What to Charge a Client?

[pegatha]

A friend has asked me to re-design his website, but I have no idea what to charge him. I'd be doing HTML, CSS, and Javascript, as well as re-organizing the material that's already there, and probably designing a couple of graphics for him. He's a contractor who maintains a site that shows examples of his work, but he's not actually doing business online, so there's no need for SQL or server-side scripting. What would be a reasonable charge per hour for the type of work he wants?

Right now I'm working for a temp agency (non-computer stuff) and looking for a permanent job as a web developer, so I really welcome the chance to add this site to my portfolio, but I've no idea what to charge. I live in an area where wages are on the low end of the scale for any given industry, so I need to take that into consideration and not price myself out of the local market.

I'd really appreciate any advice you could offer.

 

[tel0004]

it all depends on how much work is involved, and how good of a friend he is. If it was a small project for a good friend, I wouldnt charge him. Whenever I do stuff for friends, I just let them take me out to dinner or something. I think charging a friend full price, is really just selfish. That being said, if it does take a lot of time, then charge him about 1/2 to 1/4 what you would chrage a client. Thats just my take.

 

[pegatha]

Thanks for the reply. If it were a personal web page, I probably wouldn't charge a friend at all, unless they wanted something really elaborate. But since my friend is using it for professional purposes (that is, he expects that it will help him generate income, by showing his work off to potential customers) I believe I'm justified in charging him the going rate for my skill and experience level (which seeing as how I'm just starting, would be very reasonable anyway). If our positions were reversed, and I hired him to do some contracting, I wouldn't expect a discount, because that's how he makes his living. But even if I did charge him half-price, I still have no idea what that would be--half of what? What's the going rate for the sort of pages he wants?

 

[tel0004]

ive only made small webpages for my school, so I have no clue what the going rate is. How many hours do you plan to work on it?

 

[pegatha]

I could probably accomplish most of the work, such as interviewing the client about his requirements, design, coding, and reorganizing existing material, in 10-16 hours. If he wants custom graphics, add one to three days, as doing artwork is generally more time consuming for me than writing code. So the total project could realisitically take me a 40-hour week of work.

I want to do this as professionally as possible, which means making sure that I'm taking into account what it will cost me to do the work for him. I have overhead to pay (electricity, printing, gas so I can drive to his place of business to discuss the website requirements & show samples of my work, etc.) as well as my labor. I certainly don't intend to get rich off my friend, but as I'm doing this to help support my own family, I need to make sure the final arrangement is fair to both of us.

 

[flaglady]

When I created a website for the church, one of the elders asked me to teach him how to create a website for his business so I calculated how many hours it would take me to work out a teaching schedule and then the three sessions we would have for him to be taught all I knew about websites, java and HTML, etc. He had no knowledge base to start with so I was teaching him the real basics.

In the end I charged him £300 ($530) for time and labour which he was very happy with.

 

[Psalms34]

I guess it depends on how good you are at it. The more time you put into it from a professional level the better the site will look and function. Figure out what you think your time is worth per hour of work, estimate how much time will be needed to achieve the requested project and add it up. When I do support work I charge $20-$30 an hour depending on what the case is but if I know that the job will take a few hours then I'll just throw out a $60 or $90 dollar quote plus any resource and travel expresses (for desktop support of course). In the case of web page development I would guess you already have some predefined templates that you can work from (that you created) so that could be a good price break if they are not requesting a fully one of a kind template created from scratch just for that project.

 

[pegatha]

Thanks for the input, everyone. It's really helpful to hear from everyone.

I have another question, if it's not too complicated. What is the most common misunderstanding you encounter when dealing with a client? Is there any sort of "I wish someone had warned me" or "I wish I had settled this with the client before we signed the contract" type of issue I should be aware of?

 

[PeculiarEagle]

Forgive me if this has already been covered...I just skimmed some of the responses. The best way to quote is figure out how many hours it is going to take you, usually you want to tack on a couple hours (depending on the project) for unforseen problems that may arise. Then, take your hourly charge and multiply it by your expected number of hours.

I can't tell you how much to charge hourly. It all depends on your experience, your quality of work, etc. Start off with a low hourly fee and work up from there as you get more clients and start building your portfolio. I generally charge $50/hr which is pretty reasonable, but not cheap, for my kind of work. However, I have been doing this for over 5 years and have many clients so I can justify such a charge.

I have another question, if it's not too complicated. What is the most common misunderstanding you encounter when dealing with a client? Is there any sort of "I wish someone had warned me" or "I wish I had settled this with the client before we signed the contract" type of issue I should be aware of?

One major thing...make sure you are clear on what EXACTLY is included in what you are charging. Don't be afraid to nitpick on the details...in fact make SURE you do. I have had several clients who, not understanding what is included in the quote, keep asking for more and more things assuming they are covered in the quoted figure. Then, you have an unhappy client when you tell them they have to pay more.

Also, make sure they know how much they are going to be charged before you begin the work (unless you bill hourly, in which case you make sure they know approximately how many hours and your hourly charge) Never EVER surprise a client because no matter how good you do they will be left with a bitter taste.

By the way, a nice surprise to use *SPARINGLY* on some big clients is to quote them higher than what you expect and then once the job is finished you give them a bill slightly lower than what you billed. (Don't do this very often as they may come to expect it from you) The client will not only be happy with your work but that they didn't pay as much as they expected!

Hope this helps!

 

[pegatha]

Thanks for the advice. It helps.

One major thing...make sure you are clear on what EXACTLY is included in what you are charging. Don't be afraid to nitpick on the details...in fact make SURE you do.

Okay, will do!

 

[theartist87]

We charge $50 per hour where I work, most of it is spent updating pages to the latest stuff. A new page is usually billed for 4 hours. I think $50 an hour is a good price for just normal design work. Of course if anything were dynamic or anything like that, the rate would probably be higher, or just more hours would be billed.

 

[osx]

I would research what others are charging and make your decision based on that info. research the big companies, as well as the "little guy".

 

[Talie]

We charge $50 per hour where I work, most of it is spent updating pages to the latest stuff. A new page is usually billed for 4 hours (The website I have been working on recently is www.coloradomountaincabins.com , adding a new cabin page is 4 hours). I think $50 an hour is a good price for just normal design work. Of course if anything were dynamic or anything like that, the rate would probably be higher, or just more hours would be billed.

can I come work for you? LOL...wish i could get away with charging my clients that much per hour! I could easily add another page to that site in half an hour but I'd only charge about $15US for that!

 

[PeculiarEagle]

can I come work for you? LOL...wish i could get away with charging my clients that much per hour! I could easily add another page to that site in half an hour but I'd only charge about $15US for that![/size][/color][/font]

Much of it depends on your clientell, your specific type of work, and your experience. For example, if you are working for mostly non-profits or churches odds are you can't get away with charging alot. I usually pick a couple non-profits or churches and give them my services free or at a reduced rate as a way of "tithing" my time.

Also, if you are just making changes to the text of the website then there is no way you will be able to charge that much. My going rate is $50 an hour but if the client already has a website and wants to change some text on it I just charge them $2 per update. Yeah, it's dirt cheap, but it also prevents the client from feeling "trapped" since they can't make the changes themselves (I have also developed LivePage which allows them to dynamically update their entire website from their web browser with no coding experience needed...but many don't go this route because of the high up-front programming fee.)

Finally, your experience will tell others whether or not they are willing to pay what you ask. As you get more experience you can start charging more. When I first started I think I was charging about $20/hr. Now, with over five years experience I am charging about $50/hr.

Of course, I know nothing about you in these three specific areas. But hopefully it helped a little. I would definitley say start looking around your local area and see what others are charging and just make sure you are competitive with them.

Good luck with everything!

 

[theartist87]

can I come work for you? LOL...wish i could get away with charging my clients that much per hour! I could easily add another page to that site in half an hour but I'd only charge about $15US for that![/size][/color][/font]

They were originally paying $400 for a new page. It is also more than just editing a page. We have do do some of the writeup, resize, enhance, and remove some branches and unwanted items from pictures, stuff like that.

 

[Talie]

400??

that'd equal what i make out of designing a whole site from scratch!

my problem is that where I live (not a big city) people don't want to pay much for anything, so if i want the work, i have to charge less. Lately I have been considering raising my prices but I'm worried that will ruin my excellent reputation - I've not had one unhappy client yet, and typically they'll love the first design attempt - there have only been two that have had to have complete redesigns after the first draft - I do think my work is good - but I just don't think people around here will pay more

 

[theartist87]

I hear what you are saying. Back when I worked as an independant web designer.. work was hard to find, and charging much just would not cut it. Most of the time, the companies that we design for are looking for more than just the design, but continuing maintainence, so that they do not have to do anything to the site, except tell me when then need a change.

Currently I am totally revamping that CMC site. The guy who had designed it before had a lot of messy code. Plus, it's all static. I am working in getting it all done in CSS (down with tables!), and programming a really nice backend. Once I have that all done, it will be oh so much easier to add a new page to the website, and change existing pages all from a web interface.

 

[RyanF]

I usually charge anywhere from $100-$600 for a full website. People who own small businesses are willing to pay lot's of money (sometimes $1000's) for a good website. Take advantage of those situations. The way I got web jobs was making a website for myself, and posting my portfolio online. Web jobs started coming in quickly.

 

[Talie]

I have probably 30 or more clients now - so it's not like I need to develop a portfolio LOL

 

[ontheside]

We make between AU$300 - AU$800 on a basic website. Without any form of programing or any databases.