Budgets and

Estimates

Toki Hoangthy Ngo, Krystle Beglari, Edward Hoffman

What should I charge?

What should I charge?

• Let’s look at factors that effect your rate:

– Determining experience/worth– Looking at surrounding market – Determining hourly cost– Determining amount of hours: part of estimating

What should I charge?

• Determining Experience. You are a…– Student

• This include you’re still in college and taking classes

• Most likely you will not be tackling large web site projects

– Professional• This is your full time job. You have more than 5-10+ years

developing web sites• More experience with more projects in your resume

What should I charge?

• General Consensus:• $40 low/hour• $75 high/hour• $59 average/hour

• $4,000 high/project• $500 low/project• $2,000 average/project.

• Determining your worth with market value– Compare prices what job bids are

asking for– Full-time employees vs. Freelancers– Where do you reside in?

What should I charge?

Determining your worth with market value.Freelancers Pole of their hourly Rate

http://freelancejam.com/poll-web-designers-price-of-website-design/

What should I charge?

• Determining how you should charge Hourly vs Flat-Rate Project– Could also be determined by the client’s budget– Your skills & Experience (how fast are you)– What kind of work are you doing?

Hourly Rate Examples•Maintenance update•One page websites

Flat-Rate Project•Creating e-commerce website•Back-end web developing

What should I charge?

• Hourly vs Flat Rate Project | Hourly Rate– Advantages

• Helps time management• Flexibility - Encourage better balance of work &

personal life• Work more hours, gain more pay• Less likely for client’s to make changes

– Disadvantages• You’re competing against companies /design agencies and other

freelancers• Might not get all the jobs• Breakdown of all your hours work aka “wasting time”

What should I charge?

• Hourly vs Flat Rate Project | Flat-Rate Projects– Advantages

• Gets your foot in the door! Gaining more jobs.• Competitive prices against other freelancers

and web design agencies• Easier for the client to breakdown a project, more flexible

– Disadvantages• Always racing against the clock to meet deadlines (not flexible)• More hours, less pay• Neither you or your client will know how much the project will

cost (if there are many changes)• Skill is very important. Time is money!

What should I charge?

• What NOT to charge to your client:– Learning new software

• Keep track of your hours, but you should use this as cushion time in your estimate

– Making Mistakes• If your client does not like it, due to miscommunication, you should not

charge it or mark it as a discounted price• You accidently deleted their whole website.

You need to fix it and not charge the client for your mistake.

How can I go about

estimating projects?

How can I go about estimating projects?

Before beginning, talk to your client and ask questions:

• Total number of pages• What kind of navigation bars or menus• More than one page design?• Number of custom graphics needed• Number of graphics provided by the client• How design-intensive a site do they want?• What type of text content, provided in what form?• Interactive forms? How many fields?• Database-driven applications? (Detailed description of all functionality is needed)• Administration areas?• Domain registrations or changes?• Hosting arrangements?• How important is search engine positioning?• Will any client training be necessary?

How can I go about estimating projects?

1. Determine what the site needs and break down in to phases

• Research and planning• Solution design• Design• Front-end development• Back-end development• Content entry• Testing• Go-live

How can I go about estimating projects?

2. Break down phases into many smaller tasksResearch and planning

Requirements gatheringProject planning

Solution design SitemapWireframesUser workflowsFunctional specification

Design Initial homepage look and feelContent pageMaster content page templateNews main pageNews item

Front-end development 5x Templates build XHTML/CSSJavaScript and AJAXCross-browser fixes

Back-end development CMS Setup and configurationNews featureContact us form

Content entry Homepage copyAddition of 10x News items

Testing Internal functional testingClient User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

Go-live Live server setup301 re-directs from old site URLs to new

How can I go about estimating projects?

3. Replicate all phases and tasks with time estimates

• Use a time tracking tool

• If first time making certain estimate, may have to do research on subject to make an educated guestimate on amount of time task will take

How can I go about estimating projects?

4. Add up the total hours and multiply by your hourly rate

• Estimator that helps to plan out project: http://astuteo.com/estimator/

How can I go about estimating projects?

5. Add a percentage for contingencies, add expenses, and total it all up

• Contingency: Add 10-20% more to your hours, so you have a cushion • After multiple projects, you can have a percentage based list on the amount of time that is devoted to each

phase

Example:Research and planning took around 5% of the total project time to completeSolution design: 5%Design: 25%Front-end development: 15%Back-end development: 30%Content entry: 8%Testing: 10%Go-live: 2%

How can I avoid being

stiffed?

How can I avoid being stiffed?

1. The Contract

Have a strong contract

– If the client refuses to sign the contract that is the first red flag to walk away

How can I avoid being stiffed?

1. The ContractTwo major portions of the contract are the Creative Brief and Fee

Creative Brief: -Project summary-Target audience-Perception/tone/guidelines-Communication strategy-Competitive positioning-Single-Minded Message

How can I avoid being stiffed?

1. The ContractTwo major portions of the contract are the Creative Brief and Fee

Fee: -How much?-How many hours?-What rights are sold or transferred?-How many revisions/hourly rate for those revisions?-Any additional costs or expenses etc.

How can I avoid being stiffed?

2. Request Deposits

50% Upfront

Across the board the safest thing to do is ask for 50% upfront. This way, even if you are stiffed, you have already generated revenue from the project.

How can I avoid being stiffed?

2. Request Deposits

Agile Billing:

It is sometimes difficult to always find clients who will pay 50% upfront, Agile Billing is a good alternative.

Time Out is when the client can place a temporary “stop” one day a week if there are unforeseen hold ups on their end.

Cancellation: If the client has paid 50% upfront and their is a cancellation they can ask for a portion of that money back. There is less friction during a cancellation because of this.

How can I avoid being stiffed?

3. Clients Surroundings and Character

What makes a Bad Client?

How can I avoid being stiffed?

3. Clients Surroundings and Character

• Does Not Pay

• Wants Something for Nothing

• Moving Goal Posts

How can I avoid being stiffed?

3. Clients Surroundings and Character

Extra qualities to be weary of before and during negotiations:

•poor communication •being badgered by client•client knows it all•disorganized or emotional•gossips

How can I avoid being stiffed?

4. Knowing Ones Risks

•Web Designers thrive on constant cash flow

•Experience Cannot be Taught

•Getting Stiffed

•Self Worth