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How should I price this project?


foreverhex

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I've just been offered a paid job for doing some php scripting. I've been working with php for a couple of years now and I've done lots of jobs. The problem lies in the fact that I've never charged anyone. The sites have been for friends or close associates. So now I'm in a mini dilemma. What they are needing me to do is. Create a site (basically from scratch, the old coder bail early on) that has:

 

-MySQL work for membership signup and login

-Profile page users

-Friends system with email notifications

-User blogs (add, edit, delete)

-Messaging system with email notifications

-User uploadable galleries (with some GD library I assume)

-Coordinate with CCbill processes

 

So basically it's a membership site where users can upload and maintain pics, blogs, comments, messages and friends. Kinda like a melo MySpace. What do you all think? How much would you charge. Thanks for helping!

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I was thinking more in the $200 - $500 range.

 

I got an offer for a file upload system for $200. While I wouldn't charge as much as SA (maybe $8k or $10k), it's not unreasonable at all to imagine that someone would pay $16,000 for something like that.

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That is a HUGE project!!  Even if you could find all the pieces pre-coded, it would take a lot of work to make everything work harmoneously together - even this would be worth more than $200 - $500. 

 

To help wrap your head around the numbers, think of it in terms of hours - how many hours would it take for you to locate the pieces of pre-made code and select the ones you wanted to use? How much is your time worth to you? Where I live, minimum wage is $10.00 per hour - this is for unskilled labour - so you should expect to make NO LESS than $20.00 per hour.

 

If they want to spend $500.00 and you want to make $20.00 per hour, that gives you 25 hours to get the job done.  Do you honestly think you could get all that accomplished in one weekend?

 

Just out of curiousity, how much time have you already spent on this project googling similar sites, looking for code, etc?

 

 

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pricing a project is hard like when the owner has alot of option or programmer to deal with that project  to be sure that you are not going to loose that client ask the client first how much they can pay some will tell you their price some will not. if they dont give you their price can take some consideration regardless how big it is

> how big is the company (if company)

> how much they can pay you

> how rich they are

> how much they need that

> how long

> who will provide some data needed

etc ... ;D

 

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$500 is REALLY unfair to you. You will be doing a LOT more work...even if you did get all pre-made software (for free) like tippy_102 said.

 

 

I would probably charge about $5,000 for this project, just because I have everything built except for the blogs and CCbill, so everything else can be up and running within about 2-5 hours. BTW...that's $5,000 for the PHP/MySQL programming only, this does not include design and front end stuff like HTML/CSS layout

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The interface alone would be at least 2 or 3 full days of work. Let's say 2. That's 16 hours. Charging only ~$30 that ALREADY sets you in the $500 range, and it doesn't even do anything yet!

 

Considering that you're building this from scratch, I would seriously consider making a DETAILED planning and base your offer on that. Don't forget testing and adaptations after the first submission. With something this big, the chance that the client is immediately completely satisfied is negligible.

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The guy gave me a detailed map of what he wanted. Like I said he had a programmer start the project and then bailed. So the layout is there and the mySql tables are there, some basic scripts. But like you said it'll take me a hour just to figure out where everything is. I put a lot of what you all said into mind. I end up asking him $3500 and now I'm waiting for an answer. Also he is coming to me for upgrades which I can charge him again.

 

For teng84:

> how big is the company (if company)

-They just started, but are expecting the company to get big.

> how much they can pay you

-He won't say, he would rather me give him my rates

> how rich they are

-Meh, not sure.

> how much they need that

-They need the site lots and lots

> how long

-I'm expecting only 2 months for me to get it done.

> who will provide some data needed

-The owner, some of the data is already up... some.

 

Thanks a lot, you have all helped me think more about the value of my skill. I'll keep you all updated.

 

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The reason why i ask you that is because you might not want to loose your client

i have some project small time person but big project i ask them to pay me average

price but like i said small time people or company but then they refuse to pay me that

amount although i offer it to them in very low price. NOW they find for another developer

and luckily but bad for me they found one and they got it (ok ill use my currency here) 40k

while i offer 50k. at the end of month the project is done and the other developer is paid for

40k. NOW my big regret is that i should ask them or level their capability of paying developers Y? and Y?

IF on i accept that project or price the project accordingly i should be the one holding that 40k

but since its not me who do the job i dont get any cents on that month and  next 3 months.

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Yeah, the guy said he invested over $2k already. On what, I'm not sure. But I think the rate I gave him freaked him out. Like you were saying. So he went out and bought a community based php program called dolphin, $100. I think it’s like PHPNuke. LAME! But he still needs me to make the layout fit and do a few custom things. So I still get paid, but more or less in the hundreds instead of the thousands. No one else got the job except a company that charges WAY less. boooo.

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No, what happen is I told him 3500 and I don't think he liked that. lol

 

while compromise is a part of most deals, compromise implies two-way concessions.  you should be working as much on your own terms as his.  just a thought to keep in mind in your future deals, because life can start to be really hellish when you sacrifice your own preferences just to land work.

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