Anyone on here who questions why use a contract or does not at the moment. I've been working on a project for the past 2 weeks almost got it all designed up and finished.

 

Customer emails me this morning and asks for a list of amendments as well as some other pages created after the project was signed off. Referred him to the contract at hourly rate x 2 for alterations out side of the brief and although a little reluctant is willing to pay

Nice! Mind if I enquire what your hourly rate is? I'm looking to start up these holidays and I'm not sure what to price myself at?

lol id shock you

 

if your starting up be realistic

Nice! Mind if I enquire what your hourly rate is? I'm looking to start up these holidays and I'm not sure what to price myself at?

 

Ah, this old classic about price. It can be a toughy, but you have to remember that once you have set your prices then they aren't set in stone forever and a day.

 

You need to decide on what you feel is going to be enough for your services. I'm slowly moving away from hourly rates, or I am in my clients eyes. I use my hourly rate as a basis for me to work on, and then when I quote/invoice them, they're given no indication to what I earn.

 

If I told them that I was working at £25 an hour it would take me 20 hours to complete a job. Or, I can tell them it's going to take me 4 days and cost £500. Charging per hour and telling the client as such often leaves me open to moaning phone calls as they want as much work as I can do within the hour

Edited June 29, 201115 yr by Jason Dexter

I'm the same I quote per project rather than per hour but my hourly rate is stated in a contract for anything extra and its always rounded up so 1 hour and 5min is 2 hours pay etc

Costing a site is as individual as the designer, the client and the site!

From what I can tell, hourly rates (whether you're charging the client per hour or working out the price "per job" by calculating behind the scenes) start at around £25 and go up to around £60 - £65. That's just going by what I've noticed off this board as people quoting.

 

I think for someone who is competent, £25 is the lowest you should go. Perhpas £20 if you're only just starting out. Personally I switch the clock off if I make a cup of tea, have to backtrack, go to the loo, etc. unlike when you work in an office where effectively you get paid for all these things. So if you charge £25 per hour and apply this, I think the client gets a hell of a lot for his / her hour.

You guys should also look at having a set, flat admin fee. E.g. for those small updates that take 10 or 15 minutes.

 

I always charge for the hour, regardless if its a 5min job or not. I've never had any client ever thats taken 10-15min to fix what they call "a simple problem"

what they call "a simple problem"

 

I find one of the most common for me, certainly in the last corporate job I had was "Could you just put a button here that does this, shouldn't take you a minute" ..... the button in question calling ajax, accessing and modifying the database, checking login details or whatever. You know the kind of thing.

It's a bit like saying to a mechanic "Could you just put the steering wheel on the other side. Shouldn't take you that long....".

Yes my favorite is confusing web design services with IT Support...

 

"Hi Gerry, My broadband isn't working can you take a look?" , "My computer will not boot up" , "How do I insert this image into word" and so on!

Edited June 29, 201115 yr by pandadoodle