I run an agency and we use freelancers to come in and help out when needs be. Two that I can think of charge exactly the same amount, but one of them delivers to a much higher standard and we really get our moneys worth. And, of course, he is the first one we call when we need something.

If you keep rates at £xx per hour you can only earn so much. If you commoditize your offering, you can make more. Some you will win on and some you will lose on and after a while, you will realise which clients not to take on at initial meeting stage. In other words, the first person to realise the value of what you offer should be you.

Nice post.

If additional items get thrown into the mix by the client then i have no issue with letting them know that if they wish that extra bit doing it will cost them and will also add time onto the project. It makes the client think long and hard about wether they really need the addition as it will cost them money and (sometimes) extend the project development time.

Obviously small amends etc tend to get done included with the original cost here and there but if they start getting excessive then it’s only fair to charge. One recent client of mine sent me 27 Revisions of the same document; obviously my patience wore thin after the first few and i ended up charging him twice the original development costs because of all the amends and additions.

I guess it comes down to personal preference and what the market will bear; both methods of charging can work well if you plan your time well to suit.

I’ve done a few fixed price projects. A couple went extremely well, most went fine, and one went extremely badly. The main lesson I learnt was to test expectations. If you don’t know a client, start small with them, or set regular milestones of sign-off with them. You may come up with a list of deliverables and how they perceive what that deliverable is, and how you perceive what that deliverable is could be very different. May not be so different with something like stationery, but in software engineering, it can be huge.

You’re right about revision sets. It’s much easier to have some contingency when they change their mind on something small and deliver on that change than to get into battles over what’s in the contract.

One thing is that clients really like fixed price, and are often prepared to pay more for it (a lot more) than for open-ended day rates to build. They know what their position will be, so consider it less risky.

The other thing that I’m starting get my head around is the idea of an ongoing support and maintenance contract in these times. So, rather than building a website for someone that they own, they rent use and updates. This is certainly more risky for the developer and of course, that would be factored in, but you could sell to someone the idea of rather than selling a site for £x,000, they pay £x00 per month for its use. Not sure yet, though…

Brilliant post there, Sarah! I should do those invoices and stuff a little better.

As an example, we charge £80 to setup Google Apps for someone. If I’m doing it with a fresh domain name previously unregistered it takes about 20 minutes. Good profit. However, if the domain is existing and needs tranferring you need to get the information out of the client, help them migrate their existing email account etc. In the end it generally works out about the same as our normal hourly rate.

The thing we still haven’t quite cracked is selling knowledge. Accountants/solicitors and the like seem to have this one cracked. The clock starts now….