Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
How to write effective bids or proposals in web design / development area...
Thank you.
best of luck :-)
I personally try to figure out what kind of business/person they are, their working style, level of experience, and start from there.
The best you could do, I think, is to profile customres into groups and have a set of bid/proposal templates for each. Just don't fall for a "one size fits all" approach - it's NOT effective in such a crowded market.
Is it going to be a core part of their marketing strategy or is it a bolt on goodie that someone has said 'why don't we....'
What do they wish to achieve?
Your proposal should meet their needs, sell to the requirements. You will be able to charge more for the work if it directly targets what they are trying to achieve.
I would concentrate on the benefits and how it would help them achieve their needs.
Good luck!
I once proposed to develop a website for a flat fee, one that I thought was fair for the amount of work I estimated was needed. The client kept changing his mind about everything, I put so much time in on it that I only made a few dollars an hour by the time everything was complete. I learned a lot from that experience.
Charge by hour and be very explicite about what you are offering. Also, make sure your expectations about the client's responsibility are clearly spelled out - when payment is due, as well as other considerations such as copywriting, testing, and time frames for everything.
I have found that charging by the hour works best for me. I outline how much time is needed for each page or to develop a certain functionality. It is important to advise the client that, if they change their mind (after development starts) or ask for more stuff, it will be reflected in their bill.
krieves, I couldn't agree with you more. The biggest loss of a developer's time, after bad planning, is the client changing their mind along the way. The hourly wage forces the company to make decisions and stick to them.
Still, most companies like to have fixed cost before they commit to a project. Any tips on negotiating the hourly rate?
Colin
With regard to hourly rate, In the past I have worked back from a desired salary figure say £30,000 gross per annum, then take the amount of the year you expect to work-your occupation figure, say 65% and multiply this by the number of working days in the year and work back to an hourly rate.
This allows for sickness, admin, pre-sales negotiations etc which are essential but not directly profit generating
Step 1 How many days will I work in a year
365 -((52*2)+25) =236 working days
52*2 = weekends
25 = annual leave
Allowing for 65% occupation rate
263*0.65 = 153 days worked during the year
Step 2 work the worked days into your salary
Divide 236 into 30,000 = £127 per day
7.5 hour working day = £17 per hour
Onto which you would need to make an allowance for expenses, light and heat, rent etc etc
Of course you are dedicated and will work far harder than this therefore you have the opportunity to (I hope) vastly increase your salary.
That is your baseline figure, allowing for your expenses , you also have the commercial opportunity to charge a competitive rate, but know that depending on the contract you can pitch the rate at a figure that allows for some profit and allows you to win the job without compromising the well being of your family.
Hope this helps
I find most clients want a project cost because that allows them to compare between bidders better.
So for what it is worth, my general process is something like:
- Generate the enquiry / the request to quote.
- Discuss the requirements in detail.
- Write my own detailed and confidential specification against which my quote is based.
- Specify a planned timeline to use for payments and milestones.
- Ensure that an early milestone is freezing the specification.
- Ensure that another milestone is delivery of all contents items to be produced by the client.
- Ensure that the client understands that if these two key milestones are not honoured, i.e. changes are required to the specification after that milestone has passed, or changes are required with contents being submitted or changed after that milestone has passed, that additional charges will become applicable and deadlines may now not be able to achieved.
Specify an hourly rate for additional work in the proposal.
Its a source of amusement to me how many engineering companies cannot keep to these requirements which they usually agree are vital for projects to proress on budget and timescale.
However it makes things a lot harder for me, when I have a few jobs lined up with little spaces in between, if one project starts to go over the planned time-scales.
hth
