Budgets and Estimates

1. Budgets and Estimates Toki Hoangthy Ngo, KrystleBeglari, Edward Hoffman

2. What should I charge?

3. What should I charge? • Let’s look at factors that effect your rate: • Determining experience/worth • Looking at surrounding market • Determining hourly cost • Determining amount of hours: part of estimating

4. What should I charge? • Determining Experience. You are a… • Student • This include you’re still in college and taking classes • Most likely you will not be tackling large web site projects • Professional • This is your full time job. You have more than 5-10+ years developing web sites • More experience with more projects in your resume

5. What should I charge? • Determining your worth with market value • Compare prices what job bids are asking for • Full-time employees vs. Freelancers • Where do you reside in? • General Consensus: • $40 low/hour • $75 high/hour • $59 average/hour • $4,000 high/project • $500 low/project • $2,000 average/project.

6. What should I charge? Determining your worth with market value. Freelancers Pole of their hourly Rate http://freelancejam.com/poll-web-designers-price-of-website-design/

7. What should I charge? • Determining how you should charge Hourly vs Flat-Rate Project • Could also be determined by the client’s budget • Your skills & Experience (how fast are you) • What kind of work are you doing? • Hourly Rate Examples • Maintenance update • One page websites • Flat-Rate Project • Creating e-commerce website • Back-end web developing

8. What should I charge? • Hourly vs Flat Rate Project | Hourly Rate • Advantages • Helps time management • Flexibility - Encourage better balance of work & personal life • Work more hours, gain more pay • Less likely for client’s to make changes • Disadvantages • You’re competing against companies /design agencies and other freelancers • Might not get all the jobs • Breakdown of all your hours work aka “wasting time”

9. What should I charge? • Hourly vs Flat Rate Project | Flat-Rate Projects • Advantages • Gets your foot in the door! Gaining more jobs. • Competitive prices against other freelancers and web design agencies • Easier for the client to breakdown a project, more flexible • Disadvantages • Always racing against the clock to meet deadlines (not flexible) • More hours, less pay • Neither you or your client will know how much the project will cost (if there are many changes) • Skill is very important. Time is money!

10. What should I charge? • What NOT to charge to your client: • Learning new software • Keep track of your hours, but you should use this as cushion time in your estimate • Making Mistakes • If your client does not like it, • due to miscommunication, you should not charge it or mark it as a discounted price • You accidently deleted their whole website. You need to fix it and not charge the client for your mistake.

11. How can I go about estimating projects?

12. How can I go about estimating projects? Before beginning, talk to your client and ask questions: • Total number of pages • What kind of navigation bars or menus • More than one page design? • Number of custom graphics needed • Number of graphics provided by the client • How design-intensive a site do they want? • What type of text content, provided in what form? • Interactive forms? How many fields? • Database-driven applications? (Detailed description of all functionality is needed) • Administration areas? • Domain registrations or changes? • Hosting arrangements? • How important is search engine positioning? • Will any client training be necessary?

13. How can I go about estimating projects? 1. Determine what the site needs and break down in to phases • Research and planning • Solution design • Design • Front-end development • Back-end development • Content entry • Testing • Go-live

14. How can I go about estimating projects? 2. Break down phases into many smaller tasks • Research and planning • Requirements gathering • Project planning • Solution design • Sitemap • Wireframes • User workflows • Functional specification • Design • Initial homepage look and feel • Content page • Master content page template • News main page • News item • Front-end development • 5x Templates build XHTML/CSS • JavaScript and AJAX • Cross-browser fixes • Back-end development • CMS Setup and configuration • News feature • Contact us form • Content entry • Homepage copy • Addition of 10x News items • Testing • Internal functional testing • Client User Acceptance Testing (UAT) • Go-live • Live server setup • 301 re-directs from old site URLs to new

15. How can I go about estimating projects? 3. Replicate all phases and tasks with time estimates • Use a time tracking tool • If first time making certain estimate, may have to do research on subject to make an educated guestimate on amount of time task will take

16. How can I go about estimating projects? 4. Add up the total hours and multiply by your hourly rate • Estimator that helps to plan out project: http://astuteo.com/estimator/

17. How can I go about estimating projects? 5. Add a percentage for contingencies, add expenses, and total it all up • Contingency: Add 10-20% more to your hours, so you have a cushion • After multiple projects, you can have a percentage based list on the amount of time that is devoted to each phase Example: Research and planning took around 5% of the total project time to complete Solution design: 5% Design: 25% Front-end development: 15% Back-end development: 30% Content entry: 8% Testing: 10% Go-live: 2%

18. How can I avoid being stiffed?

19. How can I avoid being stiffed? 1. The Contract Have a strong contract • If the client refuses to sign the contract that is the first red flag to walk away

20. How can I avoid being stiffed? 1. The Contract Two major portions of the contract are the Creative Brief and Fee Creative Brief: • Project summary • Target audience • Perception/tone/guidelines • Communication strategy • Competitive positioning • Single-Minded Message

21. How can I avoid being stiffed? 1. The Contract Two major portions of the contract are the Creative Brief and Fee Fee: • How much? • How many hours? • What rights are sold or transferred? • How many revisions/hourly rate for those revisions? • Any additional costs or expenses etc.

22. How can I avoid being stiffed? 2. Request Deposits 50% Upfront Across the board the safest thing to do is ask for 50% upfront. This way, even if you are stiffed, you have already generated revenue from the project.

23. How can I avoid being stiffed? 2. Request Deposits Agile Billing: It is sometimes difficult to always find clients who will pay 50% upfront, Agile Billing is a good alternative. Time Outis when the client can place a temporary “stop” one day a week if there are unforeseen hold ups on their end. Cancellation: If the client has paid 50% upfront and their is a cancellation they can ask for a portion of that money back. There is less friction during a cancellation because of this.

24. How can I avoid being stiffed? 3. Clients Surroundings and Character What makes a Bad Client?

25. How can I avoid being stiffed? 3. Clients Surroundings and Character • Does Not Pay • Wants Something for Nothing • Moving Goal Posts

26. How can I avoid being stiffed? 3. Clients Surroundings and Character Extra qualities to be weary of before and during negotiations: • poor communication • being badgered by client • client knows it all • disorganized or emotional • gossips

27. How can I avoid being stiffed? 4. Knowing Ones Risks • Web Designers thrive on constant cash flow • Experience Cannot be Taught • Getting Stiffed • Self Worth