How do you charge for your work?

[Ted Giles]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

So, do we only have 12 developers who charge for work?

[user10]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

How do you charge?
Like a wounded rhino!

[Ray in Capetown]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

Well actually I didnt vote because the two options mean the same.
If the difference was
=1=one option fixed quote (based on time anyway) per module/section
=2=another option fixed number of hours and see what that gets.
=3=yet another, submit time cost bills in progressive stages ie. open contract (similar I guess to =2=) except that the client can cancel or change the contract at any time.

I could then take =1= as the most common for me.

...and Dave
you have to quote for it to be done right, otherwise the customer wont likely want pay if its klutzy.
then you end up doing it right without recompense.

[mpatrizio]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

How to bill is one of the issues I have as well. My issue is with what I will call micro-apps. How are you billing for these? What is a micro-app? It is just a simple application that does one thing. For example a to-do list that accesses an existing sql database. It really only takes a couple of hours to do, but in order to deploy it, you need an application server license. If a customer was willing to pay $600 for a micro-app then half of that is eaten up by a server license. Many of my customers would like these little apps but the costs get out of hand. Has anyone else had a good solution to this scenario?

[DaveM]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

This is not going to sound good, but economics drive a lot of business.

If a customer was willing to pay $600 for a micro-app then half of that is eaten up by a server license. Many of my customers would like these little apps but the costs get out of hand. Has anyone else had a good solution to this scenario?

1. most of the little mini apps on the web are not done with a was. Too expensive. Many use a solution of an application to make a web page and something simple like access as a data collector. no cost for the access db, and it holds small amounts of data just fine. Just pick a web app that lets you connect in a simple way to the table and you are mostly done. charge the 600 or less if need be.

I usually charge 100 for a 3 page static(no data) web site(my money) and then they pay for the hosting. I upload it and done. for a simple data app, starts at 300(same scenario)

I would love to use alpha for these!

I do about 2 statics a week and about 2 data apps a month. I advertise in craigs list that gets over half these clients. Once you do one, the rest are just copied off that one.

If you do heavy hauling with sql, then absolutely ALPHA! Just economics - I hate not being able to use the same tools for everything.
Maybe v12 will help this - but money is money

[forskare]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

By the hour for a fixed number of hours is the same as whole project with a single price.

Maybe, but, what id the project isn't completed withing the fixed hours?

[forskare]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

I do almost all my work for me but recently gained a paying client. I gave an estimate or should I say, a Guestimate. Good thing because my customer isn't sure what they want other than something simple. Question: What does "simple" mean? One table, flat file win a couple of forms and a report or two? or does it mean 3-4 or more tables, 10-20 forms, 6 or so reports, etc., all so 'simple to use, little or no instruction is needed. in most cases, I'd say it is the latter. If a job is going to be done right, with exceptions, there will be a fairly complex DB. The trick is to make it user, simple, friendly. It will cost the customer more but in the end, the customer is happy and that's what counts. It's not worth the $$ if the customer got what was asked for but is unhappy because it's not what he wanted but thought thought it was.

What I'm doing in this case, charging what I thing the customer thinks it's value to them. If they don't like the amount, they WILL tell me and then we negotiate. My reason? I spend a lot of time with experimenting with web components and it's extremely difficult, at best, to keep those hours separate from actual development time.

[Ray in Capetown]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

Maybe, but, what id the project isn't completed withing the fixed hours?

Then you probably would not be paid

IF it was stated simply ..by the hour - Leave off fixed number of,
then that is a different option to fixed time or overall cost

[DaveM]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

What does "simple" mean?

Generally means "simple for me to use"

Suggest have the spell out what they want the app to do and what their business does. Lots of details such as, do they sell something, invoices, who do they purchase from, what kind of reports do they want. Have them send you representative paper work concerning their business. other is, how many users, what does each user do? That can give you something to go on.

[Keith Hubert]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

Question: What does "simple" mean?

When a customer says it.

Translation: You are the expert so you can do this very easily and you wont charge much for doing it so quickly.

[GGandhi]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

michael smith in post #34 said

If a customer was willing to pay $600 for a micro-app then half of that is eaten up by a server license.

if only alpha treats the was unlimited license just like unlimited runtime license, won't that be wonderful.
when you have unlimited runtime, you can install your work "unlimited" time, but with was unlimited means only one installation but unlimited number of people accessing the was.
i am sure they have their reasoning, but wishing was is actually unlimited installations.
then the customer need not pay for the was.

[forskare]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

When a customer says it.

Translation: You are the expert so you can do this very easily and you wont charge much for doing it so quickly.

And that's exactly the customer's mentality. However, the developer didn't gain the expertise overnight. A lot of time learning the expertise necessary to create the 'simple' application was spent during evening, late night and weekend hours. Alpha plays a key role but the charges should reflect your worth which brings us back to: How do you charge for a project. Since I do not work at this full time and have always felt that because I am far from an expert with Xbasic, I cannot charge anywhere near what some of you charge. However, after talking with some of you seasoned veterans, I'm learning I am better at it than I give myself credit.

No matter what method we use to determine a price, it needs to be fair. Otherwise, is the project worth doing?

[Steve Wood]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

One of the hardest things for a Developer to say is "that item is out of scope and it will cost you more". But you must otherwise your $225/hr rate will slip lower and lower, and you will only think you are earning a living. All projects are taken out of scope before the ink dries on the contract. Even if the customer has not communicated the changes to you, they are mulling them over. It is much easier to say the project is out of scope if the project is small, and the dollars are small. Then it is easy to say those ten new reports will cost $1000 more. If the project is large, and has large dollars attached, then it is easier for the Developer to talk himself in to absorbing the out of scope items. But it sets a trend that can ruin the project along with the relationship by time it is complete.

[DaveM]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

another thought.

If a customer pays what is needed to get what he wants, he is happy. If he scrimps on price and gets less, he will never be happy.

[forskare]

Re: How do you charge for your work?

another thought.

If a customer pays what is needed to get what he wants, he is happy. If he scrimps on price and gets less, he will never be happy.

Exactly!! That's why I posed the question, What does simple mean? Every time I get what appears to be a slam dunk case, something happens I didn't count on. There is no such thing as a typical investigation and there is no such thing as a typical app, unless it's off the shelf and then, there are customer needs it does not address.