Recently, I've been in a state of looking for smaller projects to fill in the down-time between larger ones, and I've run into some pretty outlandish expectations. I could raise my prices a little (especially on service contracts) and just eat the down-time. However, somewhere in the back of my mind is the idea that sub-$3k web sites deserve the love of an experienced developer, too.
My company, Suzhead, has a reasonable payment policy for these small projects: we'll start with a down payment (30-50% of the estimated total), possibly have one mid-project checkpoint with an accompanying payment, then collect the remaining balance upon project completion (before migration to the client's server, if applicable). This protects everyone, because both developer and client start off with some investment: the developer has given time and expertise not just quoting the project and smoothing out details (as we do with larger projects), but helping the client come up with a specification and an idea of scope; the client puts some money in so that the developer knows the client is committed going forward.
I see a lot of ads lately like this one wherein the client lays out a proposal for the consultant to build half the site before seeing a single penny! The ad is also lacking many important details, implying that the consultant will also be deputized to hash out most of the site's requirements (without billing for the time) before beginning.
Of course I left a comment for the poster letting him/her know why I was passing, in the hope that he/she will be left with more reasonable expectations in the future. However, the larger question is: how do we educate the pool of low-dollar clients, not just about reasonable payment terms, but the process of planning a project, and hiring and working with a consultant in general? Every time I talk to others about this problem they tell me, "you're too good at what you do, don't bother with the low-dollar projects, they are too much of a hassle."
When I'm working with a good client, I enjoy the little projects. It's nice to see some mom-and-pop-shop go "wow!" when they see their company's new site -- simple, but with a feeling of quality they thought was reserved for the "big guys".
Too often, though, the low-dollar clients come in with unrealistic (and sometimes downright ridiculous) expectations, and either don't find a developer at all, or get stuck with someone not really qualified for Drupal consulting in the first place. This leaves them with distorted perceptions of Drupal and the Drupal community, such as:
- "Drupal just isn't suitable for small businesses"
- "There's no such thing as a Drupal site under $10k."
- "Drupal consultants don't want to work with anyone but huge corporations, regardless of how good the money is."
- "Drupal consultants are incompetent and a waste of money."
...all of which I've heard in the last couple of months from small-budget clients who were hamstrung by their own expectations.
Maybe someday I'll give up on the small-budget projects, but that means giving up on my romantic ideal of open source software like Drupal putting great web development (with reasonable scope, of course) within the reach of even small organizations. After all, everyone starts somewhere, and the more start-ups, mom-and-pop shops, and new nonprofits we introduce to Drupal, the more we grow the market for our services in the future, when these organizations have had time to grow!
--Susan
Comments
Susan: We've faced similar
Susan:
(this could be a 1 to 2 week effort) . The client can then decides to confirm the contract or reject our prototype and proposal. It's been a decent option
for us since it gives us an actual heads up on the total effort involved and gives the client some idea of our work and see something tangible.
Yashesh
Education
Good question. I'd like to be able to point them to some independent information, i.e. not an my site, about typical rates, man-hours typically required to do a b and c. When a project is poorly specified (aren't they always?) I start by giving them an estimate for completing the specification. I stress that it's an estimate, because the time required will depend very much on their efficiency and to what extent they've really figured out what they need. I explain that one advantage of having a proper spec is that with that in hand they can then go out and get realistic competitive bids.
I'd be very willing to contribute to a collaborative project to "educate" these potential clients - the end result become documentation (posted on drupal.org perhaps) that discusses the needed approach, realistic expectations, time and financial investment, etc, etc. The drupal,org paid services section makes a good start and hiring a Drupal site developer is well-written and covers many relevant points. But there's nothing there about typical investment, down-payments, ongoing maintenance and support costs, etc. I think the expectation is often that, since Drupal is "free" software, then developing an all-singing all-dancing site will cost peanuts. Not the case, as we know. And what about hourly rates? this comment indicates that $100/hour is a ball-park figure, yet you see "jobs" posted offering $10/hour!? Where do they get their ideas from? It would be nice to have some kind of reference material to point people at - an "independent" survey or something like that.
So, in summary, I'm willing to contribute to creating an "education" programme. Anybody else?
Currently part of the team at https://lastcallmedia.com in a senior Drupal specialist role.
Rates
I think you'll run into issues with the rates. For one, there is a huge range. There are the Indian shops that are dirt cheap and then there's the big name shops that are several hundred dollars an hour. And pretty much everything in between. There's also the problem that any talk of rates makes some people nervous of price fixing laws. I'm on the fence as to whether that's really an issue but I'm not a lawyer.
http://www.lullabot.com/blog/show-me-money is a post you may find useful. I gotta run.... can't finish my thoughts.
Michelle
Perhaps a great deal of
Perhaps a great deal of transparency is needed, then. I've been toying with the idea of an educational pamphlet for just this sort of thing: "So, you want a website..."
It'd outline things like scoping exercises, why "I just want a website" is unhelpful--except insofar as it causes more jaded freelancers to immediately slot you into the "clients who say they just want a website" category--and go over the differences between flat rate quotes, estimates, hourly rates, and so on.
One thing I thought it would be handy to list is a few case studies: "this is what it cost to port a static site from 6 years ago with no content changes, but switching the flash headers to jQuery," "This was for a custom Drupal build with outsourced design," "this was a full brand identity workup, all design, development, etc., in-house." That way, you could illustrate both complexity of projects as well as the range of prices relative to kinds of agencies. The thing about sharing hourly rates is that it also makes other freelancers and agencies question what THEY'RE charging/quoting.
Or maybe just skip that case study business altogether and put up some kind of anonymized scatter graph. (I hope I didn't just propose the BMI for freelance rates. We'd want a TAD more accuracy than that.)
I do believe there is a
I do believe there is a spectrum of rates for a reason. A new developer should not be unable to find work just because he doesn't yet cut the $200/hour mustard. Similarly, someone who has invested time, money, and effort in being at the top of the Drupal game should not be making $60/hour: at that rate, the investment is a loss.
I'm not sure how helpful a rate survey or even a series of case studies could be: most clients don't know enough about the development process to understand what makes A more expensive than B and take longer than C. For example, a typical client doesn't understand why the cost of changing every color throughout a theme is negligible in one case (existing theme supports color module), moderate in another case (changes require editing the theme's CSS, but the graphics don't need editing), and fairly expensive in a third case (editing colors in CSS as well as changing several dozen of the theme's graphics to work with the new color scheme, and replacing many photos that clash with the new scheme).
I feel that if we get them to understand the process better, explaining costs and schedules gets easier. Some things (like hourly rates) are highly variable depending on the exact nature of the work, timeline, and the skill and resources of the developer. Some things are pretty uniform across the board:
...et cetera
If we could help clients get a better understanding of the process then I think the rest would fall into place with most clients.
I think education will help a
I think education will help a lot, but in my experience many small business already have an idea what a website is 'worth' to 'them' or what they can afford.
I've had to become more efficient and flexible to compete. I find myself setting up demo sites for prospects to hook them. Less time on proposals and more time show n tell. more templating. My 'rate' is a sliding scale depending on who I'm talking to.
For many small businesses $400 sounds about right. For others no more than $2,000. I see $400 websites being advertised all the time. Custom design is a luxury for most.
I recommend: know your customer - charge appropriately - CREATE MAX VALUE - evolve more efficient work-flows and business models - grow long-term relationships with your existing client base - hook clients on inexpensive subscription packages to supplement your income.
Jason Graham
http://www.PolishYourImage.com
Certainly, there are $400 web
Certainly, there are $400 web sites, $2,000 web sites, and on up, but a lot of clients want a $10,000 web site for $600... there's no way you can do a full CiviCRM-enabled Drupal site with an Ubercart store and extensive custom theming for a few hundred dollars and not lose tons of money.
That said, you piqued my interest when you mentioned setting up demo sites for prospects to try. How do you make this economical? Do you mostly work within a single niche where 1-3 different demos will suit most of your clients, or are you actually doing most of the development work before knowing you have a paying contract?
I have found that demos are extremely effective sales tools, the problem is that most of the time the investment in creating one just isn't worth it without a guaranteed payday at the end.
Demo sites
I think how hard it is to put together a demo site depends on the type of site - e.g. blog Vs Real Estate Vs Social Networking Vs etc, and also how many bells and whistles you want to add.
I create demo sites in my home tinkering time (hey, I like web dev), based on a mixture of what types of sites have challenges that interest me, and what types of sites seem to be regularly asked for (e.g. Real Estate, e-Commerce, etc).
I never pony up for theming on these sites - any free theme that looks better than Garland will do, with Lorem Ipsum everywhere. And I usually just setup things that basic modules like CCK, Views, pathauto, etc allow.
Education is the key, but how to reach the masses...
Most small shops are surviving by the hair of their chinny chin chin these days. They are getting the buzz about social media and how important websites and Twitter and Facebook are. But they are cooks, or hair stylists or dog walkers - not web designers/developers. So for them to keep up with the current pricing is like expecting me to know how much red snapper, high end hair straighteners and doggie shampoo go for these days. I have no idea!
I think one way to reach them is to provide that pamphlet or an informational website as were a couple of suggestions that give an overview of process, pricing and the like. Maybe make these available to chambers, professional organizations or where ever cooks, beauticians and doggie people hang out. It would take a lot of effort to get the word out. But informing some is better than none. And they speak to each other so maybe word of mouth would help too.
I wish I could put some of this stuff on my site...
If anyone gets anything going and would like some help, let me know!
K
Very strict on this one
Because we are smaller shops and probably doing a lot of work ourselves I have a very strict policy on down payments or deposits.
Website are always 50/50. If I sell an iPhone app, and it comes with a website I offer a 33/33/34 which works great for all involved.
With the 50/50 you should be getting a rate with the first payment that is sufficient if they decide later on to not pay you tye final payment and claim you didnt do your job, and the rest is what I call gravy because if you were able to get you sufficient rate for the project as whole then the second payment you can have some fun with.
With the iPhone stuff the 33/33/34 breakdown works good because the first gets it going, the second makes them feel good because you deliver a beta product, and the final payment come usually not far behind the second if you did a good job in the beginning and your spec didn't leave room for feature creep, and then you go on vacation.
Joshua Needham
WebMob Development, LLC(formerly App Ventures, LLC)
http://WebMobDev.com