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Cyllya · 03-30-2009, 08:04 PM

I've recently been considering starting freelance web development to get some extra money while spending most of my time on my main business that will take a while to get up and running. But for the last year, I've been working as an employee in a small web development firm, so here's some info I learned from that job which might help you. For the record, the company offered an upfront price based on the estimated amount of time a project would take and charged by the hour for work beyond that project, based on $65 per hour in both cases.

--Make sure you come up with a contract that is very clear on the result you intend to create, or else you and the client may have different ideas about what they're paying for, and that's all kinds of trouble.

--Copywriting (writing the content for the website) is normally the client's job, although you can offer to do it for extra money. Either way, that's some kind of information that they have to send you, and almost every single client you ever have will find some reason to dilly-dally on this. (On rare occasions, one will even delay the project so that they can delay paying you.) You will have everything else on the website done within a week of starting and then it will be on hiatus for three months until you finally get this. For this reason, take partial payment in advance.

--It takes a while between the time you send a bill and the time you get the money. You may have to call and pester the client a few times. Make sure you're careful about keeping a record of who owes you money. Don't spend money until you actually have it.

--It's hard to predict how many hours of work a project will take because you don't know how much time a client will want you to spend making changes to the design, how many times they'll want you to create a whole new design because they don't like it at all, etc. Even if you want to offer an upfront pay-by-project rate to most clients, I highly recommend charging by the hour when you get the feeling a client is one of those "I don't know what I want, but I'll know it when I see it" types.

03-30-2009, 08:04 PM	#10 (permalink)
Cyllya Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 78	I've recently been considering starting freelance web development to get some extra money while spending most of my time on my main business that will take a while to get up and running. But for the last year, I've been working as an employee in a small web development firm, so here's some info I learned from that job which might help you. For the record, the company offered an upfront price based on the estimated amount of time a project would take and charged by the hour for work beyond that project, based on $65 per hour in both cases. --Make sure you come up with a contract that is very clear on the result you intend to create, or else you and the client may have different ideas about what they're paying for, and that's all kinds of trouble. --Copywriting (writing the content for the website) is normally the client's job, although you can offer to do it for extra money. Either way, that's some kind of information that they have to send you, and almost every single client you ever have will find some reason to dilly-dally on this. (On rare occasions, one will even delay the project so that they can delay paying you.) You will have everything else on the website done within a week of starting and then it will be on hiatus for three months until you finally get this. For this reason, take partial payment in advance. --It takes a while between the time you send a bill and the time you get the money. You may have to call and pester the client a few times. Make sure you're careful about keeping a record of who owes you money. Don't spend money until you actually have it. --It's hard to predict how many hours of work a project will take because you don't know how much time a client will want you to spend making changes to the design, how many times they'll want you to create a whole new design because they don't like it at all, etc. Even if you want to offer an upfront pay-by-project rate to most clients, I highly recommend charging by the hour when you get the feeling a client is one of those "I don't know what I want, but I'll know it when I see it" types.