Quote: (11-13-2013 01:39 AM)LouieG Wrote:
Nearly all my projects are flat priced (meaning we agree on a number and that’s all my company gets, unless the client decides to expand scope). I find the flat price by assigning an hourly rate to my contractors’ work, estimating how many hours they’ll spend on the project, and multiplying that out.
Twice, I had a client come to me without a set budget and without a clear scope. In those cases I insisted on billing hourly against a monthly retainer. But generally clients require flat pricing.
And, even hourly clients want (understandably) hours estimates for each deliverable. Blowing those estimates will tank a client relationship, fast.
Earlier this year I had a messy breakup with an hourly client due poor estimates on my part, among other things.
Pricing really deserves a post of its own—gonna add that to the list.
I did this for ~10 months from Malaysia, working almost exclusively with American clients.
But not all clients area equal. I have clients now who expect regular, in-person meetings. Though it’s a time sink and ties me to NYC, they pay rates that justify that expectation.
I do have the flexibility to take lengthy ‘working holidays.’ All told, I’ve spent more than a month abroad this year.
Thanks for the reply.
I'll try out both hourly and fixed pricing. I can see how there can be errors in estimation on how long a project can take. I'm guessing you've had at least one situation where you barely made anything due to a project taking longer than expected.
You did mention some dev houses where the owners aren't very involved with the day to day of things. Is that your long term goal?
Long term we want to build our agency up and focus on other business ventures while that runs relatively hassle free. I'm sure this can be done by hiring proper managers as well as tight systems creation. I know of some large SEO agencies that are present in multiple cities.