--- In [email protected], Martin Redington <mar...@...> wrote:
> With a fixed quote, you're taking all the risk of any over-runs, no matter
> what the cause of them,
I would like to come out strongly in favor of fixed pricing. I've been
consulting for over 10 years now and that's how I've been doing it. One line
item on the invoice, one price.
Granted, I once spent 3 months on a project that should have taken 1 month.
Recently, I spent almost 6 months on a project that should have taken 3 and
that I haven't even priced using my regular 100 EUR an hour rate as a base.
These overruns are an exception, though. I try to take on very challenging
projects that allow me to price using what the project is worth to the client,
rather than the effort I think it will take. Then I adjust down depending on
the client's budget. This is how I can sometimes make 10,000 EUR in a week or
35,000 EUR in a month.
I almost never have a written specification to work from. I'm either given
vague requirements or have to pull them out of my clients. I make sure there's
enough margin built into the price to account for uncertainty.
Think this doesn't work? Take a look at my LinkedIn profile and
recommendations. Clients love me and I love them back, going the extra mile
when necessary and not haggling over minor feature requests. I can afford to be
accommodating, my profit margin allows it!
I think it's crucial to do excellent work and be the "go to" man for hard
problems, e.g. "Can you reverse-engineer a chunk of LabView for us" or "can you
fix this badly architected iPhone app in a day"?
> 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.
I don't recall having fired a client yet, although I did have to turn away work
recently. It's important to have good rapport with your clients and make sure
not to do business with unreasonable prospects.
Cheers, Joel
---
http://twitter.com/wagerlabs
http://es.linkedin.com/joelreymont
