Hi - I have been doing design work for some time now but just within the last year i have started my own web design company( and this forum is a welcome find ) . I have done a few jobs commercially but I am wondering is the norm to give a quote or an estimate. I have read elsewhere that for web design it's bad to give a quote because you cant take every change of mind (from client ) and every eventuality into consideration and so it would be better to give an hourly rate and an estimate. However I notice that some of the businesses I have given an estimate to are expecting a quote. What are people's opinions on this.

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RainRain Web Design - OneWeekofDays

To give an estimate it's easy but a complete quote for all the work involved, require a complete website plan so if the customer can tell you exactly what and how I don't see a problem.

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Before you start a job, you spec out what's involved. You agree a spec with the client, quote what that will cost, sign a contract and agree payment terms. The more experienced you get, the easier it is to quote on different jobs as you know how long it will take.

Anything above and beyond the spec is regarded as "feature creep" and you inform the client that this new stuff was not part of the original contract and you will have to price them for the extra. This is why it is important to get the spec right at the start of the project.

HTH. Dave.

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David Behan
Web Design | Mortgages | Memorial Websites | Digital Printing | Golf Holidays Portugal | Conservatories

yes this makes sense of course - I mean if the client suddenly decides they want ecommerce or something it's easy to say it wasnt in the original spec - but what about if the client is getting lots of little small ideas about as the process is developing and it all adds up, or you have to contact them 10 times to get them to send you the staff photo, or they make 4 attempts at agreeing with you on the colour scheme - I know not all clients are fussy but it does happen, and what do you do - i suppose it's normal to have add ons at the end of the project to cover little things like this ... or would bank on a bit of it when you give the quote in the first place ?

.... it's funny though i was on a US forum just like this ( cant remember which one ) and they were all dead against giving quotes at all !! i suppose it's the business culture of the country etc. ??

there's a few articles on freelanceswitch.com that may help you. Contract is important for setting deadlines for BOTH parties, along with determining scope.

I will generally offer a cost estimate based on an outline of the client's requirements. I'll only give an official quote if the client has a fully scoped project brief that goes into granular detail. Otherwise I would charge a consultancy fee to scope the project out before quoting for it. Before I knew better, I spent a lot of time scoping out projects for free just so I could quote for them only to never hear from the client again. Project scoping and IA are a vital part of a Web project and should be charged for.

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Web Design | Flash Development | Property | Irish Fitness Forum

yes i was a bit concerned about that too. it could take a lot of work to get an accurate quote together. I suppose excluding sales meetings, even a relatively small project could take hours - it took me at least 3 hours to work out a rough estimate for a recent prospect. Also with things like analysis/seo/cms training for staff and other "bolt on stuff" you would have to get a lot of information from the client before giving the quote, wouldnt you ?

where do you get the contracts - or do you do it through a solicitor - are there templates or something of the like to be had.

there are templates, creative lattitude has some, there is some older links i'll need to route out, so just adapt those and run them by a local solicitor to be sure.

thanks - only problem is that that i am starting a job this week and i havent mentioned anything to the client about a contract so i am wondering what to do about it - i will mention it to him and try to show him how it is to his advantage too but he might not buy it and i don t know how far i want to push it ( having not mentioned it in the sales meeting i am feeling a bit sheepish about it )

any suggestions ( or experiences )