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Ask HN: Charging clients for estimates?
Can anyone point me to resources, or offer suggestions here, on how best to go about doing this? I'm part of a (small) design/development shop - most of our clients are small to medium local businesses. I've read some stuff suggesting that it's best to charge for an estimate, the justification being that you need to expend significant energy to come up with something that accurately scopes the project, and that's of value to the client.
- kfullert 14y agoI believe a good way I've seen this work is to charge 1-2 days at a consultancy rate (based on amount of effort required) with terms that deduct the estimate charge from the project (assuming they sign)
- brudgers 14y agoOffer to prepare a specification for their project...for a fee. If they don't like your price to execute the spec, they have something of value, and you've been paid.
- rmATinnovafy 14y agoYes, do charge them. Way less headaches. I've done this in multiple industries (not only software), and it filters out the tire kickers.
- bdunn 14y agoAbsolutely. You're delivering a product (translation of their ideas to actionable deliverables) that's theoretically portable. I blogged about charging for estimates here: https://planscope.io/blog/2012/03/13/6-tips-to-help-you-create-better-estimates https://planscope.io/blog/2012/03/13/6-tips-to-help-you-crea...