Charging for design projects
12th September 2017
Charging for design projects
12th September 2017
- 3 minute read
"How do you charge for a web design job?" is one of those questions that can often throw up some fairly complex answers, but it is one we try really hard to keep simple. Let’s start with what we do and then we’ll explain why we chose this route.
We have two charging options, the first is our hourly rate option, our second option is a simple quotation system.
So you may now be thinking hang on, two options, surely thats more complicated than just one option, why would you do that? We have two options because like many business we have a number of clients with differing requirements, so we’ve thought lets have two systems and meet that demand. Some clients like to send through a series of requests over several emails, maybe a half a dozen times in a month, sometimes more and trust us to get on with the job. This works because we work on the basis that you should only have to pay us for the work we carry out, which means we don’t have minimum contracts or ongoing monthly fees just in case you ask us to do something.
This approach is great for flexibility and it really helps you stay in control of your costs - you can change direction as much as you like as often as you like and we can react to that very quickly. This can be useful for all sorts of things from updates to an existing system to developing new ideas or projects where the amount of potential work is continually evolving. Generally where we have an established relationship with a client we’ll use this approach and then bill at the end of a month to bring accounts up to date. We always stay in close contact with our clients so everyone is fully aware as we progress as to where things stand.
The second option we have is a simple quote based system. You give us the details of the job and we’ll come back to you with a price. This is the option we use for new projects and where the project parameters are well defined. Because we quote based on the amount of time we think the project is going to take to complete, this is a naturally less reactive option if things change. That said we never want to limit your ability to change your mind, but if you did under this option and the project parameters were to change, we would re-quote for the revised scope.
Projects under the quote option are billed in tranches, at the outset then at milestones we agree on at the beginning of the project, but this doesn’t mean you are committed to the full project cost if the project were to be cut short. If at any stage during the project things had to come to an end, we’d both agree to terminate the project and we’d simply ask to be paid for work up to that point in time.
We want to make it easy for our clients to work with us because we love working for our clients, turning their needs and ideas into reality. We think keeping our charging both simple and flexible means we all end up with more time to spend on the fun stuff, getting on with the job.