Steven Sacks wrote: > You need to charge for time spent babysitting the client. That's billable > time.
Absolutely true, with one kicker: a fixed bid. A lot of clients want to shift the risk to you, the freelancer, so they ask for a fixed-price bid rather than an hourly rate. My advice is to be very, very careful with these. My experience shows that clients rarely, if ever, know just what they need. They will give you an idea, but there will inevitably be extras that simply must be done. Initial estimates of the amount of work needed are almost always off by a factor of at least two, often up to a factor of 10. If you underbid one of these contracts, you could spend a year to earn $20,000. Be up front with the client in this case. You are bidding on the project as it is currently designed. Changes and additions will be billed extra. You must do this to survive, or your client will bury you with feature creep. Be positive about it, of course. When they request an additional feature, say "Sure, we can do that. It will cost you $4,000 and add two weeks to the schedule. I'll get started on it just as soon as I get an amendment to the contract." Also, on a fixed-bid contract, get at least 25% up front. If you bill only on milestones, can you live off your savings until they approve the prototype, or the alpha? I can't--I'm lucky that my wife has a well-paying job. Cordially, Kerry Thompson _______________________________________________ Flashcoders mailing list Flashcoders@chattyfig.figleaf.com http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
