Cartoon by alexfalcocartoons
It’s always been hard for me to ask the client what their budget is. I know they want to save or at least keep cost down and I want to know they’re serious.
Back in the day when I was a whore of a web designer I took anything from £90 – £200 for a design. Disregard the variety of prices I would charge (infact I didn’t charge, they would say a sum and I’d agree ) the quality of work wasn’t different.
Whether it was at the high or low end I still spent hours on it. If for some reason two of my clients met and began to discuss prices, again they’d soon realise nothing sets them apart from the price. Every site I designed got the same attention, if it could be improved I’ll do it, I wanted to be proud of it.
With time and experience that changed. It was hard to let pricing dictate the design of the site. I’m not saying you’ll get a poor website if you pay peanuts but no bells and whistles for you is in order. I had to get realistic, I rarely get projects completed within a month. To spend an entire month on a project for £600 is not cost effective, at all.
If a client asks my hourly rate I tell them but that’s usually followed by me explaining the need to understand their project to give a realistic price. I can suggest them a figure to play with but then again when do you ever get a client that knows exactly what they want?
Recently I was working on a very exciting project and the budget was even better, in the thousands. I was able to slot this project in and dedicate my time on this, something that’s rare as I’m always chopping and changing. Everything went well, meetings where fine and they seemed happy. I wrote an email to clarify the budget, infact the budget I suggested was short so they where saving a few bob or two. I was ready to invest my time and with the budget I was offered knew they where serious.
Bamn! that’s how it felt, communication was gone no more emails and no more phone calls. I emailed them several times asking whether it’s still on, postponed or if they didn’t like me or my approach. I was happy to know that maybe they simply pulled out but would have liked to receive some feedback. Was there something I could improve on? I’m left wondering.
Filed under: Education
