Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
I've built my skills to the point where I am migrating to CSS from frames, getting a fair grasp on PHP/MySQL, good with multimedia, and OK with Flash. I have three sites up and, I'm doing one or two freebies to branch out. I'm hoping they will spread word about me and bring in some paying clients. But, I realize I don't have a grasp for what my services are worth. I am on the Suncoast of Florida (USA), not really a hotbed for IT or anything else, for that matter. What do I charge?
Specifically:
-Simple Websites (1-5 similiar pages, nothing dynamic)
-Medium Websites (content, media heavy)
-Dembig Websites (Dynamic ecommerce site/Mommy, I'm ScaReD)
Webmaster services:
-monthly charges as they would apply to the above.
-one time fix-its or site overhauls.
BTW- Anybody have any comments on iHTML? Is it going anywhere? My heads' all PHP at the moment. Thanks A Lot!
I have a meeting with a prospective client tomorrow and, I'm sure they are going to ask about fee ranges. HELP!
"If they're not complaining about the fees, then you're not charging enough."
and
"Charge them until they start complaining, then charge them a little bit more."
Different rates apply for wherever you live. Where I live, San Francisco, A 2 bedroom house in a decent neighborhood starts at $470,000 and goes up from there. A 3 bedroom Victorian, in the Barrio, easily sells for $900,000-$1,000,000.
In other words, it's all relative. It's hard to pin down numbers.
If you really really really really want to pin down numbers, do a search on the Graphic Artists Guild. They publish certain guidelines and tips about copyrights, and pitfalls, and sample contracts, and do-s and dont's.
Seems real numbers are hard to come by. I was hoping someone in a similiar geographic region or situation might have some advice. I've settled on the fact that I'm going to have to call area designers out of the phone book and pose myself as a prospective client. I'm not big on lying or wasting others time but, I think it's about the only course of action available. I'll check the website you gave, also. Thanks again for the suggestion!
Personally, I myself don't worry about what others are charging. It seems that different jobs have their "magic number." Ergo, some folks are looking for a certain mix of quality and cheapness, and others are looking for quality and priciness. And then there is everything in between.
I think it's totally ok to not have set rates. I think that every client has different needs, and also means, and should be charged according to the price that is likely to the land the job, yet keep me properly clothed, fed, and marinated.
:) Y
This is definately an issue we all 'wrangle' with and one where I have done some pondering and research.
I am a believer in 'what you sow, you will reap' so whats most important to me is that I don't rip off any customer either due to ignorance on my part or cheating.
Its also worth mentioning that I don't want to rip myself off (this is the hard bit).I want to charge a fair price for quality work.One way of looking at it is if you don't charge enough, you are not going to be able to provide a decent service to your existing customers or new customers coming on board, because you will be under pressure to take on more jobs to pay your bills and your overall clients will suffer.
I came across a method recently of pricing and it might be of some help to you.
Consider the market wage in your area for a web designer/developer (per year) divide it by the number of billable hours, you can work in a year (between 1200 and 1600?)
When you get your answer, multiply it by 2 to cover your overheads, expenses, etc and that will be your hourly rate for ACTUAL development time.
You can then sit down with your customer and work out what they need and try and estimate how long it will take you and come up with an estimate.You could give them an hourly rate or a fix-price covering the whole project.
I hope this may be of help,
Blessings,
Barry
I think you may struggle getting an answer to this one. I have had a look around here but I cannot find a post that mentions, that mentions of specific prices are not allowed. Something to do with laws on price fixing.
Somebodey else please tell me I am not nuts and this has been talked about :)
Cheers
I spent way too much time trying to determine a "going rate" for my Business Plan, until I realized how easy the answer was.
Oversimplyfied, but >>> Figure out expenses, add how much you want to live on, divide it by how many hours you are willing to devote to your business.
It does not matter what the competition charges.
If you feel you're not worth the resulting price, ask yourself why.
In the end you decide if you'll be driving a Pinto or a Jag.
here is this article copy pasted below. It should help focus you mind to answer your own question:
opps been told am not able to copy paste it either.
sorry people for the fuse.
