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Geek Culture / How much should I charge?

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19
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Joined: 26th Nov 2004
Location: Winnipeg,Canada
Posted: 31st Mar 2008 05:25
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Hello everyone,

Recently, I've done 2 slide shows complete with menus, transitions, sub titles, and all the other bells and whistles that can fit into one. Now the person I did this for wants be to tell them how much they owe me for the work...Now tbh, I have no idea what to say...I mean I don't want to over charge, afterall, the work itself is simple considering its a slideshow..almost anyone can make one. However, I did spend quite a bit of time on it and in all modesty, I can say it's of good quality. Should I simply ask for a price per hour of work? Or some other method of determining a price? Anyone else ever made money this way?

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Xenocythe
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Posted: 31st Mar 2008 05:28
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Ask him his budget so you can calculate accordingly to your hours. That's what I usually do.

3.11 We do not tolerate posts made for the purpose of putting down another forum member, group of members, religion, our company, our staff or any of our moderators, past or present.
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 31st Mar 2008 05:42
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How long did you put in on the project / what is he using the project for / like xeno said how much is he putting into whatever this slideshow is for?

MISoft Studios - Silver-Dawn

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bitJericho
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Posted: 31st Mar 2008 07:13 Edited at: 31st Mar 2008 07:28
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Quote: "I mean I don't want to over charge, afterall, the work itself is simple considering its a slideshow..almost anyone can make one. However, I did spend quite a bit of time on it and in all modesty, I can say it's of good quality. Should I simply ask for a price per hour of work? Or some other method of determining a price? Anyone else ever made money this way?"


Honestly, don't sell yourself short. I've seen subpar work go for a lot of money, it all depends on how much they're willing to spend.

I personally would charge 40+ bucks an hour for any such type of project.

Remember after taxes that doesn't total a whole lot.

If they balk at the number, tell them you'd be happy to offer a discount since you did not discuss pricing beforehand. But do it only if they say it's too much, as I've come to know first hand they look at you funny if you offer a discount and they thought the original price was perfectly reasonable.

But I can't stress enough, charge high, way high, and bring the price down for them if needed.

You don't want to be too cheap, or they might end up not being all that impressed. I know it sounds crazy My mother taught english classes for a while in a foreign country. She wasn't making much money at it so she decided she'd double the price and call it quits if no one showed. She ended up having a full class because of it!

A person who pays a lot of money for something sees the quality in it, will even blindly ignore the faults. If someone pays very little, all they think about is how cheap it was

And I know when I tell people this they make excuses as to why they shouldn't charge so much. "I'm a student" or "I'm a rookie". Those are excuses people make when they don't want to succeed.

I guarantee if you charge a lot the people who payed you will tell their friends how awesome your work was, and you'll probably get a few more people willing to pay the premium for your hard work.

I gave this advice to drewG on a project he was working on and he actually got repeat business from his customer as well.


Hurray for teh logd!
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jinzai
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Posted: 31st Mar 2008 07:50 Edited at: 31st Mar 2008 07:58
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Jerico2day, that's a nice bit of sound advice.

Like AgentDink and Xenocythe, I'm more interested in the final use of the products. Is this for a presentation, or is it his vacation photos? Is he using his own resources, or deeper ones that stand to benefit from the use of the product?

Still, I almost always low-ball myself right out of any compensation at all, that's very easy to do. All you have to do is what Jerico2day said...make an excuse, or otherwise qualify your talent.
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19
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Posted: 31st Mar 2008 22:54
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thx for the advice guys As for the use of the product, they're just vacation and wedding photos they want to use to show family and friends as well as burn multiple times and give away to family and friends. As for time, I put roughly 4 to 5 hours in it in total, so that's not that much really.

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Virtual X
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Posted: 31st Mar 2008 23:26
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Personally, I would never charge per hour, give them a set price based on their needs and the work you do, that way it doesn't matter how long you take and they don't start to think 'Hey, he's taking too long, maybe he's trying to rack-up the cost', so give them a set price as each job will be different.

It's more professional instead of per hour, I would never work with someone who charges per hour.
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bitJericho
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Posted: 31st Mar 2008 23:33 Edited at: 31st Mar 2008 23:34
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Quote: "Personally, I would never charge per hour, give them a set price based on their needs and the work you do, that way it doesn't matter how long you take and they don't start to think 'Hey, he's taking too long, maybe he's trying to rack-up the cost', so give them a set price as each job will be different.

It's more professional instead of per hour, I would never work with someone who charges per hour."


I wouldn't say "it's 40 dollars an hour and I spent 5 hours". I would just calculate it out and tell them flatly it's 200 bucks. I'd guess at how many hours it would take if you didn't know. In some industries it's acceptable to charge by the hour, like computer repair. Generally av removal or spyware removal is a flat fee.


Quote: "It's more professional instead of per hour, I would never work with someone who charges per hour."


Anyways, regarding that comment, that's usually not the case. Most people are happy to pay by the hour.


Hurray for teh logd!
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GatorHex
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Posted: 31st Mar 2008 23:38 Edited at: 31st Mar 2008 23:40
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Normaly agree a price upfront so everyone knows where they stand. I wouldn't take less than £10/$20 per hour for any one off job but if they want to own the copyright to your artwork you should charge much more or a royalty percentage especialy if you think they will make future earnings from it.

DinoHunter (still no nVidia compo voucher!), CPU/GPU Benchmark, DarkFish Encryption DLL, War MMOG (WIP), 3D Model Viewer
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