Need help with prices

Hi all,

I've just been asked by a design company based in where I live to help them out as they're a bit over loaded with work at the moment.

They asked me what price I would charge them for a 1-page design coded tableless CSS.

To be honest, I've never done much work for people that aren't friends / family so I'm not sure what to charge.

What do you think?

Cheers,

Nath.

Up your price for a logo design based company. However seeing as it is "temp" work i wouldnt raise it to high.

I am not to sure what you charge usually, and it also depends on the complexity of the layout etc.

these jobs usually come out to a couple hundred $$. for small scale projects like this there's no sense in applying a full scale design process complete with multiple phases, rounds and revisions because there just isn't that much to cover to warrent all the time that will cost.

when i get jobs like these, it's usually 1 concept, 1 or 2 rounds and the buildout. a lot of the creative brainstorming that drives prices up isn't here so it's mostly technical work - just the physical making of it.

i have a mixed method of pricing. i follow an equation:

quote = hours x (rate+premium)

quote represents the numbr i give
hours represents my estimated timeline. if they ask for any kind of change the price autmatically changes though and i apply an hourly charge for anything outside the original dsignated deal
rate represents my hours worth
premium represents any kind of premium they're looking for IE. insanely short deadline, highest quality of work/creativity/features etc.

example:

$1200 = 40 x 30 -> 20/hour+10premium

in this case i'd quote $1200 because i expect the project to take rouhgly 40 hours. at my standard 20/hour fee it'd come to $800. in this case i threw on a 3 day time line, which has me working 13 hours a day so i threw on a $10 hour premium for all the overtime.

as long as the project scope didn't change, $1200 would be fine. now if halfway through i was asked to scrap my header and create some kind of hpto collage instead i'd charge the $20 hourly fee for the collage work on top of my original quote.

a simple 1 page design and code wouldn't take 40 hours, so don't use that $1200 example as a basis for starting grounds. when the project is this small, odds are very high the complexity of the design is going to be low, so it might only take 1 day 8-10 hours to design then dependign on coding ability an hour or two to code and test.

Awesome read dereklapp

Indeed, thankyou derek, I really appreciate it Any other opinions also appreciated.

honestly, i'd just recommend and simple details analysis (talking to yourself about what the design will include detailwise - tough metal textures, flast cssable colours, stock photos, tough custom graphics etc) to come up with a rough hour estimate then just do the hours x rate option.

picking a rate is the hard part. rates are all relative to commercial experience and the commerical level of your customer. i've been toying with the web for over 5 years, but i only have a couple commercial projects under my name, the rest were all internal/personal/school and don't count towards that. it's like saying you're an experience auto-mechanic because you've changed your own oil situation.

at 15 i'd be suprised if you have more than a job or two under your belt that weren't internet only paypal deals because at 15 it's just impossible to understand this job well enough - there's so much more to it than people give it credit for - so i'd stick to an entry level figure. stick to something around $10. even if the number is low, you don't want to look greedy/egotistical until you have the clients/experience to back up what you're saying. even i you have tons of inernet paypal clients you can't just throwdown with the design firms downtown and expect to stay afloat, so it's better to stay a little low at first so someone can at least afford to take a chance on you.

To be really professional you should be telling them that your pricing is dependant on the depth of the entire project, the type of client, budget constraints etc. Let them know you have an hourly rate of $XX, and give them a rough idea of how long it would take you to design and code a "standard" page. Then forecast how long a complex page will take.

In all your dealings don't fix yourself to a set price, until you have the experience you will probably get the quoting wrong, and lose out. Give them time estimates based on each individual project design brief. Don't fix a quote.

This sounds like a great opportunity for you. Congrats!