hourly rate
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- CafeSuaDa
Whats everyone's hourly rate. on web site, ex" e-com"
a client just told me 3k for an e-com site is too much for a website -_- what could i do to convience them. The project that they wanted would take me an estimated of 68hours of work and my design time is 45 dollars an hour. i think for wha ti am doing for them is very cheap.
- UndoUndo0
ask them what they are comparing it to? lots of clients say its too expensive even when they dont know what it would cost. you can only say its expensive when compared to something else.
$45 is very cheap. if they want a cheaper price tell them you will have to remove features to hit their budget, explain about hackers and then need for secure programming etc
- lvl_130
one question you can pose: how long will it take them to earn that money back from the site?
that will probably shut them up.
and def. keep the hourly rate vs per project rate, because you can almost garauntee to add another 20+ hours on($45 is really cheap by the way)
- CafeSuaDa0
ya thats what i figure that 45/hr is really cheap, but i will talk to them on monday thanks a lot guys real good tips. oh and get this they are lawyers wanting to sell furnitures online -_- one of their product could pretty much pay for the site. well have a nice weekend people.
- enobrev0
be careful of any client who makes generalized statements about the cost of services. Especially when it's not thier own industry.
As a matter of fact, the idea of a lawyer telling someone else that 45/hr is expensive seems like it should be a punchline to an old joke.
I've seen ecommerce projects go for $500 and I've seen them go for 6 figures. It's a matter of what they want to do, what you're capable of, what they can afford, and how much you can convince them it's all worth.
The 'best' price is one that makes Everyone happy in the end. One in which, once finished, you are satisfied with the check and they are satisfied both with the final product and how much money they have left over.
- CafeSuaDa0
well said envobrev, so if 3k / 45 an hr is too cheap....whats everyone else charging? i feel like i am selling myself short now.
- ********0
If that's what you have worked out how much the project is worth, then stick to your guns. If they think $3K is too much, then they're not worth having as a client.
If you reduce your quote, they'll never stop...
- mrbee28280
Sorry for the length...
Some good points here but you guys are putting everything on the client with the short fire of advice. No once has questioned Café. Your client maybe totally right. While just about every small to mid-size client is going to say that you need to stand your ground. But are they valid?
I’ve been designing and developing for 8 years in small towns on the east coast of the USA. I have only in the last 3 years gotten bigger clients/work outside of my full time job and since have just raised my “design” rate from $45hr. My development skillz have grown more since and I changed my rate twice since school to be much hire. Design rates IMHO are always harder to justify because people just thing it’s a “pretty picture”. You have to fight for yourself and know what you are talking about to win them over. Consider this:
1) What is you experience. You can’t charge $75 out of school with no experience. $45 for straight visual design is decent for a less experienced designer IMHO.
2) What’s your scope? No one has asked what you are doing. $3k might be a ton if all you are doing is providing a simple static design for a HTML eCommerce site. If you are slicing and dicing, offering X rounds of changes in your contract or building something the size and complexity of Amazon then yeah, $3k isn’t that much. Define design and consider UI, iconography and scale.
3) What’s your timeline? Do you have a week to do this or 3 months? You might be quoting 40 hours or so but is it 40 over 1 week or 3 months spilt up. If they need something in 1 week it requires full attention and you might be able to leverage that on your side. Remind them you are a business to and you have other clients. Dropping everything for 1 doesn’t always fly.
4) Who is the client? Are you redesigning Amazon or are you designing a site for Bobby surfer dude’s pizza shop? In our eyes it makes no difference but to them it’s the world for a smaller business.
5) Who are YOU? Are you a new/unknown designer? No offense for not looking @ your folio but what have you done? Consider who you have done work for before trying to prove you are the shizzal. For all I know you all ready are the shizzal and they just need to recognize.
6) Last up, what’s your situation? Are you a moonlighter like me? At a fulltime salary and with some of the above variables being easy, is $3k really that bad? Is it blow money? Is it possible you won’t be able to deliver on time due to other commitments and they know this? Or, are you on your own and is this $3k putting a roof over your head? Greed will play into this as well. Are you going to do anything for them and they just don’t know it?
- gpop0
haha, isn't everything blow money after all? with rent and food the downside to living!!
These guys want an online shop - then tell em it will cost, or link them $200 worth of books and $3000 worth of equipment and software and suggest they try that option.
Seriously, we can't really say without knowing teh size of the project but $3k sounds like the minimum you should be charging for anything. If you are straight outta uni / school then I would imagine what takes a developer 5 days will take you 3-4 weeks so the pay is easily justified.
- mbr0
I know nothing about e commerce sites, but most hosting services give you a free shopping cart with a service.
I'd just go and change the colors of that one and add their images, call it a day.
Any client that tells you how much your work should cost is going to cause problems down the road, so keep that in mind. Bargaining (like I just did a project that I told them it'd be $5400, they asked if I could do it for $5k and I agreed) is fine and some people will just expect to do it. But to outright say it costs too much, why isn't this guy just hiring someone else? Ask him that - ask him if he is so sure it's not worth much where is he getting his info (if he can answer at all, it'll most likely be a friend of a relative or something stupid like that)?
Make sure you have a solid contract, with EVERYTHING spelled out (most likely this'll scare him off), so he can't screw you.
- rasko40
you should be charging them double just for the fact of them being lawyers.
I would be tempted to go back to them and say they were right, there was a mistake with the estimate, then charge them three times as much.
- enobrev0
should probably charge them for the amount of time you've put into reading and posting to this thread as well.
itemize this in your bill.
- mrbee28280
lol
- bauts1060
Not to go off topic, but what I find determining how much to charge a client as of late is the current state of the market. Meaning, right now where I am, this area is FLOODED with young designers fresh out of school that will work for next to nothing. If a client happens to pick up a feeelancer that does decent work and charges 20 bucks an hour, are they ever gonna use the guy who charges 75/hr anymore? Are they going to compare every rate to the 20/hr rate Johnny College was charging...of course they are. I have a friend at an interactive firm who told me they now farm all their flash work out of the Ukraine, and they work for pennies on the dollar. use your judgment, if you talk to a client and they're the kind of "shoot from the hip" sales-guy character, theyre gonna try and eff with you, if they know what theyre doing and understand design they'll usually give you what you ask for.
- DeviceUnseen0
it really depends on what the site is. most smal boutique agencies would chage $50-75 k on the low end. I remember a friend trying to get something for $10k and no one would return calls.
if you have a client that thinks they know the market and wants to low ball, tell them you can't help them. before you do, you should give them a clear vision on what you would be providing. if you impress them, 9 of 10 times they'll come back once some random craigslist guy screws them over.
- kezza_20
by not doing it for their rate?
- fifty500
I agree that $45/hr is cheap, and if you really think it'll take that much time to build the site then you need to hold your ground. The last thing you want to do is settle. If you start selling yourself short to them, they won't appreciate you or your work nearly as much. But what do you expect from lawyers? They swindle people for a living.
Hold your ground and stick with your original quote. If they dump you, then they weren't worth it in the first place. It just wouldn't be worth your time to make it for less.
- enobrev0
bauts, it's a matter of offering experience. If you've been doing what you do for a while and are consistently being beat out by college kids and foreigners, you may want to look at your sales pitch, your target market an most importantly, what you have to offer that a recent grad or other such competitor doesn't.
Most importantly you should never starve for the sake of a client - Especially a new one. Favors are for friends and they tend to give little help to the landlord or the dinner table. Charge what you need to charge in order to keep doing what you do well.
- gpop0
Yeah, my agency said to me the other day that they could get their programmer in Hungary to do it for 1/2 the price of what it cost them to do it through me (loyalty after 4 years!!). So i told em too. They then said theyd rather I did it!! ha! I also charge them far below what i really should do anyhow! God I need a real paid job!