Pricing for a project?

[PixelPaul]

My webdesign business started by building several 8-12 page sites for smaller family type businesses. Yesterday I was contacted by the owner of a much larger business who said he has seen my work and liked it, would like to have me do a redesign for his company. New site will be about 60 pages, will simple site search feature and contact form. Nothing too fancy, but a real step up for me. I'm excited but nervous at the same time, not that I can't do the site or that the consultation won't go well, but I'm not sure about pricing. I'm concerned about being way to low or way to high. Anyone care to comment on what they might charge. Basically I'm looking for a ballpark range here.

[balinor]

Real difficult to say PixelPaul, it all depends on what your market is like, what your client will expect and what you are comfortable charging. Try to figure out how long it will take you and use a standard hourly rate (see all the discussions about that right here in this forum!). If it is just a basic html site with CSS and minimal custom graphics, it shouldn't really take you that long after you have the initial 'template' set up. How about you take what you have charged for your past 12 page sites and triple it? In my market, I'd guess a site like that would be somewhere between $2000 - $5000. All depends on how much 'custom' stuff you need to do and how many edits they will want. You can always give them an hourly rate with a not to exceed number. That way, you can tell them it might end up being less depending on what they want. Good luck!

[anallawalla]

You need some figure in your head for the amount of money you need to earn to feel successful, e.g. $100,000/yr. Try to picture yourself in a small time frame, e.g. a week and list all the things you will do in a typical week. Can you justify charging a client $2000 for the portion of the week you will do actual work? -- Some people charge that for an hour, others for a longer period. If you don't think you'll have enough clients, can you justify charging more? If you have unique skills, you can - selling yourself is part of the challenge.

Therefore, work out how long does it take to do the actual work (say the client's son using FrontPage), then add a good percentage for your expertise.

[mumbledawg]

Multiply your hourly rate by how long you think it will take to do the site. It always takes longer than this, usually because of the client. So add some money on to the price you come up with and then give them a price range. This means if they behave they get a cheaper price. I had one client that took almost a year to get me all the info for the site. Takes a lot more time to do a site when you are fed info a piece at a time.

[Robino]

$50.00 per page ;)