"Shane McBride" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I was wondering what other PHP people charge to write PHP?
There's no magic answer. And no offense, but if you categorize building
business solutions delivered via the internet as "writing PHP" then your
services probably shouldn't be priced at the higher end of the spectrum.
There are so many factors - size of project, complexity, reusability of
project components, turnaround time, your reputation, your speed, geography,
etc. And there are many ways to price a project. We use a combination of
flat rate pricing, estimates with a cap, hourly rates, retainer arrangements
and some more creative terms depending on another long list of factors.
As a PHP programmer and COO of a development and consulting shop, the
emphasis on hourly rate is something that really amazes me. Not all
programmers are created equal. A lot of clients don't recognize that. Some
mistakenly believe that a $120/hr. programmer is 20% more productive than a
$100/hr. programmer. Yet others think that a $200/hr. programmer must be
twice as good as a $100/hr. programmer. I find that there is *no*
correlation between hourly rate and the quality, productivity and value of a
programmer. Sure, in other non_knowledge_based occupations, there may be a
correlation, but in our biz I don't see one. Some say "you get what you pay
for", but b/c this industry is new there are a lot of unscrupulous
developers out there talking with naive uneducated clients. This is a
dangerous mix. We've talked to a number of prospective clients who were
charged $100,000+ for projects we could have done for $5,000. I couldn't
sleep at night if we gouged clients like that and in the long run I think
gouging clients will come back to bite you. We try to emphasize the total
cost to the client along with the benefits of our proposed solutions. We
try to state these benefits in terms of time savings, exposure, value-added
capabilities, revenue and process improvement. When you can put what you
can bring to the table in these terms the hourly rate becomes less critical
and it makes it easier to compete with inferior competitors that compete on
price alone.
So, in general what should you charge based on your skills, experience and
the types of things you are building? At a mimimum you should charge enough
to cover the cost of your operation taking into account the risk of not
staying fully utlized and adding on enough to make an acceptable amount of
profit. If after arriving at that number it seems that your target market
can't support that rate, reassess your strategy. As a rule of thumb, a
consulting biz needs to charge 2.5 - 3 times the hourly rate payed to its
employees. If you're a one person operation, you might think you need to
charge less, but I wouldn't look at it that way. Unless you have clients
breaking your door down and your clients aren't aware that there *are*
others like you, you'll probably have to spend a significant amount of
non-billable time dealing with running the business, doing marketing, sales
and other business functions. And if you're alternative is working as an
employee of another company and earning a steady paycheck (unless you just
don't want to work for anyone else) you should plan on at least making
enough to earn more than this alternative.
If I was trying to gauge my value I would probably start low, build up word
of mouth, client referrals and long term relationships and then increase my
rates gradually over time if the market allows you to do so. In my area a
green PHP programmer working part time might be able do contract work for
$15 an hour while a seasoned guru might be able to command $150 an hour.
Over time your programming skills, productivity and business knowledge
should continuously increase. As a result your margins should increase,
even if your so called "hourly rate" remains flat. Unless of course you
hire other people. That may make your operation much more complex and
difficult to manage than you may think. Plus, any development firm that
hires a PHP programmer is reducing the pool of PHP programmers available to
my company and I just can't have that. <grin>
--
Steve Werby
COO
24-7 Computer Services, LLC
Tel: 804.817.2470
http://www.247computing.com/
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