If it's a straightforward work-for-hire arrangement (as opposed to white-labeling, or a profit-share, or something), my advice would be to offer them a time estimate, but on anything other than the most trivial jobs, only to work on a time and materials basis (i.e. an hourly rate).
With a fixed quote, you're taking all the risk of any over-runs, no matter what the cause of them, and if your payment is dependent on a satisfactory deliverable, you're vulnerable if the client start behaving unreasonably for whatever reason, or if you decide that you need to fire them. On an hourly rate, and a reasoned estimate and project plan, you can demonstrate to the client that you're making the expected progress (hopefully), and if things go awry for whatever reason, you can each cut your losses, with you getting paid for your time spent so far, and the client keeping the code that you've written for them. If at some point the spec changes, or they decide that they'd like you to spend time polishing some particular feature, then you can estimate the additional time required, and they can see straight away how much it will cost. One other tip: don't be tempted to drop your prices or underestimate the job to win the business. If the client can't pay your rate (assuming it's not unreasonable), or doesn't really have enough money for what they want, you'll be better off just to let it go. On Fri, May 7, 2010 at 2:10 AM, Ben Liong <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi, > > I recently received a request-for-quotation from a company to develop > a set of mac / ipad games (educational purposes). I'm curious if you > guys have any advice in terms of pricing of tailor made project / > software. What kinds of things should I take into consideration when > determining s price? Are time-to-implement and value of my time the > only factor here? > > Thanks in advance. > > Regards, > Ben Liong. > > Share and enjoy. > Sent from my iPhone > > -- http://www.mildmanneredindustries.com/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ MacSB email guidelines: http://tinyurl.com/2g55d6 Use MacSB-Talk for off topic messages: http://groups.google.com/group/macsb-talk Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/macsb/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/macsb/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
