Sari - 7:20 pm on Jan 5, 2006 (gmt 0)

I had a very long meeting with a perspective client this morning. She is in start up phase for her new business and knows that she needs a website, but I don't think she truly understands what a website is and what goes into making one. Although to give her credit, she did understand that it would be an ongoing project that would change, evolve and grow.

She is a very "right brained" person and I couldn't really pin her down on what she wanted, as she would fly off to other topics not matter how hard I tried to rein her in.

During our conversation her likes and dislikes on other websites and even the graphics work she's having done for her business changed.

When she asked about pricing, I told her my hourly rate. Her response was "What am I getting for $x an hour? I need to know what the finished cost will be" My response was that I can give her a ball park on the number of hours, but as she changes what she wants and adds and subtracts things from her site (as I'm sure will happen) that number will change. I told her that by paying hourly, she can control how much and when she pays me--as I don't do any work without her okay. It seems she wanted me to quote her a price on the spot, just like what happened when she got quotes for carpeting her floors! :o

Then she turned around and wanted me to charge her by the page! I said no to that! I told her that it is more work and more skills involved to create a portfolio page (she's an artist) then to create a text only page for example, so there is no way that I can set a price per page.

Now she wants me to quote her 3 levels of packages--but I don't know if this is worth the effort. She is the kind of client that would do best on an hourly scale.

Here's my problem...I'm still relatively new to business in my community. It's a small community where everyone knows everone else and she's well connected. In addition, I had 4 of my contacts refer her to me. My gut is telling me to run...but I'm worried that I may be shooting myself in the foot by doing that.

So, what would be the best way to handle it?
A) Go back and stick to my guns on the hourly rate
B) Write her a proposal with 3 packages and charge more than i normally would anticipating her changes (aka flightiness)
C) Say I'll do x amount as a package for y price for static information pages. Specialty pages, like her portfolio, will be $z per hour, final cost wil depend on what is wanted. For example, how many pictures she wants on the portfolio page (she couldn't even tell me that at our meeting).
D) Run like hell! ;)

Your opinions are greatly appreciated!

TIA
S.