[thelist] job estimates with unknowns
Bob Meetin
ontheroad at frii.com
Wed May 23 07:54:47 CDT 2007
a little more background -
* I am still fairly new to this business and accept the fact that there
will be some learning curves as i develop my processes in addition to
tech knowledge/skills - i've thought about creating a site plan
collection form, but would any client actually use it??? A more
established business (than me) would have better processes from
experience in place to account for the meeting, interaction, develop a
plan for 'them' time. I spend many, many hours in developing the
pitch. How much of this prep time is chargeable and how do you mark
this in the estimate (8 hours of account management at $$$/hr).
* finite list of pages - I have a general idea of the 'regular' pages
they want, however they have some areas of the business which are
somewhat undefined as to whether they will need pages, and in
particular, galleries. It is feeling like I will make up a list of
known pages, then a-la-carte for the unknowns and maintenance.
* frustration interaction - Barney said something that seems to ring
true that clients don't know the in's and out's, details. I'm aspiring
to 'bold', but need to balance bold with the fact that as a young
business I need to work extra hard to develop that list of clients that
will help with further referrals. I did 'allude' to the what is your
budget question, but didn't force an answer and didn't get one...
* business analysis - Undoubtedly that's where I fall short. I'm doing
some contract work for another firm which owns this piece - it is far
less stressful, time-consuming when the requirements are pre-defined.
Ciphering out how or what to bill for business analysis / account
management is the "key". I'm learning though - I let/made a couple
potential maintenance nightmares 'I want a simple (simple=cheap) site'
scenarios go away. "Why should I pay for documentation/training???
Where is your kind heart? My nephew does this work..." Your nephew
sounds like your best choice.
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