Need help quoting for a website

nellipope

Member
I’m a freelancer and my husband say’s I’m cheap! which is a terrible thing to say to woman, I much prefer the term ‘cost effective’ ;-)
However he is probably right. and with Christmas fast approaching and my epic feelings of guilt every time I invoice someone I think it’s probably time I addressed the issue.

Anyway, I have been approached by a community festival to create a website for them. Last year I created all their artwork (logo, posters, website graphics, T shirt design etc completely free of charge) it was worth it, I got a bit of paid work out of it through the festival organizers. This year they are using my artwork again but have approached me to handle their website this time. They have asked for the following:

how much to build the site
how much to manage the site annually
if we needed you to amend/add etc at any time how much.


I recently completed a personal website for one of the organizers which was at the bargain cost of £150 design costs, £9.99 hosting per month (first three months free). Amendments at my hourly rates as a designer (however there is a CMS in place).

I am thinking of offering the same deal, but feel terribly guilty doing so, as most of the other organizers give their time and resources for free (or at least say they do). They are a great mixture of people.

I suppose what I’m asking is; does the above deal and my prices seem unreasonable or cheap. The site has at least 10 pages, and some embedded features. I want to give them some aspect of my skills for nothing, but just can’t afford to do it completely for free!

So to surmise:
Design costs: £150 based on similar current content
Hosting: £9.99 per month
Amendments: £15 per hour (capped at £30 per month)

Or should I lovingly craft a full cost package?
 
They should consider themselves lucky to get a website for £150. I wouldn't consider doing a logo for £150.

Your husband is right, but I guess it depends on your situation. Are you comfortably earning enough to live that you can afford to do a cheap or free project for someone? If that answer is yes then there's no problem. It's a previous client that you've worked with in the past, you have a good relationship, you may get some paid work out of it. If the answer is no and you're barely scraping by then I'd wonder why you're even considering it.

To answer your question, your prices are clearly reasonable. If they're not happy paying that, direct them to Wix.

If you don't actually want to work for free this time round, just tell them that last year was a one time thing, a website takes more time and effort on your part and you'll be charging full price.
 
Totally agree with Arrivals, a website for £150? That probably puts you as one of the lowest paid professionals in the country and you'd earn considerably more as a Saturday girl in New Look. Seriously, £150 for a website :icon_eek:
 
You really need to have a good think of how long this project is going to take, think about your hourly rate then calculate. You definitely should be charging more. £150 is very cheap. I mean the creative cloud package costs almost £50 now a month.
 
You're all absolutely right! I would point out in my defense that this is a not-for-profit event and as part of the committee I feel I have to give something back to this particular community, plus the website will only be current for 6-7 months. Normally I would charge considerably more, but even then probably not enough. However I think my personal issue is my lack of confidence in my own skills. I have only been working in web design for a very short time, 18 months (started as a graphic/print designer) and I often feel quite overwhelmed by the sheer amount of knowledge needed, but then I suppose like many subjects - the more you learn the more you realise you don't know. Self doubt can be very under mining.

Thank you everyone. This forum is proving to be invaluable :)
 
If you don't respect and value your own time then no one else will - worth remembering. I know the compulsion to do cheap work for charitable organisations but the website will have an on-going value and benefits that should far outweigh what you charge. Your work is good, don't sell yourself short :thumb:
 
Hosting: £9.99 per month

I can I assume that you're reselling hosting with a markup? If not, and that cost has come directly from a hosting company, you're being conned - I would highly recommend shipping around and finding a cheaper deal that you can mark up. LCN charge £60 per year for decent hosting; I then mark this up 20/30 for a client. If you can afford it, then purchase their Multisite hosting (10 sites for one price) - sell hosting to your clients at £80 per year, you're making a profit of well over £600.
 
I can I assume that you're reselling hosting with a markup? If not, and that cost has come directly from a hosting company, you're being conned - I would highly recommend shipping around and finding a cheaper deal that you can mark up. LCN charge £60 per year for decent hosting; I then mark this up 20/30 for a client. If you can afford it, then purchase their Multisite hosting (10 sites for one price) - sell hosting to your clients at £80 per year, you're making a profit of well over £600.

Do you find the money you make from reselling hosting covers any support queries and such like? I'm toying with the idea of reselling hosting for clients so I can offer a design, build and hosting package, but I suspect it may prove to be more trouble than it's worth.
 
Do you find the money you make from reselling hosting covers any support queries and such like? I'm toying with the idea of reselling hosting for clients so I can offer a design, build and hosting package, but I suspect it may prove to be more trouble than it's worth.

You quickly realise that there are very few, if any, support queries - most of them are email based questions that take less than 5 seconds to resolve. If ever there are issues with the hosting itself, you'd be notified by your supplier, and you'd just notify your client (or the other way around if the client notices a problem first).

There is zero work involved to be honest.
 
We've been doing hosting for yonks. It's recurring income which you can rely on each month so for us - vital. However you enter into new realms of risk and knowledge, but that's what business is about.

One point, though, if you are hosting a bunch of WordPress (just for example) sites on a VPS, then each one of them is a security risk so you need to keep on top of them and that work accumulates as you host more of them.
 
We've been doing hosting for yonks. It's recurring income which you can rely on each month so for us - vital. However you enter into new realms of risk and knowledge, but that's what business is about.

One point, though, if you are hosting a bunch of WordPress (just for example) sites on a VPS, then each one of them is a security risk so you need to keep on top of them and that work accumulates as you host more of them.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm trying to get my clients away from WP for my own sanity, and onto other CMS, so hopefully that won't be too much of a problem.
 
Yes re-selling with a markup Tim. Although I do need to get my head around my costings! Thanks for all the advice.
 
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