[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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