How much to charge...

GoldenGlory · 26 Sep 2006 at 20:26

Hi friends,
I know you get asked this question a lot, but now it's my turn to ask.
I have a background in web design and development and the company I am doing a placement for want their 4 year old flash website updated to SEO friendly, interactive, dynamic etc etc.

Now, this is just phase 1. They also want a client extranet, and a fully loaded e-commerce system. So there are 3 parts to the project.

I will be using HTML, CSS, PHP, JS, MYSQL, XML etc as well as photoshop for the design side.

I am to be paid by the hour. They have paid a 5 figure number for it in the past, with search engine listings.

Regards,

GoldenGlory

Beansprout · 26 Sep 2006 at 21:05

Depends...how good are you?

Tetsujin · 26 Sep 2006 at 21:27

Good enough to use Times in forum posts it seems

I charge myself out at approx £70 an hour, that's to people who know i am good at what i do. It's not particularly high either cos i'm not a full-time freelancer. so if you're damn good you can get away with more than that, you just need to be able to demonstrate it. how well does this company you're doing your placement with know you? if not very well, and it's going to be a long, involved project, you may be better off going for something closer to £40/£50.

zetec452 · 26 Sep 2006 at 21:33

GoldenGlory said:
I am to be paid by the hour. They have paid a 5 figure number for it in the past, with search engine listings.

I think you've already got something to aim for.

Mr^B · 26 Sep 2006 at 21:44

£70/hour or about £500 a day is pretty much top whack that you can get even as a specific technology/product specialist dealing with large investment banks/hedge funds in the city.

To get £70 an hour for building websites is a shocking overcharge and I want in.

blade007 · 26 Sep 2006 at 22:02

ecommerce sites (decent ones) tend to go for somehwere between £3000 and £10,000

zetec452 · 26 Sep 2006 at 22:16

The most expensive website I've worked on came to a total of 28k. It wasn't even that nice.

GoldenGlory · 26 Sep 2006 at 22:38

Thanks for the replies.
Yes i'm good. Very good. And i'm going to transform the company so that:

a) it has an online presence, like all other competitors which are cashing in. It will be on the first page of google for relative terms. It will showcase their work, and allow new clients to be added, with case studies etc.
b) the client extranet will allow clients to check the status of their work, make comments, upload stuff and generally save employees time on the phone/emails taking this information in manually.
c) the e-commerce side will add a source of income to the company. Not only will they sell off-the-shelf products, but provide clients to customise them (buy-to-order)

But, i'm at uni (3rd year) so my time is precious. I anticipate the first phase (a) to take about 70 hours. That includes the backend. I was thinking along the lines of £20 an hour given my limited time, and lack of live portfolio. Shall I let him give me a price, or suggest my own?

I've been working there for 7 weeks so I know the company quite well.

blade007 · 26 Sep 2006 at 22:49

are you going to take over the internet anytime soon?

iCraig · 26 Sep 2006 at 23:00

How come you change your text to serif and increase the size? Looks terrible on a forum like this.

You sound like you know what you're doing, £1400 for the backend sounds about right. But don't forget, you say it will take 70 hours. Don't tell your client that. Call it 80 at least. It will give you more flexibility, and they won't be on your back towards the end of phase 1 too much.

GoldenGlory · 26 Sep 2006 at 23:09

iCraig said:
How come you change your text to serif and increase the size? Looks terrible on a forum like this.

You sound like you know what you're doing, £1400 for the backend sounds about right. But don't forget, you say it will take 70 hours. Don't tell your client that. Call it 80 at least. It will give you more flexibility, and they won't be on your back towards the end of phase 1 too much.

Thanks iCraig. Basically I have until after christmas, this site is going live on January 1st so it's a new year, new start. I think between my studies I can get it done in 70-80 hours. I'm going to let him start to talk about numbers because I don't want to make a mistake. We have a meeting tomorrow so let's see what happens.

Beansprout · 27 Sep 2006 at 01:19

You're very good....and time is precious...but only £20/hr?

I'm a 1st year uni student, also "good", and my time is also precious....£40/hr is probably the minimum I'd go for....unless it was for student buddies!

Phase a) there is very vague, phase b) seems pretty standard stuff and phase c) reads like something out of a pre-dot-com-bust VC pitch....

So - how good are you? "Very good" isn't an answer. In my lecture today (on the basics of HTML - whoo!) I showed the people next to me what I've done, and hardly talked much at all. Didn't need to....that doesn't mean arrogance, it means modesty and a sense of accomplishment, but also the ability to let others pick holes and make their own judgement....anyway, I'm rambling and there's a party (er, "social gathering") on next door.....

Granted it's hard to answer non-interactively but surely you have some example work, etc? As a 3rd year you must have some stuff to show off

zetec452 · 27 Sep 2006 at 08:46

GoldenGlory, I don't want to appear negative here. However, do you have the associated insurances (liabilities insurance for one) and support in place for a project like this? Building a big website isn't just about 80 odd hours worth of work.

Good luck