Am I charging too little?

LouTheDesigner

New Member
Ok. For me it completely depends on the type of site they want (what sort of features are needed), the amount of pages they need, their budget (feel free to ask for this upfront), and the type of client.

I say type of client because some are 100X easier to work with than others. Some are just very satisfied from your original design, while others want to make a change every 2 weeks that will require you to visit their home for no reason whatsoever other than their opportunity to look at the site with you (I call these clients "stupid").

Quick example, I had two clients, both wanting me to design from the same template (they didn't mind that their site looked similar, as they knew each other). One was an artist who knew GIMP, and re-sized all of her imaged for me prior to sending them, and then re-sized her thumbnails to the appropriate dimensions that would fit toward the template. THIS SITE HAD TAKEN 4 HOURS TO BUILD.

The other client, who didn't like my price, said "Let's meet face to face and then we'll negotiate the price." I informed him that I would not let go of my $50 / hour fee, but he thought he could change my mind. I show up at his home, and he has NO digital photos, just a brochure that I was supposed to scan, and then re-size in photoshop. He then wanted roughly 17 changes to the site. THIS SITE HAD TAKEN CLOSE TO 20 HOURS.

Your rates should change depending on certain criteria mentioned above, but you should always keep a base rate ($25 is an okay base rate), but try to charge more where possible. Don't go under $25, period (unless it's a friend).

Eventually you'll get the hang of it. I used to ask tons of people what I should be charging, but there's not really a definite answer or formula that you should be following. v2Media's "2. Decide how much you want to pay yourself per year" is just not good advice. Imagine walking into a hair salon and asking how much for a wash and cut, and they reply, "Well I only made 40,000K this year and I'm looking to make another 10,000K within the next two weeks."

It all depends on the type of website. By now, I receive a at least 2 calls per week asking for quotes. My first questions are "What features do you want on your website" and "What websites do you like that you would like yours to be similar to"... Those are your magic questions.. I come up with quotes off the top of my head by now.

And whatever you do, if the client says "Can we put a cap on your estimate? I just don't want the hours to balloon out of control." Say NO! That means that the client is going to be rough and they are likely expecting their incompetence to drive your hours worked completely out of control.

-Louis
 

v2Media

Member
v2Media's "2. Decide how much you want to pay yourself per year" is just not good advice. Imagine walking into a hair salon and asking how much for a wash and cut, and they reply, "Well I only made 40,000K this year and I'm looking to make another 10,000K within the next two weeks."

You misunderstood how the formula is applied. The formula gives a base hourly rate to charge and is pretty standard stuff they teach you in business management courses. You only reach full annual pay if you get full capacity production. Proposing that you increase the rate to make up for a shortfall in production is preposterous.
 
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