26
You are not charging enough: listen to your friends! You should have looked around for jobs similar to what you do and found out how much others were being paid. Don't feel that your work is worth much less because you are a newbie, because the client will take it when you release it to him and earn much, much more.
The client is correct in saying you can'...
15
I either contract for a fixed price and stick to it - and only those jobs that can be well defined - or contract for an hourly rate and expect the client to stick to it. They can't have it both ways. If you're going to protect them from the cost of an over-run, make sure you've covered yourself for it.
The client can choose anytime to reduce the scope, stop ...
15
I only provide services on a fixed fee basis, so if I get the estimate wrong, I eat the cost, because I've assumed that risk.
I do a few things to mitigate that risk, though.
I work very hard to be accurate in my estimates, constantly improving how I put them together.
If I'm asked for a bid on something that I don't feel I can accurately estimate, I ...
11
Your client expects specification document which is nothing more than a list of all features, man hours for each and your hourly price. This can be a usual word document with text only or excel sheet with table and additional calculations like risk or unpredictable events, etc. If you're writing it for the first time, then a normal work doc is OK. You may ...
10
The client is right. You can't raise the cost of a project halfway through; that is unethical. That's probably why clients go away. That is not business at all.
Try find some cost estimation sites and do calculate. Most of those sites have $50 - $75 per hour, and I personally charge $35 to $40 per hour. But for you, I think it is better to start with $20 ...
9
First you need to establish whether you are estimating the project cost or providing a quote. They are different.
An estimate is just that - based on the current scope defined, the amount you estimate it will take in hours to complete which calculates to X amount. In an estimate both parties should understand that the final cost and hours needed for ...
8
Unfortunately, I don't believe such a site exists, and I wouldn't expect it to be accurate either.
If you are working on projects, they are usually a per-project cost, which changes as the scope changes, with every single project. A calculator won't be able to detect this. It also will not be able to measure you skill level, or how much time it will take ...
7
When I have faced that scenario in the past, I have performed a small (10-20) hour engagement to define the requirements and design a solution.
The document that I put together then serves as a road map for the next phase, which could be performed by me or by another resource.
7
There is no formula for magically determining the number of hours a task will take based on complexity. Rather than agreeing to a fixed price, you might want to break your project into milestones and give an estimate of the number of hours between milestones, and charge hourly.
This is most important especially when you consider the fact that as you finish ...
6
So you told the client it would be 16 hours of effort to complete, and that you need 3 weeks to complete it... What the client hears is "I need 16 hours ... to complete".
This comes down to the client having different expectations than you do. I would counter back with reasons why it's not 16 hours straight:
You didn't get into Freelancing to work 16-hour ...
5
This will borrow my knowledge from this question, because I feel a lot of the knowledge would be the same.
First off, from when I was a freelance web programmer, using PHP and MySQL (I do not do design), a lot of the code was fairly straight forward, even the custom stuff. When I did my research in how to do something, if I could see how it would help ...
5
It depends what terms you have, you can bill them for all of your hours and try to give them a rough maximum amount, but if you have said it will just cost X amount then I would really stick to that.
I'm usually pretty nervous about taking on projects where I'm going in a bit blind. In that situation I normally say I think it will be between X and Y hours, ...
5
I've worked on projects with unknown variables, and they tend to be a big pain in the rear. What has worked for me though...
Setup a time to talk with the client, and get information about what he wants done. This is much easier if he does not have a preference to the software or tools, and is willing to have everything happen from scratch. But you need ...
5
I do design/development of web sites, mainly WordPress based, and generally estimate a proposal--including client meeting, research and a draft of a contract--to take 4-5 hours of my time. How much I'm willing to go over that time depends on a few elements:
size of project & budget
relationship with prospective client & likelihood of getting the gig
...
5
I'm freelancing with mobile apps now. Estimating prices has been far more difficult than the coding itself!
Time estimation
It is possible to estimate time required. Break it into a to do list. Nothing on your list should take more than 4 hours to build. Break it down further. Something like Upload data (?? hours) can be broken down into Prototype sending ...
5
It all boils down to one thing, do you believe in the project?
Accepting equity is always a bet, because so many things can go wrong at every step of the startup way. The moment you accept, you are becoming an active part of the company as opposed to just a contractor, and you have to be ready to push the project ahead with all you can give, because your ...
5
He says that he wants me and his design team to work together and our agreement was only for programming, not for design (he would provide
the flow and images).
This implies a change of project scope.
If he is talking about a single day, then I suggest you consider a separate invoice for your time - apply a discount since some of your time is paid under ...
4
Well you covered most of it.
During the research phase when the client is not sure whether he will start the project or not, you will not be able to avoid couple of free hours of work. that's just the way for both of you to realize whether you can finish the project and for the client if he has money for it. If it takes more than a couple of hours that ...
4
A standard contingency in many organisations I have worked in is 15%, but as you are working alone I would push that up to 20%, as I indicated in a similar answer here. The key is to get as much scope agreed with the client up front so that you don't have any surprises down the road, but the only thing that can really help you regarding estimation of time to ...
4
You're a victim of scope creep. It's not uncommon, it happens to many, including yours truly.
Possibly the ideal way to head it off before it happens is to create a mutually-agreed upon list of features for the current project or iteration, and set it in stone. Add requests for additional features or changes to a list and revisit that at a later point. ...
4
Read other topics here about how to calculate your hourly rate.
At the beginning try to calculate how much money you need for living in 1 month. The divide it to 4 weeks and that is money you have to earn in 1 week. You may further divide it with 40 to get your hourly rate.
And this is the MIN hourly rate only IF you work 40 hours a week. Many ...
4
I'll start with an example of how I calculate the pricing for my freelancing projects which perhaps would give you an idea on how it's done, and then I'll add a few points of advice I learned along the way.
How much will this project cost me as a developer?
Whenever I get hired to build a website or design something, I have to consider my expenses for the ...
4
I set aside a portion of each day for "business development." I also have some standard packages priced already so I can turn rough estimates around quickly.
Having standard boilerplate you can paste into an email is also helpful and saves time in the initial project negotiations.
4
Let me start by saying that I'm not a web designer but a web developer, so I don't have that much experience building pretty frontends like these.
With my limited knowledge, I take into account my ignorance and lack of experience, I would not claim to be able to do it in less than 40 hours.
120 does not sound crazy, maybe if I sat down and started building ...
4
While the answers provided effectively address the bulk of your question, I wanted to address your last statement:
"I really don't want to lose this client since it looks like an excellent long term opportunity."
Be very careful with this thought process. While it may sound logical to take on a project in the hopes for a 'long term opportunity,' remember ...
3
First of all you need to derive the minimum hourly rate for your location.
Then you need to calculate the time required for doing the things and just multiply it with hourly rate.
Here one thing you need to consider in mind is that you also consider the testing part in the time estimation.
At the beginning try to calculate how much money you need for ...
3
15 years as an independent consultant (IT), and 99% of the time I bill hourly.
I hate to go against your 'no hourly' constraint, but if it's a short wireframe project with no scope but expected duration of 3 weeks, aren't you trying to determine 'how much of my time will it take to complete the wireframe deliverables within the timeline'?
Of course, ...
3
Why running away from outsourcing the design phase? This is something I do all the time, as well as 90% of other freelancers.
Pros:
- you have more time for coding
- a client will get professional design
- you can earn some extra for taking percentage on the design (don't need to if you don't want to)
- you keep the client and tell him you're capable of ...
3
1. Decide the quote based on the job, and amount of work-hour it would take. Even-though you are not working per hour basis.
Things to remember :
- You can start with a lower rates if you expect to get more work from
the same client in the future.
- Consider market rates,if you are a starter it is better to start at
reasonable/cheaper rate.
- ...
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