Topic: Need help with round about pricing...

I have a friend that asked me needs some help. She is completing her masters and has an idea for an online psychology website. She would like the website to be in flash and involve certain things. First, she would like users to be able to log in with individual usernames and passwords, and have their information tracked throughout the year. She would also like their to be interactive chat and video to allow for interaction between the therapist and the user. She would also like the users to be able to choose from different music and inspirational media.

Sounds good? THen she said she needs it in 2 days!

Yeah right!!!!
I said NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

She has no clue what she was asking for...she also has no money. However, I would like to give her a roundabout breakdown of the costs of setting something like this up. She would like to include this in her thesis statement. Can anyone help me with some information on the things involved in a site like this...and approximate costs.

I figure aroundf $40,000 (u.s.)..but thats a complete guess.

Can anyone help me?????

thanx in advance

Well phortay I'm sure the Guru's will be around soon, but [my take] if I could get $40,000 us from someone for a website...I'd retire next month!! It seems like the most difficult thing you are going to deal with is the video conferencing aspect. But I don't think that will put her anywhere NEAR $40,000!

And remember, if she wants video conferencing both ways, then each of her customers are going to need webcams (I'm not sure what the demographics are on the ratio of [psycho:having-webcams] is but I don't think it'll be in her favor). And let her know that body language is a large part of her job (if she is a responsible psychologist!)

Maybe tell her that you can whup together a home [ 1 ] page for her in 2 days, but again she'll have to wait longer than that for domain name propogation and the like. Sound professional about the limits of the internet and BY GOD study up on things!

It sounds like you have quite the hike in front of you when it comes to websites and bidding! STUDY UP FRIEND! And shit if you can get $40,000 out of her, contract out the entire job to someone else and pay yourself what is left! Chances are you'd be pocketing about 85% of it for simply sitting on your duff. If she is stupid enough not to do some research about what she is paying for, then she well deserves a shafting IMHO!

Hmm. $40,000 may seem like a lot to some of you, but that would even fit as one of the bigger websites I've done. Lots of websites cost into 6 figures easy, especially if they need a lot of back-end database work, as this one must. I'd say security would be a *huge* issue on this, there's special laws for privacy as they relate to medical concerns, and it seems like she'd end up with a lot of sensitive information. This means that the user/login section isn't just a quick hack, but potentially a major operation. AND she waants that interface to all work in flash too, hoo. The video conferencding aspect, that's interesting, could be fun to try and work something out for that.

I'd say a site like this that works and is legal could maybe be done for about $20-25,000, but with the flash programming, it could easily hit that $40k mark and go beyond it. More preceise than this I couldn't say, I'd probably want to spend $10,000 worht of time just doing a pre-study and a specification for it first, after which it could end up costing $200k instead.

Thumper! You can't retire on $40,000. It may seem like a lot at first, but believe me, you could piddle away 40 grand in a month or two, easy. (I could piddle it away even faster!)

Your pal, -doc-

I'd have to agree with doc on this one.
Look at it this way, if you run a company, all you charge has to cover taxes, equipment, your software licenses, your salary etc.

Based on all these factors, it's common to charge around $70 - $100/hour in order to cover all expenses and get a salary out of it.

Divide $40k into 80 and you get 500 hours, that's 12,5 40 hour weeks.

Now, take a look at all the work involved in a site like this:
- You will need a solid requirement specification, that'll take you about 2 weeks at least since the client don't know anything about web and you'll have to do all the work.

- You will need reasearch on all the legal aspects on storage & handling of medical journals, at least a week or two (reserve time for eventual application for permits).

- You will need to design the database and the logic to meet all the demands, probably another 2 weeks.

- You will need to design a rock solid athorisation system, including SSL or similar, probably around a weeks work.

- You will need to get licenses & perhaps hardware for the video conferance thing, that's $$ & probably around 2 weeks go set it up and get it running.

- You will have to work out all the visual design with the client, probably 1-2 weeks here as well.

- You have to get a host that supports all this stuff, a week more?

Now what have we got?
Low count 10 weeks so far, high count 12 weeks of work...

What's left, 1-2 weeks of the 12,5 available on $40k
In this time you have to code and test the complete site, and get it live...

As Doc said, this is estimates based on a first time job of this magnitude, but I would not be surprised if you broke the $40k barrier (depending on your prices of course).
/Dan


-{ a vibration is a movement that doesn't know which way to go }-

And along come the gurus!

Heh...I've never done a site like this I guess I'll just put a sock in it and withdrawl into my hole!

Thank you for the responses...I am truly sorry it took so long to reply...I just finished my finals...but better late than never. After talking to other people...I quickly realized that the project is huge and just a cost analysis would cost quite a bit...

anywho...thanx for the replies...this is actually a really great section of the asylum