[thelist] Re: How much for something like this?

[Cayley Vos]

I am in the middle of exactly the same process right now.  A fairly small
company on the east coast is trying to get out of paying for a programming
job.  I really want to keep this from being messy, but am prepared for a
very negative administration







on 5/2/02 10:12 AM, thelist-request at lists.evolt.org at
thelist-request at lists.evolt.org wrote:

> Subject: RE: [thelist] How much for something like this?
>
>
>>> I'd disagree strongly with that, you should charge someone
>>> what the job is worth, not what they'll pay. (only perhaps
>>> ina  charity situation you'd lower the price) When you walk
>>> into a shop to buy something, they don't hike up the price if
>>> someone with nice suit comes in.
>>
>> only cos they'll get caught changing the price tags...
>>
>> seriously though, it's supply and demand - you should charge what the
>> market can bear. in this case, you charge as much as you can get away
>> with. simple.
>>
>
> I'm with Ben, though of course it's more complicated that that. There is an
> excellent book on this subject:
> Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932102115/qid%3D/103-0465911-9775000
>
> Which contains much useful advise, and also tables of what to charge for
> services based on a company's annual income. While that may seem scaborous
> on the surface, there's actually alot of wisdom to it, and there is a method
> to finding out what you think this traffic *will* bear.
>
> When i'm preparing a bid, there's things i try to discover:
>
>
> 1 - Who are they, and what do they do. This is the most important.
> Are they a manufacturer?
> What do they make?
> Who is it for?
> Is it a high quality item, or do they cut corners?
> Do they show a love and passion for this product?
> What kind of documentation on the product do they have?
>
> If they make a high-quality item, you can expect that you will go through
> many rounds of corrections with them, new things will be put on the table
> through out the life of the project, and they will be hard to please. You
> need to charge accordingly. If they make a cheap knock-off quick-buck thing,
> they will want their site up ASAP, and probably never talk to you again
> after one round of corrections.
>
>
> 2 - Who in the company will you be dealing with?
> Do you have access to a big wig?
> Or are you talking to an assistant all the time?
> What is the communication atmosphere like in their office?
> Does this company have experience with freelancers, or are they going to
> learn on your time?
>
> Here's one that happens all the time: you get to the end of the project,
> everyone seems happy, yet you've never seen a big wig. You go to the
> sign-off meeting, there's a big-wig sitting next to your contact (whom you
> of course are very amicable with by now) Big-wig *hates* something. It *has*
> to be changed, it will take you 2-3 days of hell to do it, they don't care
> about who approved what, etc. Now your contact is looking at you with
> puppy-dog eyes, and you have to fix this, or you won't be getting any future
> work from them.
>
>
> 3- How much money do they make?
> This is hardest to figure out, there's ways to guess. How many employees do
> they have, how many offices, how many departments,etc. once, i went for an
> initial discovery meeting, and behind the VP, on the wall, was a marker
> board with financial numbers from their company's annual financial review
> party the day before. It said things like:
> total income, last year : BIG NUMBER
> total income, YTD: BIG NUMBER
> so, keep your eyes open. you never know what you can find out.
>
> these things of course takes experience, there are no hard rules.
> but i think the most important thing is to try to get to know the future
> client as well as you can before you deliver the bid. never give a price
> without meeting them first, and when you do meet them, focus as much on
> trying to learn about what kind of person/company you'll be dealing with, as
> you are with what the nature of the project will be.
>
>
> nagrom
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> http://www.morgankelsey.com




Cayley Vos, Principal
office: 360-714-8395
cell: 360-303-0150
http://netpaths.net
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