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02-14-2007, 10:47 PM
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#1 (permalink)
| Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Essex
Posts: 21
 | Is it best to estimate costs on an hourly or daily basis?
When running a website business, is it best to calculate costs by the day or by the hour? For example I might estimate that my labour charges at £100 a day for producing website content, and add say £10 a day for the hosting costs of the site. Or is it better to break it down into an hourly rate. In my opinion the hosting costs are quite a small portion in comparison to labour, but it seems to figure as a pretty major topic according to some of posts I have read on the forums. | 
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02-15-2007, 01:39 PM
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#2 (permalink)
| Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Sheffield UK
Posts: 3
| Quote:
Originally Posted by tweaker  When running a website business, is it best to calculate costs by the day or by the hour? For example I might estimate that my labour charges at £100 a day for producing website content, and add say £10 a day for the hosting costs of the site. Or is it better to break it down into an hourly rate. In my opinion the hosting costs are quite a small portion in comparison to labour, but it seems to figure as a pretty major topic according to some of posts I have read on the forums. | Charge hourly for the design/development costs and charge monthly for the hosting. | |
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02-26-2007, 02:49 PM
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#3 (permalink)
| Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: malaysia
Posts: 43
| costing is best measure in week/mth.
unless u paid for freelance for small portion of work.
when u hiring staff, easiest is to use weekly calculation.
and u can compare it with weekly task completed, and pending task. thus measuring the effectiveness. | |
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03-21-2007, 09:25 AM
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#4 (permalink)
| Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: California
Posts: 73
| Hello. Nice to tips. I will use them. | |
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04-03-2007, 09:26 AM
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#5 (permalink)
| Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: UK
Posts: 102
| I would prefer hourly calculations, the figure you get seems to be more exact, but it works only for web design, for hosting it's better to use monthly calculations. | |
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04-14-2007, 08:36 AM
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#6 (permalink)
| Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: UK
Posts: 4
| I haven't seen any host providing hosting service on hourly basis but seen many designer and developer charging their fees on hourly basis.
It all depends on how you have setup your business, if you are paying on monthly basic for your employee and you are getting large number of projects then you can compete in market by working on project basis rather than on hourly so you can quote for minimum rates and will attract more clients.  | |
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05-15-2007, 12:25 PM
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#7 (permalink)
| Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: netland
Posts: 87
| Quote:
Originally Posted by andyf I haven't seen any host providing hosting service on hourly basis but seen many designer and developer charging their fees on hourly basis. | I know that server administration is charged on monthly basis. | |
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07-09-2008, 04:30 AM
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#8 (permalink)
| Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Richmond, Virginia, USA
Posts: 8
| When it comes to billing a client for "brain work" (development, design, consulting, planning, etc.), I'm a real fan of "value-based fees" instead of billable hours. Billable hours cause clients to have to make an "investment decision" before they call you for advice or to request changes--which ends up working against you since they'll be skimpy and cause the project to not reflect your best possible results.
I've found that quoting a whole project based on the value it will bring someone allows me to charge more than I would have been able to bill on an hourly basis--but the project results are VASTLY better and as a result the customer satisfaction is much higher, as is the likelihood for repeat business and referrals to other new clients!
The guru on this subject is Alan Weiss. He has a number of books out on the subject and this is something I teach my consulting clients to use in their own businesses as well. | |
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07-09-2008, 04:59 AM
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#9 (permalink)
| Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Essex
Posts: 21
| Hi unimatrix. You make some good points, but you are revitalising an old thread here. It must have taken you some digging to find this one. | |
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07-10-2008, 02:47 PM
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#10 (permalink)
| Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Chicago
Posts: 136
| Yeap old and quite intersting thread at the same time. | |
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