Re: FLASH: OT: Rates

[John Croteau]

Hi all,


A few notes in addition to Marc's.

Billable hours should be for productive work that excludes unnecessary

work and reworking caused by your mistakes or lack of knowledge that one

could reasonably expect you to have. Normal work in progress changes as

you develop your work are not mistakes. You should raise your rates

rather than charge for 30 minute hours.

If you bid a flat rate for a project and it takes you longer than

expected then you should 'eat' the extra hours and costs needed to

complete the job. If you are billing by the hour you should bill for

every hour that is reasonable. If you rediscover the wheel and find a

better way of doing things then there is no reason you should not charge

for those longer hours you spent on the current job even if the next

time you will be able to do the same task in a fraction of the time

unless it was something that you or your client would expect you to

already know.

Reasonable administration hours may be billed especially on larger

projects but possibly at a different rate.


Unbilled educational hours whether on a job or in a class are the normal

cost of doing business. Your rate should reflect this cost. The more

state of the art your work the higher this cost is likely to be.


> Here's the approach that has been working for me.  I make an estimate as to

> how long the job will take me. I discuss with my client (in as specific,

> technical terms as they're capable of understanding) exactly what I propose

> to do and how long it will take.  I multiply that by my hourly rate (which

> I have disclosed to them) and give them a quote.  I let them know that my

> quote is what they can expect to be charged unless it takes less time than

> I expected.  I also let them know that if their specs change it will

> probably require extra time on my part and, therefore, more money on their

> part.

> Sometimes it turns out I was wrong in my estimate.  In one situation, I

> thought I had an easy way to do what the client wanted, but my method

> didn't work.  I did not charge for the time I spent floundering, looking

> for documentation that didn't exist, and phoning other Flash developers.  I

> put those hours in the invoice but subtracted them from the charges,

> letting the client know I had worked hard for him but wasn't going to

> charge for fruitless labor (of course it was fruitful to me in terms of

> increasing my experience and skills).

> A different kind of situation has been where a client wants ongoing

> consultation, for example, to enhance some pre-exisiting content with

> Flash.  I try to give some rough idea of how long it takes to accomplish

> various things in Flash, and I give the client regular reports on how much

> of my time they've consumed, but the bill is pretty much for the number of

> hours I've worked.

> I don't charge for the first consultation (usually pretty brief) and I let

> the client know that.  I don't charge for administrative time (tallying

> charges, sending status reports to the client). What I charge for is the

> time I spend doing Flash for someone. I always let the client know what I'm

> doing and what they're being charged for.  Clients have such varying ideas

> about contract work that too much communication is far better than too little!


-----------                               -----------------------

John Croteau

croteauerols [dot] com (mailto:croteauerols [dot] com)

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