Web Design Question

[andrew]

I've just taken a call from a local business man who wants a new website for his business.

I have been charging £25 per hour for smaller jobs that i've been doing but he want's a pretty large site, with the amount of Photoshop work i'll be doing i think i'm undercharging a little if i go with this rate?

There will be 11 pages in all plus an online booking form that will send booking requests to a database which will be viewed using a secure part of the site.

There will be quite a few images on this site and i reckon it's going to be a pretty big amount of work.

How best should i go about this? I don't want to do the whole site and then have him not pay up. Should i work out roughly how many hours it will take then get him to pay 50% up front, or should i ask for a smaller amount? Maybe 25%?

I've told him that i'll knock up some photoshop drafts using the designs he's done in word and don't mind doing those for free. But should i make sure i get at least some of the money up front once he gives the go ahead for my designs?

Any pointers would be most welcome.

[Kickstart]

Hi

To an extent I think you rate should be lower for larger work rather than higher (sort of a bulk discount).

I can see them not being happy about having to pay out in advance what could be a substantial amount of money. Only solution really is a decent contract signed by both sides in advance, or for him to contract it to you as a limited company and for you to invoice him weekly.

All the best

Keith
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[andrew]

[Hetzer]

I charge 25% up front. If the client likes the finished product I hand it over for the remaining 75%. If they don't like it they don't get it, but they get their 25% back. Hasn't happened yet I should add.
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[Kickstart]

[feef]

break the job into parts and charge for each bit..

Consultancy: discussing and coming up with the overall layoiut and concept of the site

Initial design: coming up wth screenshots and site-map/sample pages of the site

Build: the actually building of the system

with final payment on completion of the UAT

but make sure there's a clause in there that means if they start making significant functionality change requests at UAT level that you can cvharge them extra for further work.. last thing you want is to get tied into a fixed fee based on an early estimate and then find out they haven't communicated their requirements properly

The other advantage to this approach is that you can be damned sure they will be more careful about what they ask for is they are paying for and signing off at eaxch stage. Then thay can't come back and complain it wasn't what they wanted and refuse to pay.


a
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[andrew]

Thanks for the replies guys, i know it's a personal thing but could i ask what you guys are charging per hour? If you'd rather keep it to yourselves then fair enough.

I'd just like to know where my prices stand, whether they're too high or whatever.

Thanks

[Kickstart]

Hi

Long time since I have been contracting (although the market has died). Went from £15.75 (1994) up to a high in the UK of £25.30 in 1998 (was £35 an hour in Belgium, with a load of extra expenses), and that was mainframe work when they were strongly in demand. Not sure contract rates have gone up at all from that (may have gone down).

All the best

Keith
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[feef]

[andrew]

Thanks for the replies, they've been very helpful. I think i'm going to stick with my current rates and see how my clients feel about them.

I haven't done enough jobs to gauge whether they're fair yet.

I'm only doing this on the side so don't have to worry about finding work, it's just handy earning a bit of extra cash now and again.

I'm thinking of buying a house soon so any extra income is going to be handy.

Thanks again guys.

[craigie b]

As Kickstart says, people expect discount on bulk, not more expense.

Personally I now use Joomla for all of my website designs. By using a content management system you can seriously reduce your development time, meaning your making more money for less work.

I also tend to use professionally designed templates which can buy for like £10 - £20. Your bound to find one that meets the needs of your website and content. You then modify the template graphics to fit your target audience/client needs.

Basically, if you think your going to struggle at getting a client to agree to a set price then you need to look at how much a competitor would charge...use this to guage your own figure. Personally, I'm all for more productivity and less work so more money for you.

A CMS also allows for an easy life when you come to maintain your website in the future (an easy oversight). Customers often want to make changes, or additions to a site and this can be a pain staking and slow procedure, and one that pays little in comparisons to the time and effort required. A CMS can remove this problem and make the job profitable.

[sagalout]

Definitely get a deposit upfront. We do 50% upfront, 50% on delivery for small jobs (under £5k) with bigger ones being either 25% or 33%, with an interim payment at a pre defined milestone.

This is good for both parties as a) it protects you from getting nothing for your work if their business goes tits up mid project, but b) also focuses the client on getting their content together/feeding back etc as they've laid out cash. If they haven't spent any money theres no incentive to hurry things along and you can be left dangling with a half completed project and no money for months.

As for rates, if you're freelance the £25 per hour sounds about right. and as its per hour, then if its harder it will take longer and therefore you'll earn more so not sure why that would be an issue? Agencies charge more (we're £50/hr and the place I worked at before is £90/hr)

[Hetzer]

[Drew]

Have a look here, I asked same thing a few weeks ago.

https://bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=133634