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Avenir · Mar 10, 2002, 10:45 AM

Hey gang...

For some time now, I've been doing small webpage projects for friends, and usually the contract was "make my webpage for my pictures and I'll take you to Chili's." However, I've done some stuff for free University sites and my work got noticed by an off-campus company. And they want me to make a page for them. Basically, they don't have anything, so they'll need hosting, a domain name set up (I'm pretty sure, haven't talked to them just yet) I presume, and then the design and content. It won't be maintained after the initial design by me, because I don't want that much work, it's only going to be the basic set up of the page. And it probably won't be too fancy from what they want, GoLive and a couple javascripts will suffice, no CGI scripts, Perl, forms, or any of that other stuff.

So the question is this: How much do I charge them? And how do I do a contract and all that good stuff. I've honestly never done anything thing this "professional" before and I don't even know where to begin to start.

Please, help me!

Corys · Mar 10, 2002, 05:05 PM

Can't tell you how much to charge, but I would suggest putting in the estimate that the price includes X rounds of changes and anything after that will be at $XX per hour.

Simon Mundy · Mar 10, 2002, 06:27 PM

Get a plumber round to fix a tap. Find out how much he charges per hour and add 20%.

There's your hourly rate.

But most people will generally bite at fixed-cost quotes. Work out EXACTLY how long it will take you and multiply that by 125%. Charge them that, then do 'Authors Corrections' at your hourly rate.

Hobbes · Mar 11, 2002, 08:06 PM

I agree with Simon, companies bite at fixed rates. I own a web design company that designs a lot of sites for auto dealers. They absolutely LOVE getting a fixed rate quote. They don't have to worry that paying the bill is going to be like hitting a moving target.

Sit down with one of their reps, find out what they want/need, as Simon said figure out how much time you'll have in it, then give them a quote that is reasonable for them and profitable for you. It's a win-win scenario.

Good luck. Hope everything goes well. Be sure to post back if you need any other info.

Avenir · Mar 11, 2002, 10:03 PM

thanks all for the awesome replies, it helped a lot. I'll let you know how it went when I'm through. thanks so much again

yongfook · Mar 12, 2002, 04:56 PM

remember that if you are going actually invoice them, then you might be liable to tax.

if its a small scale project, you could be cheeky and ask for cash

however, the danger with that is if you dont get anything in writing, they could fack you over and not pay you (happened to me in the past).

Avenir · Mar 12, 2002, 05:03 PM

Originally posted by yongfook:
<STRONG>remember that if you are going actually invoice them, then you might be liable to tax.

if its a small scale project, you could be cheeky and ask for cash

however, the danger with that is if you dont get anything in writing, they could fack you over and not pay you (happened to me in the past).</STRONG>

It's a small enough job, so I'm probably just going to ask for cash or a check or something small, probably won't be anything in writing. It's a company that a friend works for and I'm not worried a ton about them screwing me over, though I am going to watch my back. Thanks for the advice...

Hobbes · Mar 12, 2002, 08:05 PM

This may not be appropriate, since its a friend's company, but whenever my company starts a project, we get a 45% deposit upfront. That helps minimize the chance of getting screwed.

You said you weren't worried about it in this case, but may be a good idea for any future, and less familiar, work.

yongfook · Mar 13, 2002, 04:37 AM

Originally posted by Avenir:
<STRONG>
It's a company that a friend works for and I'm not worried a ton about them screwing me over, though I am going to watch my back. Thanks for the advice...</STRONG>

thats exactly the kind I got screwed over by. The thing was, they were in London and I was in Kent (quite far from one another, in the UK), so most of the correspondense was done over the phone. Then, when I uploaded their site...suddenly they severed all contact with me (and my friend had since moved on from the company).

Finally got through to them and they said "oh we arent really happy with the site" (even though they were getting a database driven portfolio site that they could add stuff to using a custom built content management system - for a KNOCKDOWN PRICE).

By that time I felt so messed around that I just deleted it from their host and forgot about them.

stupid clients die die die.

KaptainKaya · Mar 13, 2002, 08:21 AM

I ask for 50% upfront, and then I show them the site on my local drive without uploading. Once they are content with what I have, I ask for the remaining 50% before I upload it to the server. Its in the contract (legal, drawn up by a lawyer on a per-client basis) and once they sign it they are liable, otherwise they get nothing and I already have some money from them. If they don't sign it, I work with them on it but I do not EVER upload anything til I am 100% sure about getting paid in full.