Only one of the clients I've spoken to in the last couple of years was ok with hourly rates. Maybe it's the mix of clients I see, but the rest all see charging by the hour as something of an open cheque. Maybe they've all had renovatoins done in their houses and seen the costs blow out that way. They want to have a cap on what they are going to pay.
So I work out the number of hours I think it's going to take, add a big margin for error, then add another margin for error. I have had no problem getting 50% on acceptance of my proposal, 40% on launch of the site, and the client retains 10% until 90 days after site launch - a period I call the warranty period. I found that helped them feel happy with paying the 40% on launch, rather than saying "yes thats nearly complete, but can you just do this or do that and we'll call it done." They know they have some of my money to hold over my head as an incentive to get all those little tweaks finished. For my part, 10% is small enough an amount that i can walk away from it if it becomes really necesary. Like for example if the client keeps coming up with one reason after another to keep me hanging around doing stuff for him under the original contract. (something that hasn't happened in this business, but did happen frequently to me when I was running a telemarketing call centre business years ago) I am currently working on a project with many more milestones than "start" and "launch" and "warranty end" - it's got about 10 milestones with payments attached, but I think one of the clincher deals was allowing the client to retain part of the fee for 90 days after launch, so they can feel sure I'm going to hang around to help them phase it all in and get it bedded down. In all these cases, it's unnecessary because I WANT to hang around. I WANT to be getting more business from them, but they dont know that. At that point, I'm just another salesperson telling them a story. The point of allowing them to retain some of the money is that they dont have to figure out whether I'm like their carpenter doing their house add-on - do a bit now and come back next month to do a bit more - or whether I'm going to stay on their job and get it finished for them. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia Certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer AFP Webworks http://afpwebworks.com ColdFusion, PHP, ASP, ASP.NET hosting from AUD$15/month On 12/30/05, Aaron Rouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I used to do this, did it in 1/4s or 1/3s depending on the jobs. However > at > some point in the past couple of years I have switched to strictly hourly > rates. I think once I started getting so busy, one of my clients is > essentially a full time job at around 40 hours per week, is when I > switched > to strictly hourly rates. > > On 12/29/05, Michael E. Carluen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Les, interesting point on progress payments. I'm curious as to how and > > how > > many enforce billing based on progress.... ie 1/3 work done, 33.3% of > job > > billed/paid. > > > > Thanks, > > Michael > > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Logware (www.logware.us): a new and convenient web-based time tracking application. Start tracking and documenting hours spent on a project or with a client with Logware today. Try it for free with a 15 day trial account. http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=67 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:227966 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
