Pricing questions - First time Freelancing web designer

Hello,
YAY!
I got my first web design project. This is for a friend, and I dont intend to charge full price, but frankly I dont know what to charge.
Basically this friend is a Psychologist and the project sounds easy. Basically a 5-page site - a simple template, and she will provide the text.
She wants me to register the URL, get the hosting set up, and put the site together. I have my own reseller account so basically the hosting will be free for her -or I can charge a nominal fee. build it into the cost. I dont know if I should charge her a hourly rate or just one flat price for everything, but the entire site should probably take a day to do.
I figure that I want to do a few of these to build up my portfolio and go from there. And since she is a friend, my thinking is that I wont gouge her with the price or anything. But I really dont know what would be a fair price. What do you suggest? She has another friend who is talking about getting a website and her husband also has a small business but no site.. So this could be the beginning of something..
Oh another question. How much space should I allot for a site like this? I was thinking 100 MB is more than enough. 5 web pages using the same template - some photos - maybe one flash animation - but that is it..
Thanks much
Rothie





Last edited by Rothie : 12-07-2008 at 05:39 PM.

Only you know what you should be charging. I've paid as little as $50 for a design, and as much as $2000 for one. You know the quality of your work, so set your price at what you're comfortable asking for it.
As for the space issue - Also keep in mind that emails take up space on a user's account. You never know if you're going to get a user who receives 800 spam mails a day and never deletes them.
In most cases, though, I would say that 100MB is definitely more than enough for a site like this.





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Kevin CacklerThat Script Guy, LLC
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Hi Rothie.
Its up to you on how you want to charge your friend. You can go by hourly or a flat fee. It all depends on how much you value your time, and the quality of your work. You are the designer, you sure know your quality.
On the hosting part, 100MB of space would be definitely more than enough. Its all up to you to offer the hosting for free or to charge her for that. Just take note that, you still need to answer or help her if she has any questions regarding the hosting part.

First talk to your friend carefully about what exactly she needs. (You'll be surprise what you **will** miss ).
When you have that, estimate (don't underestimate tasks) how much time/effort in term of man-hour it would take you to complete the project. This is the "effort hours"
Ask yourself how much you value your hour work, in term of US/hour. Do a multiplication. Now you have a number.
Now, ask yourself how many calendar day you'd need to do that "x" man-hour work. When you're starting up don't expect you could be working on the same thing 8+ hours a day. You must be conscious about "effort" and "duration" of a project, they are both in "days" but quite different. This is for you to avoid giving your customers a false expectation on deadlines. This is very important.
Customers will understand that you are new, and it takes longer for you to do things etc.. but when you miss a deadline it's always bad for business (theirs, and consequently yours).
Now you know how much you need to charge (your rate times how many effort hours you need). And you could also give her a deadlines on how quick you can deliver!
Good luck with your venue.





__________________
ML

If you're a new designer doing your first project, a flat $300-500 fee may be a good idea. It may or may not end up being particularly good for you on this particular job, but it seems like a reasonable amount to charge for a moderately simple web site.
-mike





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I would suggest you to charge a flat fee for the work. 100 MB is enough for this type of site.





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It depends on the quality of work demanded by your friend.
The space and bandwidth won't be a problem for you. Just the nominal $8 for the domain.
You mentioned a flash work as well. As well as designing some images.
Seems basic stuff. But you would know better. I'd say, go with about $100. BTW, ask your friend first...

As your doing this job for a friend this may not apply but for design jobs this is what I do:
1. Get a brief from a client, talk to them, understand the brief, go through various scenarios.
2. Sit down list the stages of the design.
3. Go into detail of each stage and the process involved plus what issues may arise during it.
4. Allocated a realistic amount of time for each stage.
5. Multiply the total amount of time needed for the website by the hourly rate I require.
This is then the figure I quote. Don't forget on top of this price should be hosting, domain names, any images you need to buy and any other costs you will incur etc etc.
Good Luck

Remember that while you may not make much money at first, it is a fantastic way to get business going if you charge your first few customers a low rate to build a portfolio. Once you have the initial projects under your belt, you will have two things:
1) Word of mouth advertising working for you (for free!)
2) Examples of past work to justify your fee.
As for a number, I am more on the coding side of things so I can't really give you an accurate quote. Hope this helps.

If it's your first cliënt project, and it's for a friend; why don't you consider doing the job for $1 and put that dollar away somewhere. Then when you are a couple of years behind you, you can allways look at the dollar that started it all.
And just like "tathompson" allready mentioned, you allways get some good coming out of your first (well delivered) job.
Good luck.

Congratulations!
You could look at your hourly fee you normally get in your normal full time job and increase it by about 10% and then estimate the hours which you have already done and then times the hourly by the hours, then add a few hours on top of that for communication and updates.. Then give them the flat fee. One thing you should also do is let your friend know what updates will cost later up front, so as to not surprise them later when they ask you for updates. This may not be neccessary for this first job but definately for future clients. I have learned that being up front with as many things as possible in the beginning can save you from many headaches later on.