Calculating Rates

Out of context: Reply #1

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  • Continuity0

    Hourly is good for quick jobs you are very confident will take x-number of hours.

    For longer jobs, I've found the best practise to be to also factor into the value to the client. If the client reasonably expects to turn over a couple of million, for example, as a result of your work, is it really fair to you to simply bill a couple of thousand? Nope. And it's not fair to the client for you to bill by the hour until this long job is finished.

    So the balance between the two would be to give a reasonable estimate, based on your hourly fee, how long you THINK it's going to take (which almost always ends up being underestimated anyway), plus a percent of what you feel would reflect the value of the work (I'm going to pick an arbitrary range, and say 3% to 5%); also, adding a caveat in the crontract that would clearly state that any work beyond the scope of the project, and over and above the agreed estimate will be billed X/hr.

    • 3 - 5%??? 30–50% minimum markup for decent size companies... as long as your design work reflects the goal of the work.Amicus
    • Like I said, it was an arbitrary figure meant to illustrate the formula. :DContinuity
    • But you're talking about mark-up, which I see as cost-plus, not adding a value figure on top of that.Continuity
    • 3 to 5 times. now we talking. lol.akrok
    • hmm.... note that the 3-5 times is NOT due to "ripoff" but due to the EXTRA service some bigger clients may be used to....vaxorcist

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