Pricing

[BOMEz]

I'm doing some freelance work for a birdstore owner who wants a web page done for his products.

I'm wondering what pricing is fair? Currently I've drafted a bill of $775.00, which is inclusive of:

A simple image gallery which I will custom code
An up datable products page interface which will allow him to update his products on his ow : deleting old ones and adding new ones + descriptions pricing etc.
A Updatable front news page.
I'm also adding a fee for general site structure, design
And for some simple image work I have done for him (cropping, resizing, cleaning etc)

Does $775 sound reasonable?
I'm using PHP, CSS, MySQL and some Javascript.

[JosAH]

If both parties are happy with that amount of money it sounds fair enough to me. Normally I charge up to Euro 200.00 per hour if it's a small contract but if it's for friends other amounts of money apply.

kind regards,

Jos

[Markus]

@BOMEz
That seems very expensive for a pretty simple job. Then again, I've never worked as a developer so I'm not savvy on pricing.

[BOMEz]

Well though the end product is simple I've considered the amount of work to be put into each of the 3 main elements.

Also I've lowered the price a bit so its now in the lower $600 range.

[JosAH]

@BOMEz
Before you lower your fee even further: how many hours did that contract job take?

kind regards,

Jos

[BOMEz]

Well I've been working on this for 5 weeks now and I put about 4 or 5 hours of work into it every other day.

[JosAH]

@BOMEz
Well, do your math then: 5 weeks * 2.5 days * 4.5 hours == 56.25 hours; at a total of, say, $650 that is way below average.

kind regards,

Jos

[Markus]

@BOMEz
Well, if you've put that much time into it (although I maintain it doesn't appear to be a project that requires that much time), forget what I said above: ~$600 does not seem sufficient for that many hours.

[Markus]

@JosAH
Wowzers .

[BOMEz]

@Markus
Thanks for the heads up.

[JosAH]

@Markus
I know it sounds pedantic coming from my own mouth but I do have a lot of knowledge and I do know how to apply that knowledge in a clever way. My customers know what they get when I found a solution for their problem.

If a problem is really challenging to me I charge top rate on a no cure no pay basis. I think that's fair enough. For boring projects I charge a bit less, if I accept the project (which I rarely do, because I hate being bored). I also charge less if I know I need a lot of hours to solve it. When a project takes a year or so I charge an ordinary monthly fee equal to what is on the payroll (plus expenses and then some). I don't charge my friends and family at all (except for a bottle of booze and a bit of tobacco ;-)

kind regards,

Jos

[Curtis Rutland]

From now on I would suggest you agree to a $$/hour before you even start your next contract. Hashing out this kind of deal after the fact can become very messy very quickly.

Tell your next client your fee per hour and provide a rough estimate of the hours the project might take, negotiate if necessary, but get it in writing before you put the first line of code down.

And take notes on everything. Document each hour and a quick high level overview of what you did in those hours. That way if your client wants to know where his money is going to, you have a little notebook that you can reference.

As to the exact pricing, I couldn't tell you how much you are worth. How much do you feel like your time is worth to you? As a contractor you are worth more per hour than a salaried employee because when your job is done, you stop getting paid rather than staying on the payroll and starting a new job. Keep that in mind.

[BOMEz]

Thanks for your advice everyone. I think myself and my customer have sorted out a price which works nicely for both of us based on what he wants and what I can give.