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Good pointers for freelance wannabees

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Your Text: Insert Slimies » Insert UBB Code » Close Last Tag \| All Tags UBB Help	Well, I almost always do have an idea of how much time it's going to take. The production part is usually the most time consuming, and even if it isn't, it doesn't hurt to inflate that aspect just a bit and to use that time for any extra wrangling over design. I tend to charge a lot of money per hour because I know I'm not going to charge the client for my time sitting by the window, watching the clouds and thinking. Typically, I'll budget 8 hours of sitting in front of the computer thrashing out as many ugly designs as I can, hopefully generating enough pieces of "concepts" that I can then wrap into a real design. Based on the feedback this generates, and (not including my thinking time), I expect probably no more than 16-24 hours of actual "sitting in front of the computer" design time before I have a concept we can all work with. I'll budget separately for the amount of time it will take to implement this, which I have a formula based on how many individual buttons, scripts, headers etc, I'll need to create. If I have several kinds of fancy Javascript "things" I need to make, I give them each a time based estimate. The design process doesn't stop when implementation starts, it continues throughout the process, with me tweaking buttons and headers, somtimes even colors and such, along the way. Experience has taught me that a full series of templates takes a minimum of 60 hours or so, ading extra time for fancier things. Some sites might turn out to be several different "types" of templates, and I'll budget time for each extra type of template I need to, with the hours slightly less than the first one, assuming they'll be re-using many of the same graphics. I've done this a lot, for so many different kinds of sites it's ridiculous, really. Basically, my formula uses the "how many of each element" calculation, buttons? 60 minutes for the first, 20 minutes for each next one, 4 hours for the scripting. This would mean an 8 button interface, with a mouseover for each button would be 60 minutes plus 15x20 minutes, plus 240 minutes for the scripting, or 600 minutes total, or 10 hours. Headers? Similar math. Then for implementation just step through the entire site, ading 20-30 minutes up to 4-6 hours for each page set that needs doing, you'll end up with a really tight estimate, probably ending in some strange number of minutes (as in 63 hours and 18 minutes for this project! Plus or minus 54 minutes, heh.) Hardly anyone ever argues with an estimate like this, and if you keep track of your time, you can always accelerate the last bits and come in at just that amount of time. Request 50% of the estimated hours paid up front, or maybe seperate the design hours from the implentation hours, and do oe first 50/50%, and then start on the implementation, same process. As always, on jobs that take a long time (calendar time, that is!) make a point of sending them a bill at the end of each month for actual hours worked, this keeps the client and you motivated, and eliminates any concerns you might have over getting paid. Your pal, -doc- [url=http://www.ozones.com/] [img]http://www.ozoneasylum.com/examples/ozoneSIGc.gif[/img] [/url] Loading...
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