French travel agency

Quote from: Djamoer at Feb 21, 2006, 08:27 AM

Nice one!

Thanks

Quote from: Djamoer

Can I ask a few question? Do you guys ask upfront cost, some kind of down-payment when starting a new project for client? I’ve been having problem with clients, because I do the work first, and later they decided not to use it, so I ended up giving a way the site with a cheap price. I tried not to ask down-payment, but I think it’s an important part when starting a project, but any suggestion/comment will be awesome.

Can’t work without downpayment, else you’ll go broke fast...
It depends how expensive the website is, but let’s say downpayment should be between 20 and 30%.

And one thing : if the client doesn’t listen to reason, you can’t just give away your work. News travel fast, you’ll end up with more and more non viable clients...

EHmm.. That’s one of the thing maybe. Right now it’s just for my moonlight job, and that’s why I kinda don’t care about it. But I’ll take your advice. The idea of downpayment is really important to me too, except when I’m building a website for my family or church maybe.

Of course I am talking with the perspective of a main job/business...

Do you guys ask upfront cost, some kind of down-payment when starting a new project for client?

Hell yeah! I always specify 50% up front. Keeps both parties keen.

Bottom line is never be afraid to ask for the right money for the right job. Clients will treat you better if they’re paying a proper price and like what you do better too: one of the most peculiar things about people is that they (obviously I include myself - make that "we"), is "designer jeans psychology": we irrationally place greater value on something that costs us more than the minimum.

Also, if you’re moonlighting you’ve nothing to lose by turning cheapskate clients down!

Apart from money, make sure you also get an agreed project spec before you write a single line of code: scope creep is a horrible thing!

gillbertn, that might be true though, even though I ended up with a lot of projects right now with little roi on my part, but in both ways, currently I’m just playing around to build more portfolio, as well as messing around with MODx. I will make sure to take your advice and david, when I’m starting to work full time on my own.

Thanks for the great advice guys

Well, Wendy there is a lot of truth in what gilbertn is saying : so far my better paying clients have also been the ones who treated me better.

And you shouldn’t underestimate you work... but you’re right, at the beginning you need a portfolio, also the case for me...