
Ask HN: If you're an independent contractor, how do you charge clients? - mlLK
I'm still a student and while I'm not professionally employed I do a lot of work as an independent contractor/freelancer. The work is pretty straight-forward; Photoshop this, clean up this page, make this form work, layout this like that etc. I'm on to my third client-project (I've managed to complete a project per month) and am at a complete loss in how to reassure that I'm amply getting compensated for the work I do. Most of the time the client will want a quote up-front, which is fine, but I feel like most of the work I do happens about mid-way through the project once they've decided upon a layout and I manage to get their layout working in a browser. This is when they nit-pick away and I spend more time in Thunderbird than in my editor. If I were to write up a formal-contract for the type of work I do what is the best way to go about this?
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turtle3
$X to make website match a given layout/image in FF and IE, where X is based
on your approximation of difficulty after reviewing the provided material.
$Y/hour for each modification after the initial layout is complete, where $Y
is 2 or 3 times what seems a reasonable rate to you.

This will do a few things: 1) Cause the customer to get their act together up
front, because they would rather only pay $X. 2) Minimize your annoyance at
the back and forth, because you are making what you feel like is a lot.

Mostly you want to avoid getting into the $Y/hour area, because it just sucks,
mostly. Don't be afraid to set $Y to $50 or $75. You -want- it to be a
deterent as much as a way of making money. Also, if you don't set that rate
high, they won't value your work. If you are willing to do it for $10/hour,
you are barely a step above a fast food worker, and will be treated as such.
By setting a high rate, you say: 1) You know you have skills that not everyone
does. 2) You value your time, which implies you will value theirs. 3) They
better take requests seriously, or they will pay for it.

If you really want to work for $10 an hour, go ahead, but you are undervaluing
your work, and it won't be maintainable.

(Note: My comment takes into account the current $10-$30 range the poster
mentions in a comment below.)

~~~
mlLK
Thank you very much. . .you reminded me how I used to approach this when I was
younger but not on my hands and knees begging for an extra addition in my
portfolio. Your tone has inspired enough confidence in my to write up a strong
selling-point given Web2.0 ever extending lexicon. I should just define my
rate according to the technology I use and the trends they're making into the
business sector. Thank you.

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jhickner
If you're going to do an up-front quote, it's important to have an agreed-upon
task list with your client. You don't have to go overboard on it, but if you
don't have anything written down it's too easy for the client to sneak work
onto your plate.

The case you mentioned where the client nitpicks the design once it's built is
pretty common. It's a natural thing to do when there are no constraints on the
project.

I find it helpful to have an agreed-upon maximum period of time that will be
spent on a design review, to be conducted _at the end_ of the project. If the
client asks for too many tweaks and you go over that agreed-upon chunk of
time, you start billing hourly.

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thinkcomp
I would think it depends on the project. If it's estimated to be above
$1,000.00 I would typically require a contract and a fixed fee. Otherwise,
it's probably best to do things by the hour.

------
davidw
Sounds like you should charge per hour rather than on a fixed-bid basis.

~~~
mlLK
Right of which I was considering, so opposed to quoting a price quote an
amount of time at an hourly rate. . .while most of the work is pretty easy
ussually in Photoshop, CSS, XHTML, PHP, or Javascript. . .could you suggest
how much a Senior in college should be charging for these services on an
hourly basis?

I'm guessing somewhere in between $10-$30/hr

~~~
davidw
You charge "what the market will bear". Definitely towards the higher end of
that range, maybe more depending on where you live.

~~~
mlLK
I guess I should note that given my last two projects I would be coming out
around $12,000+ a year, which is hardly survivable.

