secondary arrangement and icon.”

5. Improvements — ranked by impact

1. Raise the standard rate to $75/hour and core fees to $3,500 identity, $2,250 website and $5,500 combined. At the current estimated hours, these realise $70, $75 and $68.75/hour respectively. The combined package saves $250 against $5,750 separately—4.35%, small enough to justify through shared discovery and coordination.

2. Reprice the smallest services and remove excessive version counts. Introduce a $100 standalone-order minimum, shown beside every table; clients can combine small items. For example, a $75 standalone graphic still incurs the $100 minimum unless combined with other work.

3. Sell fixed deliverables publicly; keep production budgets internal. Remove the hour columns from the client sheet, retain the $75 rate for approved extras, and specify what increases a starting price: additional concepts, content creation, complex layouts or extra formats. At a realised $70/hour under the same annual assumptions, revenue becomes approximately $64,400, leaving about $44,581 after overhead, CPP and income tax.

4. Add one bounded launch bundle. Offer Launch Essentials at $400 with branding: business-card master with one staff version, letterhead, profile/cover kit and three static social graphics. Against the proposed individual add-on prices below, that is $75 + $50 + $75 + 3 × $50 = $350; therefore include one email-signature master ($75) to make the actual individual total $425 and the saving $25. List that complete scope explicitly.

5. Package ongoing work without promising unlimited support. Add Content Updates: $150/month for up to two hours, and Design Support: $350/month for up to five hours. Define scheduling, expiry and overages; keep technical maintenance separate unless she can deliver its stated platform responsibilities.

6. Give packaging and presentations more production allowance. Supplied content does not eliminate hierarchy, file preparation, checking or revisions. Limit standard slide pricing to supplied, final content and packaging pricing to an approved printer dieline and client-approved label copy.

6. Proposed price table

All proposed figures are starting prices in CAD before applicable tax. Paired figures mean with branding / standalone. The $100 standalone-order minimum applies; proposed versions and deliverables are defined above.

7. Missing terms to add

Suggested short wording:

• Booking and payment: “Projects require a 50% booking payment. The balance is due before launch or delivery of final files. Projects under $300 are payable in advance. Quotes remain valid for 30 days.”
• Revisions: “Core packages include two consolidated revision rounds; add-ons include one. A round is one collected feedback list on the agreed direction. New directions, deliverables and additional rounds are quoted separately.”
• Changes: “The agreed fee covers the approved scope. Additional work is quoted at $75/hour or a fixed fee and begins only after written approval.”
• Schedule and delays: “Your proposal confirms milestones after receipt of payment and required content. Feedback is due within five business days. Delays move delivery dates; after 15 business days without required input, work may be paused and rescheduled.”
• Cancellation: “If cancelled, completed work is charged at $75/hour plus approved non-recoverable expenses, up to the agreed project fee. Payments already made are credited and any unearned balance refunded.”
• Files and rights: “Your proposal lists final formats and included editable files. Copyright in approved original final artwork transfers after full payment. Unused concepts and working files remain mine; fonts, stock assets and platform services retain their separate licence terms.”
• Production approval: “Clients approve final wording, names, contact details, label information and printer proofs before production. Printing, manufacturing and regulatory review are excluded.”
• Rush and overdue payments: “Accepted rush work carries a quoted 25% surcharge. Invoices are due within 14 days; overdue accounts pause further work.”
• Website support: “The 14-day correction period begins at launch and covers faults in the agreed delivered work. New content, third-party changes and additional features are quoted separately.”
• Recurring support: “Monthly plans are prepaid. Unused hours expire monthly; additional hours require approval at $75/hour. Plans exclude emergency availability and third-party subscription charges.”
• Tax: “Prices exclude applicable taxes. GST/HST is charged where legally applicable and shown on the invoice.”

For Alberta supplies, the published rate is 5% GST and no PST; out-of-province clients require the applicable place-of-supply treatment. The ordinary small-supplier threshold concerns $30,000 in taxable supplies, including the single-quarter and consecutive-quarter tests—not profit or simply calendar-year earnings. CRA rates, Registration rules

8. Assumptions and uncertainties

• I reviewed the complete nine-page extracted text. I did not assess the PDF’s visual design or Safia’s portfolio; proposed prices assume the talent and experience described in the brief.
• Published competitor prices do not establish actual transaction prices, quality or profitability. Several local pages are undated; they were live when researched. Unqualified local dollar figures are treated as CAD; Contra’s figure is treated as USD.
• The annual model assumes 920 billable hours, full collection, no marketplace commission and $6,000 annual business expenses. Actual workload, expenses, other income and tax circumstances could materially change it.
• Safia’s actual delivery times are unknown. A $2,500 identity taking 60 hours instead of 50 realises $41.67/hour, before general business overhead.
• I located RGD’s 2024/2025 Creative Earners survey, but its download requires contact details. I did not submit the form, so no unverified Canadian survey rate or percentile is claimed. RGD survey, Download requirements
• Proposed prices, utilisation and expenses are my recommendations or explicit modelling assumptions, not sourced market averages. No remembered competitor numbers were used.

Review: Safia's design-services pricing sheet

1. Verdict

The sheet is well organised and the math is clean: every one of the ~55 line items equals its stated hours × $50. It is very competitive, in fact too competitive. Brand Identity ($2,500) is in the lower-middle of Edmonton studio pricing and the middle of online solo-designer pricing. The website ($1,500) is cheaper than every Edmonton build package I could find with a published price. The small add-ons ($25–$75) are about a quarter of local studio rates, and many are fixed-price 30-minute jobs that include a revision round, so they will lose money. The terms protect the client well but give Safia almost no protection. Overall: 5/10. Good structure, priced like a budget option, and it needs a terms page.

2. Scores

M3 income estimate (my assumptions are flagged in section 8):

• Capacity and gross: 46 weeks × 40 h = 1,840 h. At about 54% utilisation that is 1,000 billable h, so gross is $50,000. That is over the $30k GST small-supplier threshold, so she must register; GST passes through to clients.
• Net: expenses of about $7,000 (software, fonts and stock, hardware, phone and internet, insurance, bookkeeping, marketing; my estimate) leave $43,000.
• CPP: 11.9% × ($43,000 − $3,500) = $4,700 (2026 self-employed rate, advisor.ca).
• Income tax: federal 14% and Alberta 8%, after the personal amounts ($16,452 federal / $22,769 Alberta) and the CPP deduction and credit, comes to about $4,300 (BDO Tax Facts 2026, alberta.ca; figures as reported in search summaries).
• Take-home: about $34,000, roughly $2,830 a month or $18.50 per hour actually worked. At 800 billable hours it drops to about $27,100.
• Rent: an Edmonton one-bedroom averages $1,274/month, or $15,288 a year (liv.rent, Oct 2026).
• At the proposed $65/h and the same 1,000 hours, take-home is about $44,300, roughly $3,690 a month.

3. Market benchmarks

USD is converted at 1 USD = 1.42 CAD, based on early-to-mid October 2026 aggregator rates (exchange-rates.org, 1.4247).

4. Fixes (errors and inconsistencies)

1. Pages 1–2: the bundle is the exact sum. $2,500 + $1,500 = $4,000, and 50 h + 30 h = 80 h, so there is no reason to buy the bundle. Fix: price it below the sum and show the saving: "From $4,800 (save $400)".
2. Page 2: the website breakdown contradicts "starting at". "$900 + 8 sections at $75" implies a 5-section site costs $1,275. Fix: add "Includes up to 8 sections; unused sections are not credited", or delete the breakdown sentence.
3. Page 2: "Additional icon sets…available separately" implies an icon set is included, but the package only includes one logo icon. Fix: "Icon sets (p. 7) and social media templates (p. 8) are available as add-ons."
4. Page 3: "calculated from the listed fees at $50/hour" tells clients the hours were back-calculated from the price, which undermines them as estimates. Fix: delete the clause and write "Hours are typical for this scope; your quote confirms them."
5. Page 3 vs pages 5–9: "with branding" is defined two ways. Page 3 says it applies when bought with a brand identity package. The column header and the page 7 note ("uses established branding") read as any client who already has a brand. There is also no time limit. Fix: rename the column "Brand client" and define it: "Brand-client prices apply to Safia brand identity clients for 12 months after brand delivery."
6. Pages 4 and 7: the promotional banner is listed twice. Page 4 has a flat $75 (1.5 h); page 7 has $50 / $75. Fix: delete the page 4 row.
7. Page 4: orphaned legend. "Brand / Solo hours = with branding / standalone" sits on a page with no such column. Fix: delete it, and use one pair of terms throughout ("Brand client / Standard").
8. Page 7: the stationery note is on the wrong page. "Stationery uses established branding… Staff versions change names/contact details only" sits under Digital assets. Fix: move it to page 5 under the stationery table.
9. Page 4: additional page pricing. "Additional page – up to 4 simple sections" costs $300 even for a one-section page (privacy policy, booking info), while base pages average 2 sections. Fix: "Additional page: $75 per section, minimum 2 sections" ($100 per section at the proposed rates).
10. Page 4: GST wording. "GST/HST is added only when required or registered to collect it" reads as optional. At these rates, about 600 billable hours ($30k) makes registration mandatory. Fix: see the tax wording in section 7.
11. Pages 5–9: the hours column. "3 / 4" and "2 / 3" can read as fractions (¾ h, ⅔ h). "0.5 h" for business cards with 10 staff versions also invites haggling. Fix: drop hours from the add-on tables and keep them in quotes, or write "3 h / 4 h".
12. Page 2: concepts and revisions are undefined. The number of initial logo concepts and what counts as a "round of revisions" are not stated. Fix: "2 initial logo directions; 2 rounds of consolidated revisions on the chosen direction."
13. Pages 2 and 4: the website platform is never named, yet scope depends on it ("where supported", "native platform support"). Fix: name the platform and add "Accounts are set up in your name; platform/hosting fees are paid by you directly (about $__/month)."

5. Improvements (ranked by impact)

1. Raise the standard rate from $50 to $65/h and reprice everything from it. $65 is the freel.ca mid-level median and still well under Edmonton agency rates ($160/h). At the same hours, take-home rises from about $34k to about $44k.
2. Reprice the core packages:
   • Brand Identity $3,200: the scope (3 logo lockups, a pattern, a 20-page guide, 4 mockups) matches A Creative Agency's $3,000 and Hotspot's $4,850.
   • Website $2,000 ($1,200 base + 8 × $100): the cheapest Edmonton build I found is $1,999.
   • Bundle $4,800: a real $400 saving.
3. Put a floor under the small items.
   • Brand-client items no lower than $45.
   • Standalone = brand-client price +30%, minimum +$25.
   • Extra pages, slides and variations cost the same for both.
   • Minimum order $125, which equals a standalone flyer.
   • Reason: every order carries 30–60 minutes of unbilled intake, invoicing and delivery (my estimate). A $25 item with a revision round can't cover that.
4. Sell value, not hours, on page 1.
   • Remove "$50/hour" and "Estimated work: X hours" from page 1.
   • Replace them with "Typical timeline: 4–6 weeks" and 3–4 inclusion bullets.
   • Keep "From" only on the three packages. Make the add-ons fixed prices, since their scope is already tightly defined.
5. Add a one-page Terms section (section 7). This is the biggest risk reduction for the least effort.
6. Add recurring revenue:
   • Website Care plan, $125/month: up to 2 h of updates, 3-month minimum, no rollover. It sits between Elevate's $99/mo and Hartree's $500/mo.
   • Design retainer, $360/month: 6 h, 3-month minimum (about $60/h).
7. Add a Brand Launch Kit, $395, sold only with Brand Identity: business cards, letterhead, email signature, 6 Canva templates, and profile + cover. À la carte that is $460 at the proposed prices.
8. Add rush fees: +25% for under 5 business days, +50% for 48 hours. For reference, Ignite charges +$200 for a 48-hour rush, and the ManyPixels and Contra guides cite 25–50%.
9. Shorten the sheet to about 5 pages: packages, website add-ons, one grouped design add-ons table, photo editing, terms. Merge letterhead, envelope, insert card, gift card and invoice into one row: "Single stationery piece."

6. Proposed price table

Prices shown as brand client / standalone, under the +30% rule.

7. Missing terms to add

• Deposit & payment: "Projects over $500: 50% non-refundable deposit to book your start date; balance due before final files are released. Projects under $500: paid in full upfront. Invoices are due within 14 days."
• Late payment: "Overdue balances accrue interest at 1.5% per month (18% per year)."
• Timeline & delays: "Timelines start once the deposit and all content are received. If feedback or content is outstanding for more than 14 days, the project pauses and is rescheduled. After 60 days of inactivity it closes, and completed work is invoiced."
• Revisions & changes: "A revision round is one consolidated list of changes to the current design. New directions, new content, or changes after approval are additional work at $65/hour, quoted for your approval first. If you don't approve, I complete the original scope."
• Cancellation: "If you cancel, the deposit is kept and completed work beyond it is invoiced at $65/hour. Files are released on payment."
• Ownership & licences: "On full payment, you own the final approved logo and brand artwork. Unused concepts and working files remain mine. Fonts, stock images, templates and plugins are licensed under their own terms, and any purchase is your cost."
• Portfolio: "I may show completed work in my portfolio after launch unless we agree otherwise in writing."
• Trademark: "I create original work but don't provide trademark searches or legal clearance."
• Labels & packaging: "You are responsible for regulatory content and compliance (e.g., bilingual labelling, Nutrition Facts) and for approving final proofs. I'm not responsible for errors in approved files or for print results."
• Rush: "Under 5 business days: +25%. 48 hours: +50%, subject to availability."
• Websites: "Website, domain and hosting accounts are set up in your name and paid by you."
• Tax & validity: "Prices exclude GST. Once registered, I add GST (or HST, based on your location) to every invoice. GST #: ____. Quotes are valid for 30 days."

8. Assumptions and uncertainties

• Exchange rate: 1.42 CAD per USD, from early-to-mid October 2026 aggregator figures, not an official Bank of Canada rate.
• Edmonton evidence is mostly studios. I found almost no Edmonton solo freelancers who publish rate cards. Several sources (Ignite, Elevate, Unalike) are the sellers' own marketing, and Ignite's prices are sale prices.
• Marketplace data is partly unverified. Upwork and Fiverr pages returned 403. The Upwork range comes from a search snippet and the Fiverr Pro range from gig summaries; I did not open the gigs. Talo, freel.ca and ManyPixels are commercial guides with thin methods, and Talo is US data from 2024. I could not get RGD CreativeEarners freelance billing data.
• The income model rests on my assumptions: 1,000 billable hours a year, $7,000 in expenses, simplified CPP deduction and credit, Alberta credits at 8%. Tax figures come from third-party 2026 summaries; I did not compute them from official tables.
• Prior knowledge, not sourced: the Interest Act requirement to state an annual rate, and the CFIA bilingual labelling rules.
• Hours column rendering: the text extract shows "3/4", while the PDF renders "3 / 4". Either way it is ambiguous.
• Not seen: Safia's portfolio or website platform. The proposed prices assume her work justifies mid-level positioning, as the brief states.

1. Verdict

Safia's core brand price is broadly competitive in Edmonton, but the website, bundle and micro add-ons are materially underpriced and the $50/hour framing anchors her as a budget option. The sheet is arithmetically tidy at $50/hour yet commercially under-protected: no deposit, IP, kill-fee or delay terms, conflicting revision rules, and a bundle with no saving. Overall: 4/10 — fixable, but do not publish as-is.

2. Scores

3. Market benchmarks

USD converted at 1 USD = 1.40 CAD (Bank of Canada 1.3994 on 3 Nov 2026 source). CAD prices are shown as published.

Reference points used in scoring but not priced as competitors: Job Bank Alberta employee wages for graphic designers/illustrators are $18.00 low / $26.30 median / $45.19 high per hour source; PayScale Canada puts freelance graphic designers at C$35.86/hour on average in 2026 source.

4. Fixes

1. p.1 + p.3 — "Starting at" contradicted by derived hours. The sheet promises a starting price, then states hours are "calculated from the listed fees at $50/hour" and "not guaranteed." A client hears both a fixed price and an hourly meter. Fix: remove the Estimated Hours column from the client sheet entirely; replace the p.3 paragraph with: "Packages are fixed-fee for the scope listed. Your proposal confirms scope, fee and timeline before work starts. Work beyond that scope is quoted and approved by you in writing before it begins." Keep hours in an internal rate card only.
2. p.1 — Bundle saves nothing. $2,500 + $1,500 = $4,000 and 50h + 30h = 80h, so the bundle is just addition. Fix: price the bundle at the sum minus an explicit saving (at proposed prices in §6: $5,300 vs $5,700 separate) and print "Save $400 when booked together."
3. p.2 — Website "sections vs pages" and the $900 + $600 split invite haggling. "Up to 8 sections across the entire website" spread over a homepage plus 3 pages averages 2 blocks per page, and publishing the $900 design + $75/section build-up invites clients to delete sections to cut price. Fix: delete the $900/$600 sentence; state: "Includes a homepage plus up to 3 additional pages (up to 8 content sections in total). A section is one content block such as services, testimonials or FAQs. Additional sections and pages are priced in Website add-ons."
4. p.2 — Brand deliverables are underspecified. No concept count, direction count, or file formats appear in 9 pages; "up to 20 pages" and "up to 4 mockups" are ceilings that read as vagueness. Fix: add one line: "Includes [2] initial directions, primary/secondary/icon logos, colour and type system, one pattern, a brand guide (PDF) with 4 application mockups, and final files in AI/EPS, SVG, PDF, PNG and JPG (print CMYK and screen RGB)." Fill the bracket with the true number; if only 1 direction is offered, say so.
5. p.3 + pp.5–8 — "With branding" eligibility is undefined. "Branding add-on prices apply when purchased with a brand identity package" does not say whether the discount lasts forever after any past brand project. Fix: rename the column to "Brand-client add-on" and add: "Brand-client pricing applies to add-ons ordered while your Brand Identity project is active or within 90 days of final delivery. After that, standalone pricing applies."
6. p.4 — Wrong legend and wrong price label. The footer "Brand / Solo hours = with branding / standalone" appears on a page with no Brand/Solo split, and the Website add-ons page calls its prices "standalone prices" under an add-ons heading. Fix: delete that footer from p.4; change the p.4 intro to "Website add-on prices apply to sites built by Safia. Standalone site work is quoted separately."
7. pp.4 + 7 — Promotional banner is listed twice at conflicting prices. $75 on p.4 vs $50 with branding / $75 standalone on p.7 for the same "one static design, one size." Fix: keep one canonical entry on p.7 at the §6 prices and replace the p.4 row with "Promotional banner — see Digital assets (p.7)."
8. pp.2, 4, 9 — Revision rules conflict. Core packages include "2 rounds," website add-ons "1 minor revision round," copywriting "1 revision," and p.9 re-states add-ons as "one consolidated round of minor revisions." Fix: use one rule everywhere: "Core packages include 2 consolidated revision rounds. Add-ons include 1 consolidated revision round. A round is one set of consolidated comments on one presented direction; new directions, new copy or layout changes after approval are additional work quoted in advance." Delete all other revision sentences.
9. p.5 (and p.7) — "Up to 10 staff versions" in 0.5 hours is not credible and gives away the margin. Ten proofed business-card or email-signature versions cannot be designed, checked and exported in 30 minutes, and clients will claim all 10 every time. Fix: change scope to "shared design, up to 3 staff versions included; additional versions $10 each" and raise the base prices per §6.
10. pp.6 + 9 — Flat $25 same-layout extensions break the discount logic without explanation. Additional menu page and product variation cost $25 both with and without branding while everything else is discounted. Fix: either price them flat on purpose and say "Same-layout extensions are flat-priced because no new design direction is required," or align them to the two-tier structure in §6. Do not leave the anomaly silent.
11. p.7 — Two unusable prices. Signage is "priced upon discussion" (no anchor on a pricing sheet) and the email signature excludes the coded HTML most clients actually need. Fix: replace signage with "Store/business signage — from $250 for design to supplied measurements; fabrication and installation quoted separately," and add to email signature: "Coded HTML signature from $150; installation quoted separately."
12. p.9 — Photo editing at $10/image (0.2h) invites volume abuse and prices unlike tasks identically. Cleanup and background removal both at $10 with no batch definition, file spec or volume cap will attract 100-image jobs at a 12-minute-per-image promise. Fix: replace with §6 batch pricing, and add: "Supplied as print/screen-ready JPG/PNG at supplied dimensions. Bulk jobs over 20 images are quoted as a batch before work starts."
13. pp.4 + 9 — The $50 minimum is buried and unworkable. It first appears in p.4 small print, repeats on p.9, and sits against $10–$25 items, so clients learn about it after choosing. Fix: move it to p.3 Working together and raise it per §6: "Minimum order: $150 for standalone work. Smaller items can be combined in one order to reach the minimum." Remove the duplicates.
14. pp.4 + 9 — Alberta tax wording confuses. "GST/HST is added only when required or registered to collect it" on an Alberta sheet suggests HST may apply locally. Fix: use: "All prices in CAD before GST. GST (5%) is added once Safia is registered to collect it. Hosting, domains, printing, stock and paid fonts are billed separately." Note separately in proposals for out-of-province clients that place-of-supply rules can change the tax rate.
15. pp.2 + 4 — The website platform is never named, so half the website terms float. "Where supported," "native platform support," domain/hosting "separate" and a 14-day fix window mean different things on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix or Showit. Fix: name the platform on p.2 ("Built on [platform]"), state who owns the account and who pays it, and limit the fix window: "14 days of fixes for defects in the delivered work against the approved design and supplied content. New content, new features and third-party platform changes are additional work."

5. Improvements

1. Raise the standard rate from $50 to $65 CAD/hour and reprice the cores — website first. $65 matches the Canadian freelance band of $40–$100/hour source, keeps her below studio anchors, and at the §2 utilisation lifts gross revenue from $57,600 to about $74,900 (1,152h × $65), which absorbs CPP, tax and unpaid leave. The website needs the largest lift: from $1,500 to $2,450, still at the Webkind $2,495 floor source and below Hartree $3,750 source and Choice OMG $3,000 source. Review to $75 within 12 months as the portfolio and waitlist grow.
2. Sell packages, retire the hourly lead. Remove "$50/hour standard rate" from p.1 and the Est. Hours columns from the client sheet. State the $65 rate once, on p.3, only as the basis for approved additional work. This stops per-hour comparison against Upwork's $25 USD median source and lets the guide, pattern, mockups, launch and handoff carry the price.
3. Make the bundle the hero anchor. Order the cover as Brand + Website first at the bundle price with the saving printed, then the two singles beneath as the decoys. Edmonton proof that buyers accept the combined ticket exists: Webkind sells Complete Foundations at $5,495 source; her proposed $5,300 undercuts it slightly while finally rewarding commitment.
4. Kill the $25 one-off economy with minimums and packs. Raise the standalone minimum from $50 to $150 and sell social/print as packs (e.g., 5 posts, 3 print pieces) so one email, one proof cycle and one invoice serve a $200+ order instead of a $25 one. Canadian single-item anchors support this: business-card design alone is $150 and flyer design $200 at Canada Growth Partners source.
5. Add one recurring offer: a care/updates plan. Replace "$50/hour — as quoted" for maintenance with a named monthly plan (see §6) covering updates, backups/checks on her platform, and a small design allowance. Hartree monetises exactly this relationship from $500/month for retainer work source; a solo-sized version stabilises income between projects and reduces reliance on winning new logos.
6. Narrow the catalogue on the client sheet. Nine pages of near-identical $25/$50 rows dilute the premium packages. Keep the full SKU list as an internal quote sheet; publish cores, website add-ons, and grouped add-on ranges ("Stationery from $50 brand-client / $85 standalone") with details supplied in the proposal. Fewer, higher anchors read as a designer; 40 micro-prices read as a task marketplace.

6. Proposed price table

Standard rate for approved additional work: $50 → $65 CAD/hour. "Brand-client" means ordered during the brand project or within 90 days after delivery (see Fix 5).

7. Missing terms to add

Paste onto p.3 (Working together), replacing duplicated footers elsewhere:

Booking and payment. A 50% non-refundable booking fee reserves your project start date. The balance is due before final files are released or your website launches. Invoices are payable within 7 days; overdue balances pause work and a 2% monthly late fee applies. All prices are in CAD before GST; GST (5%) is added once I am registered to collect it.

Revisions and additional work. Core packages include 2 consolidated revision rounds; add-ons include 1. A round is one consolidated set of comments on one presented direction. New directions, new copy, or changes after approval are additional work, quoted at $65/hour and started only after your written approval.

Your content and timelines. Hour and timeline estimates are working-time estimates, not delivery dates. Your start date is confirmed once the booking fee and all final text, images and brand assets are received. If content is delayed more than 10 business days, the project pauses and a $150 restart fee applies when it resumes.

Ownership. On receipt of full payment you receive the final delivered files for your business use. Unused concepts, drafts and working files remain mine. I may show the finished work in my portfolio unless you ask in writing before the project starts.

Cancellation. If you cancel, the booking fee is retained, work completed beyond it is billed at $65/hour, and no final files are released until that balance is paid.

Rush and third parties. Work required in under 5 business days carries a 30% rush fee, quoted in advance. Printing, fabrication, hosting, domains, stock, paid fonts and platform subscriptions are separate and remain in your name/accounts.

8. Assumptions and uncertainties

• Skill placement. I priced Safia as the brief describes her — between early-career and established — without seeing her portfolio, years of experience, or speed. If her work is demonstrably senior, even the proposed $65/hour is conservative; if she is slower than the listed hours, fixed package fees at any rate will underpay until scope tightens.
• Scope equivalence. Edmonton comparators are not identical: Hartree's $1,750 brand package assumes the client "already has a clear brand and strategy," while Safia includes discovery and creative direction, and Webkind's packages include WordPress build and SEO/analytics setup whose depth I could not verify line-by-line. I treated them as market anchors, not exact scope matches.
• Platform unknowns. The sheet never names the website platform, hosting cost, or build hours by task, so website proposals assume her current 30-hour scope is real and that she retains it while raising price; if builds regularly overrun, the fix is scope or hours, not just price.
• Global rates are medians across geographies. Upwork's $15–$35 USD typical range and Fiverr Pro ranges include designers in low-cost regions; they show what price-shopping clients see, not what a Canadian designer must match. The Dribbble small-business range comes from a secondary guide, not Dribbble's own published rate table, and is labelled as such.
• Canadian association data gap. I could not locate a publicly published Graphic Designers of Canada / RGD freelance rate table to cite; I relied instead on Job Bank Alberta wages, PayScale Canada, ContractRates-style summaries via search results, and Canadian studio guides listed in the benchmarks. If RGD member data exists behind a paywall, Edmonton competitiveness scores could shift modestly.
• Profitability inputs. The $5,000 annual business-expense figure, 48 working weeks, 60% utilisation midpoint, and approximate income-tax burden are stated assumptions, not sourced competitor numbers; CPP (11.9%), the $30,000 GST threshold, Edmonton living cost ($1,999/month) and the 1.3994 USD/CAD rate are sourced where cited. Exact take-home depends on deductions, RRSP use, and whether she incorporates.
• Source document limits. Judgement is from the extracted text of the 9-page PDF; layout, typography and portfolio quality of the sheet itself — which affect value perception — could not be assessed from text alone.

Verdict

Safia’s sheet is clear and mathematically consistent, and her core prices will appeal to small businesses—but that appeal partly comes from underpricing. She is generally below Edmonton’s mid-level market and skilled online independents, while low-value add-ons and missing commercial terms weaken sustainability. Overall: 5.5/10 — a solid foundation, but not yet a durable professional pricing structure.

Scores

Market benchmarks

USD figures are converted at US$1 = C$1.40, rounded from the November 4, 2026 rate of 1.3974 reported by Yahoo Finance.

Fixes

1. Page 4 — irrelevant table legend. “Brand / Solo hours = with branding / standalone” does not match the website table, which has only one price and one hours column. Fix: delete that sentence from page 4.

2. Pages 4 and 7 — duplicated promotional banner. Both describe one static design in one size; page 4 lists $75, while page 7 correctly distinguishes $50 with branding/$75 standalone. Fix: remove the page-4 banner row and retain the page-7 row, or add “See Digital assets, page 7.”

3. Page 2 — fewer website sections are ambiguous. Breaking $1,500 into $900 + eight $75 sections suggests modular pricing, but the package says “up to” eight sections. Fix: use: “The $1,500 starting package includes design, setup, launch and up to eight sections. Fewer sections do not reduce the package minimum; additional sections are $75 each.”

4. Page 3 — hours are derived from prices, not estimated from work. This makes the estimates circular and allows uncertainty about whether an agreed-scope project can exceed its fee. Fix: replace the relevant wording with: “Hours are scope-based planning estimates. Your written quote states a fixed, not-to-exceed fee for the agreed scope. Only approved scope changes and additional revision rounds are billed separately.”

5. Pages 5 and 7 — ten staff versions are folded into implausibly small fees. Business cards and email signatures include design plus up to ten versions within 0.5/1 hour. Fix: use: “Includes one shared design and one staff version; additional staff versions are $10 each.”

6. Page 4 — tax wording sounds discretionary. “Added only when required or registered to collect it” is awkward once registration becomes mandatory. Fix: use: “All prices are in CAD before applicable taxes. GST/HST is added where required by law.” The CRA small-supplier rules include both four-quarter and single-quarter triggers.

Improvements

1. Raise the standard rate from $50 to $65/hour and reprice the add-on menu. This sits near the Edmonton mid-level benchmarks without pretending Safia is a senior agency. At the same 24 billable hours × 46 weeks, revenue becomes $71,760; under the same illustrative tax/expense assumptions, take-home rises to roughly $47,900.

2. Reprice the core packages and create a useful ladder. Set Brand Identity at $3,250, Informational Website at $2,250, and Brand + Website at $5,250—a $250 saving versus $5,500 separately. Optionally add Brand Foundation at $1,800: logo suite, colours, typography and a five-page mini-guide, without the 20-page guide or mockups.

3. Sell defined-scope packages, not open-ended hourly uncertainty. Keep “starting at” only where scope genuinely varies; otherwise give a fixed, not-to-exceed quote. State the website platform/build inclusion, two initial brand directions, expected timeline, final file formats and exactly what constitutes a revision round.

4. Stop subsidising micro-orders and administrative work. Raise the standalone minimum from $50 to $100, introduce a $50 minimum per add-on order, and charge staff versions and extra sizes separately. Defined work should still have fixed prices rather than making clients calculate hours.

5. Add recurring and higher-value bundles. Offer website care at $195/month for up to three hours or $390/month for six hours, prepaid, with additional work at $65/hour. Add eight branded social graphics for $360 or twelve for $510, rather than relying entirely on inexpensive one-off posts.

6. Simplify the presentation and strengthen value framing. Lead with three core outcomes, then group add-ons under Web, Brand Collateral, Social/Presentations and Packaging/Images. Move the hourly rate out of the primary sales headline and emphasise fixed scope, coordinated implementation and written approval before changes.

Proposed price table

WB/S = with branding/standalone. Prices are CAD before applicable tax.

Missing terms to add

• Fixed scope and revisions: “The written quote is a fixed, not-to-exceed price for the listed scope. One revision round means one consolidated set of feedback. New directions, added deliverables, content changes after approval and extra rounds are quoted at $65/hour and begin only after written approval.”
• Payment: “A 50% booking deposit is required before work begins. The balance is due before final production files are delivered or the website is launched. Projects over $5,000 are billed 40% to book, 40% at design approval and 20% before delivery or launch.”
• Timelines and client delays: “Timelines begin when the deposit, required content and initial approvals are received. Client feedback is due within five business days; delays move delivery dates. After 30 days of inactivity, the project may be paused and rescheduled; after 90 days, remaining work may be re-estimated.”
• Cancellation: “Cancellation must be provided in writing. The booking deposit is retained, and work completed beyond the deposit is billed at $65/hour. Completed work paid for will be delivered after all outstanding amounts are settled.”
• Intellectual property: “Copyright in the final approved original deliverables transfers upon full payment. Unused concepts, working files—except where editable delivery is expressly included—and third-party assets are excluded. Fonts, software and stock assets remain subject to their licences. Safia may display completed work in her portfolio unless confidentiality is agreed in writing.”
• Late payment and rush work: “Invoices are due within seven calendar days. Overdue balances accrue 1.5% per month (18% annually), where permitted, and delivery or launch may be paused. Accepted rush work carries a quoted 25–50% surcharge.”
• Fixes and proofs: “The 14-day website fix period covers defects in the delivered work, not new content, platform changes or third-party outages. Clients are responsible for final proofreading and approval of print proofs; printing, fabrication, paid assets and third-party fees are separate.”

Assumptions and uncertainties

• Recommendations assume Safia’s portfolio supports competent mid-level positioning; her actual years of experience, demand and close rate were not provided.
• Several Edmonton providers display only “$” rather than an explicit currency code. Their prices were treated as CAD because they are Edmonton businesses referencing local services/GST, but this was not independently confirmed.
• Competitor scopes are not perfectly equivalent; agencies include overhead and, in some cases, strategy, copywriting or support that Safia does not include.
• Freel.ca labels its figures as estimates but does not disclose a sample or methodology. The public RGD Creative Earners summary did not expose freelance billing rates, so no RGD rate number was used.
• Income figures are illustrative 2025 calculations using $8,000 annual expenses, basic personal credits and no other deductions. Actual taxes vary; GST collected for remittance is excluded from revenue.
• This review assesses the supplied nine-page extracted text, not the PDF’s visual hierarchy or design quality.

Sources:

• Edmonton hourly and identity estimates, A Creative Agency, Hotspot Creative, Elevate Edmonton Web, Marvel Websites, Edmonton Construction Association
• Upwork graphic design, Upwork web design, Fiverr logo pricing, Rafirit Station, Web Designer Academy survey, ManyPixels social pricing
• CRA CPP rates, CRA GST/HST registration, federal tax rates, Alberta tax rates, Edmonton living wage, USD/CAD rate