Quickly....I've got an hour before I meet witha client

[amflores]

Sorry for the late notice but I'm supposed to meet with a client in an hour and I need to quote her a price on a web site. The site is about 8 pages mostly all static with the exception of an ASP mail form. Here's the factor's involved. The client is an old friend from High School. This will be my second client as a freelancer. I don't have alot of money but I'm not desperate. Can you see where I'm getting at? I want to quote her something fair but I don't want to sell myself short either. Should I ask her what she wants to spend? I don't know what to do?

Can someone help?

[Nick_W]

Tell her you'll add up the figures and give her 'a good deal'

...and buy some time.. ;)

Nick

[EliteWeb]

Do they already have a logo and a style they would like to go with? If its a simple site give her a discounted price that you would for a friend. A few hundred dollars less or if you charge thousands cut it down. :P Work out so she refers you to friends and ask for a link on their site ;)

[BaseVinyl]

If she has all the copy and photos ready to go and all 8 pages will have the same navigation look and layout then I would say...ohh...ummm...5...no make it 6 days and work 5 hours per day and charge her 20bucks per hour...round it off to 700bucks for the initial site and then she can pay more as you need to make changes...that's what I'd charge her maybe less if she helped me in high school with my math exams. :)

[dragonlady7]

It's not legal for competitors in an industry to give specifics about their rates-- that's price-fixing-- but I'd say definitely think about how many hours it's going to take you. I saw a good rule of thumb-- I think it was the HTML Writers' Guild homepage-- and he said he generally fixed his price squarely between his lawyer and his mechanic. I.E., half what the laywer charged, twice what the mechanic charged hourly.

With that in mind, you have to analyze it-- is it worth it to do the site for really cheap? Will this get you a reputation as being really cheap? You don't want that-- it attacts cheapskates, who are the worst clients.

If it's complex and will take you many hours, I don't think you should give her a huge discount. If it's simple and won't, then it's easier to write it off as a networking opportunity and a good learning experience.
Your call.
And my instinct would be to be really aboveboard with her-- I'd love to give you a discount, am not sure how much to give you, $n sounds reasonable to me because of x and y, but what do you think?

[amflores]

She does have her own logo. I just spoke to her and bought some more time. Ok, one guys says $700. What would you guys charge considering the circumstances? I'm open to all suggestions.

Thanks guys!

[EliteWeb]

500.00 for her asuming you can put the site out in 4-5 hours. If it takes you longer then stick with the 700 figure but the artwork is ready ;)

[BaseVinyl]

Well I just pulled 700 bucks out of the hat like a white rabbit at a magic show...it really depends on what is involved and how busy you are with other projects. A small site isn't going to let you retire and if you're not too busy then just use it as a learning experience that you get paid for. Just be fair with her and your time. I've always found that sites I work on take way longer than expected and or what I've estimated...so I always make sure the client knows that in advance and then I make sure that they are so satisfied with the results that they don't mind any overruns.

[Shane]

Read the post on doing work for friends and take some steps to ensure you don't both have expectations which overlap only by a little bit. e.g. you're going to end up dickering over stuff

I suggest: Doing Business With Friends [webmasterworld.com]

The non-monetary is as important as the monetary.

Good Luck,
Shane

[macrost]

Go with a solid grand, and give that friend 8 months of tech support, instead of six.

Mac

;)