[Becca B]

I have to come up with a quote for a fictitious project, as part of a group assignment for uni. (I'm studying Digital Media as a mature student).

The imaginary project is a university website. I won't bore you with the details but basically it'd be built in WordPress, and we've estimated it'd need about

• 75 working days from the web developers
  
• 15 days from the database administrator
  
• 25 days form the copywriters / content creators
  
• 10 days from general project support

If anyone feels they could hazards a guess how much a company would likely quote for this, I'd be very grateful, as I'm really not sure!

(This figure isn't the main point of the project by the way - it just need to be in there somewhere. Our lecturer said we don't even need to justify how we came up with the figure as long as it's in the right ballpark, so it's OK to ask you guys, it's not cheating honest! I'll reference this forum and I might even get brownie points for it! )

Thanks in advance

[CityCM]

How did you come up with those timescales?

75 working days for web developers to develop a Wordpress site seems very OTT

[Becca B]

CityCM, on 07 January 2012 - 04:05 PM, said:

How did you come up with those timescales?

75 working days for web developers to develop a Wordpress site seems very OTT

I agree! But it's a group project and I can't change that bit. The imaginary project runs over 20 days with four webteam there for nearly all of it.

To be fair, it's not only WordPress involved, there are custom bits that would need developing, and our lecturer said to allow contingency, so we certainly have done that! But I agree in reality that would be excessive.

However all this is set in stone now, I can't change it, I just have to do my bit (writing a business case).

[Becca B]

Perhaps I made my question too specific?

What I really want to know is roughly what kinds of figures would a company expect to change a university for a new website?

I appreciate it's a how long is a piece of string question but I just want to know a very, very rough ball park - what would you think was a reasonable price for a project this size?

[brightonmike]

A rough guess would be between £10-20k.

Can't really be any more accurate then that.

[Becca B]

brightonmike, on 07 January 2012 - 05:06 PM, said:

A rough guess would be between £10-20k.

Brilliant, that's great, thanks very much

(I just want to make sure that the imaginary figure I write down isn't so way off the mark as to be ridiculous!)

[BlueDreamer]

It' s just simple maths really

Total hours x hourly rate = Total price

So if you spend 100 hours @ £50/hour than 100x50 = £5000

[Becca B]

BlueDreamer, on 07 January 2012 - 05:44 PM, said:

So if you spend 100 hours @ £50/hour than 100x50 = £5000

Wow, that would come out at over £30K then!

[BlueDreamer]

^ surprising how it adds up isn't it!

[roothost]

And £50 p/h isn't exactly top end pricing either...

[opensesame]

roothost, on 08 January 2012 - 01:50 PM, said:

And £50 p/h isn't exactly top end pricing either...

Not far off, £50 an hour x 8 hours, x 20 days = £8000 a month

Your looking at about £30 - £35 an hour.

2 types of companies charge £50 an hour, ones with a design reputation that you know your get a good job from, the other end being a mag designer who's gone freelance and thinks his web designs are amazing, the kind that kicks up a fuss if the developer has the design 1px out in ie6.

Most developers will know what tools im on about.

[roothost]

opensesame, on 08 January 2012 - 05:43 PM, said:

Not far off, £50 an hour x 8 hours, x 20 days = £8000 a month

Your looking at about £30 - £35 an hour.

2 types of companies charge £50 an hour, ones with a design reputation that you know your get a good job from, the other end being a mag designer who's gone freelance and thinks his web designs are amazing, the kind that kicks up a fuss if the developer has the design 1px out in ie6.

Most developers will know what tools im on about.

1px out in ie6 - shocking!

[BlueDreamer]

roothost, on 10 January 2012 - 03:09 PM, said:

1px out in ie6 - shocking!

Some of my newer ones could be 100's of pixels out and I don't give a damn (unless client pays me £50/hour)

[brightonmike]

roothost, on 08 January 2012 - 01:50 PM, said:

And £50 p/h isn't exactly top end pricing either...

Wow, really? I'd be on £8000 a month with that hourly rate - or nearly £100k a year!!

Seems pretty high end rate to me.

[oakleaves]

brightonmike, on 16 January 2012 - 11:12 AM, said:

Wow, really? I'd be on £8000 a month with that hourly rate - or nearly £100k a year!!

Seems pretty high end rate to me.

It's totally different when you are self-employed/running your own business.

It doesn't work the same as when you are employed. You need to charge those sort of prices. I can't go into all the ins and outs and whys and wherefore's here but you would soon fail if you didn't.

[brightonmike]

But assuming you guys put in the same hours a week, that's a lot of money.

Even if you were only doing 20 hour weeks, still £50k a year, still a fair amount of dollar IMO.

Perhaps somebody else could explain it to me.

[oakleaves]

I'll give you a few starters..

Advertising
Business Promotion and networking
Overheads

Plus you don't (unfortunately) have the same work consistency as when you are employed. It fluctuates.

[oakleaves]

I'm not saying everybody who has their own business will charge (or need to charge) £50 per hour. Some may charge more, others less, depending on their own individual business situation.

However, you will find that, on the whole, a web designer who runs their own business will generally need to charge a higher hourly rate than somebody who is employed.

This post has been edited by oakleaves: 16 January 2012 - 12:15 PM

[brightonmike]

I guess I can see what you mean. My hours are constant and uninterrupted and apart from my petrol to work I don't have the same overheads.

Still...I'd be chuffed with £50p/h!