Initially I was charging $200 a month for routine upkeep of their website and updating some print material.
Since our contract begin, the web work has increased, and now they are interested in having me design their flyers / newspaper ads, and administer their monthly e-mail newsletter.
I would say I easily spend 20-30 hours per month just doing the web work. At a modest $20 per hour, that's $400 per month. Tack onto that what will likely be another 10-20 hours per month for their other stuff, and I'm looking at $500 per month.
Does this seem reasonable? Am I out to lunch? Charging too little? Opine away.
This is the site: Body Buster Fitness Boot Camp (entire website designed by me, minus the logo - they had somebody else do that).
I like to think I do a pretty decent job. It's a side business, and the client is a friend. I have my regular day job, and at night and on weekends, I do the stuff he needs done.
Location: Aylmer (Gatineau) across the river from Ottawa
Posts: 16,065
It's really tough when a client is also a friend upping the rates on them. I'm pretty much in the same position as you are right now with a friend that I am doing web work for. I started out at a deep discount of $25/hr but as I have more clients and still have the full time job on top, you start to wonder if it is worth it any more (I mean we need lives too don't we).
The way I am going to approach it is to plain tell them that due to time demands the only way I can justify the time away from my family is to make it more worth my while so that I can reasonably justify the time to my wife.
I mean when my regular clients (non friends) are paying twice what she is paying, (she knows this by the way) I am hoping she will understand.
Short answer long, at $20/hr, you are short changing yourself (just like me) and it is probably time to have that difficult conversation.
The only caveat I add to this is weigh it against whether or not they are bringing you referral business that you are charging your full rate for, if they are then you can look at their reduced rate as a finders fee.
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