[luke_m_m]

Trying to do some freelance work, But am having trouble on deciding or knowing where to start on charging potential clients.

Im pretty good at estimating how long its going to take to complete a website from conception to final upload - but at what rate would you charge?

The only realy way i can think of getting a proper idea is to ask you to look at www.lmmdesign.co.uk and say roughly how much you would charge for the creation of a site similar to that, based on volume of content and technical difficulty.

many thanks
Luke!

[oli]

Originally Posted by luke_m_m

Im pretty good at estimating how long its going to take to complete a website from conception to final upload - but at what rate would you charge?

This question crops up more than drawing tablets

If you know how long it will take, just decide on your hourly rate and multiply it and then add a bit extra on.

[pgo]

EDIT: Basically what Oli said, but more verbose. Read on if you like.

If you can estimate how long a site will take, just decide on your hourly rate - which should depend on your skill, experience, and self-assigned value. If you think you're worth $10/hr. charge that. If you think you're worth $50/hr. then charge that. And so on.

Multiply by your estimated time expenditure on Project X and quote the client that.

Say a given project will take, oh, 40 hours (like a normal work week, for instance). And you've decided that your rate is $20/hr. That comes to $800. You might throw in a bit more for incidental costs - sort of a "client keeps asking for changes" fee.

This is a decent article on jumping into freelancing.

[Brown]

Originally Posted by oli

just decide on your hourly rate and multiply it and then add a bit extra on.

i do hourly rate, multiply it, then double it.

[luke_m_m]

cheers guys,
see that website took maybe...60hours with coming up with an idea from scratch and messing around and such like.

Would it have been too much to ask for £700 say?

[pgo]

That sounds fairly reasonable to me - as long as there's plenty of content and no empty "awards" sections. (And no splash pages, damn you! )

Originally Posted by Brown

i do hourly rate, multiply it, then double it.

Out of curiosity, is that doubling just insurance for unforeseen/extraneous circumstances?

[Brown]

Originally Posted by pgo

Out of curiosity, is that doubling just insurance for unforeseen/extraneous circumstances?

to reflect the quality of the work

[mx]

I price stuff based on what the client intends to do with it, and that their budget is (within reason).

there is no point asking for £50p/h and getting nothing.

[pgo]

Originally Posted by Brown

to reflect the quality of the work

Ah, the "talent, skill, and ability" fee. Very good.

[stickmus]

Originally Posted by Brown

to reflect the quality of the work

Why don't you just double your hourly rate?

[Brown]

Originally Posted by stickmus

Why don't you just double your hourly rate?

b'cos nobody would then pay that.

[gray]

makes sense

[sub]

I worked for a company a few years ago who's phylosophy for new projects was based on the principle of offing two of three service standards - Good, Fast and Cheap. This would be applied as follows:

The client can have their site produced ...

Good and Cheap but it won't be Fast;
Good and Fast but it won't be Cheap;
Fast and Cheap but it won't be Good.

Another one of their philosophies was that "ALL clients are c*nts" which is probably why they are out of business now.

[dan]

We tried to implement something similar at my last place. We had different bands etc. To be honest it was a disaster, we spent so long arguing over what people would get for each band etc and it just confussed people.

We went back to simple time based estimates pretty quickly as then everyone knew where they stood. You can over complicate things.

[Brown]

don't do bands, i just set a day rate for each task involved. if i'm giving a client a discount then i tell them, and its usually b'cos they're good people or its interesting work. then they can't be surprised when you raise it.

if its a job that i know is going to be a pain in the arse then i try and price it out, that way at lease if you win it you know you're being paid well for it.

[sub]

Originally Posted by subcircle

Another one of their philosophies was that "ALL clients are c*nts" which is probably why they are out of business now.

It was pretty much a how not to work suggestion really.
I wouldn't advise appling the same principle to your own business!

[gregor]

$cost = (Hourly Rate * Number of Hours You Think It'll Take + 15 Additional Hours) + 20%

[briljant oranje]

Originally Posted by subcircle

Another one of their philosophies was that "ALL clients are c*nts" which is probably why they are out of business now.

I think we must have had some of the same clients.