In this Hasty Treat (Short episode) we answer your questions about Freelancing - how to charge more, building a portfolio, finding clients and our thoughts on using pre-made WordPress themes.
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Jonathan Stark is the author of Hourly Billing is Nuts and has worked with companies such as Staples, Time and T-Mobile. These days he routinely commands an effective hourly rate of $2000+ per hour, so I'd say you should check his course out.
Show Notes
1:00
4:00
- Q: Ideas on building a portfolio and landing those first customers
- Your portfolio doesn't really matter as a web developer
- Your reputation and referrals is key
- Reputation in the community is important
- Put yourself out there!
- You have to tell people what you do
- You have to ask people if they need work
- Good communication is key
8:00
- Q: What are some strategies for budging and quoting?
- Understanding what a website is worth to a client
- Talking to your client ablut pricing
- Asking how much they have available to spend
- Chunking the project into multiple bits so they can build on it
14:00
- Q: How do you tell your existing clients that you need to charge more?
- Clean Scope / Scope Creep
- Quote in Features and pieces, not entire projects
- Fixed Pricing
- Becoming a better/faster developer
- Getting more expensive as you move
- Don't charge hourly
- Taking big Ls
18:30
- Q: What is your opinion on value based pricing?
- We're huge proponents
- Clients don't like hourly billing
- The client should know what you are paying and what you are getting
22:00
- Q: When is it okay to use WordPress and pre-made themes? Is that cheating?
- The beauty of open source
- The business Wes answer
- The developer Wes answer
- Building your own starter files
- Undoing other developer's work
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