NYCPHP Meetup

[Donald J. Organ IV]

Thanks Mark, everyone that has responded to the post, both on and off the
list, I thank you every bit of information helps.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Pang" <bpang at bpang.com>
To: "NYPHP Talk" <talk at lists.nyphp.org>
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 11:11 AM
Subject: RE: [nycphp-talk] First Big Client


> Mark's advise is very sage.
>
> Other things to consider are what you think they can afford and/or what
> you can afford to do it for and whether or not there is likely to be any
> follow-on work.
>
> To address what you can afford to do it for; i.e. how low can you go;
> consider how it impacts your capacity to do other work that might pay a
> better rate. If you have nothing to do, need the money and have no other
> prospects, doing a project for "not very much money" is a whole lot
> better than doing nothing for no money.
>
> I often am in the position to consider whether or not I will receive any
> additional work from a client when I am pricing initial jobs for them.
> If I am certain that it is a one-off, I will be far less inclined to
> give them any price breaks to secure the business. If there is a good
> chance that there will be more work coming from them, I will want to
> develop the relationship and may consider giving them a lower or more
> competitive price so that I can be a prefered vendor for them.
>
> One forty hour job at $100/hour ($4000) is not as valuable to me as two
> forty hour jobs at $65/hour ($5200) with the prospect for more work.
>
> I have them over a barrel, I will usually give them my top hourly rate,
> because, well, I can. Still, I won't overdo it and ask for $1,000/hour
> because they never truly are over a barrel. There's always someone else
> who can do it for $500/hour.
>
> In considering what they can afford, you have to examine who they are.
> Are they off-broadway actors (notoriously poor) or lawyers (notoriously
> well-to-do). Start-up or well-established? Don't price yourself out of
> their range of affordability.
>
> Of course, if you can get them to divulge their budget, things get a lot
> easier. If not, it can take a very keen sense to arrive at figures that
> both parties are happy with.
>
> Always leave yourself open to discussion and review of the feature sets
> and price. I try not to allow the client to go ala carte with features,
> but often their original requests contain parts of the site that are
> very complex to implement and have little ROI. Identify those things,
> cut them out and give them a revised quote.
>
>
> Sorry for the lengthy reply that doesn't directly address your question.
> :) Hope you/someone finds it useful.
>
>
> Regarding your pricing, you need to start by breaking down the list of
> features into sub-components.
> "Content Management" is way to large to consider on its own.
>
> Next, look at those sub-components and their details, then estimate how
> long it might take you to implement (err on the high side, you'll be
> glad you did later after returning to this list to seek additional
> guidance).
>
> Add that all up, multiply by your targeted hourly rate and add 10%-15%
> (this is easy to knock-off later in negotiations without feeling like
> you're getting ripped off).
>
>
> If I were to price this out (not knowing what's involved in "and many
> other features...") I would be solidly in the 5-figures range
> ($10,000-$99,000), maybe more. After all, you did say it was "custom." :)
>
> Brian
>
> >
> > Here are some [probably obvious] thoughts:
> >
> > I would suggest thinking _not_ in terms of functionality (e.g. Content
> > Management, Groupware, etc.) but rather value.  Bluntly stated, what
will
> > the _output_ of all this stuff do for your client.  How much money
> will they
> > save?  How many more prospects will it uncover?  How much faster will it
> > increase their cash cycle?  In the perfect world, your invoice should be
> > only slightly less than the value all of these combined - the delta
> being a
> > function of client management...remember (pardon the crude analogy) the
> > difference between rape and making love is salesmanship!
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Ok i ahve been developing PHP web application for a couple fo years
> now but
> > they have always been on a volunteer or personal basis.  Now I have a
> client
> > that wants a custom web application and I am not sure how much to charge
> > them.  So of the features that this web application included are:
> >
> > Contact Management
> > Personal Appointment book as well as global appointment book
> > Resume management
> > meeting management
> > admin features(Such as adding new users)
> > Sending out template based email to well over 100 individuals
> > dynamic word document creation
> > and many other features...
> >
> > This system is replacing other application such as Goldmine, resume
> grabber,
> > and will also eliminate many steps such as sending emails in outlook.
> >
> > if anyone has an idea on how much something like this goes for please
> let me
> > know.
>
> <snipped a few lines here and there>
>
>
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