Setting a price for small projects is definitely tough, but you’ve made some great points here. Thanks!
have to adjust details and make them my Rules.
Good article Sam.
The best one I like is “Negotiate Scope, Not Price”.
Really, great tutorial. As a new developer in the game I have already faced some of the problems that you have mentioned.
May I ask a really silly question? Let’s assume that you have arranged to work per hour, how the client will be convinced that you are actually working?
Excellent article. I am going to implement the rule about all projects under $1,000 are paid in full before work begins. I have being using the 50% up front and 50% upon completion of the web design project. But just as the article mentions, the client will always find something to add on. Thanks for the tips.
Wow what a good read, this answers plenty of questions I often find myself debating as I take on work, or rethink the direction my project begins to steer. great tutorial. As a new developer in the game I have already faced some of the problems that you have mentioned. thanks for shearing!
Wow, this is a great post for me (and i’m sure there are lots of people like me), because I’ve had this idea to do small projects as a freelancer, but I was not actually sure how to handle all that. Having read your post, I have a general idea (and even specific guidelines) on how to proceed. Thanks Sam.
Excellent post Sam…!
This post answer many question and resolves many problems. I’m going to follow these ideas.
I will say you have some amazing insight and spot-on advice. Are you a one man show or do you have more people working with you?
Sam. This is one of the best articles I have ever read on the internet. I have never seen anybody articulate ‘rules of engagement’ for small web projects like this. It’s so applicable to so many facets of small business consulting – I love the ‘Red Flags’ and the ‘Headache Tax’. You’re a Superstar. Are the web projects as good as the management?
I will impliment this idea. Well done guys.
I agree with your points here. But I suspect that small business client’s will not accept the term of 100% advance payment for below $1000 projects. Because they have limited budget and they always are concious. They might thought that the company will not provide proper support and solutions once they pay 100% in advance. So I prefer 50% advance and 50% at completion of project.
Nice, good written article. I wish I had read this before I took on some of the projects I’m working on. One of our projects is for our municipality, they are demanding, and suddenly we got told they didn’t expect it to be that expensive, and we are already cheap compared to our competitors in our area, AND this client get a discount for our hourly wage. Now they are saying they don’t have budgeted for this, and wont be able to pay us until next year, when the new budget is ready. This is a project I took over, where the code was not pretty, and a lot of the time has gone into getting to know and rewriting code, section by section, since this was a live project. They didn’t want to plan the project, since their vision was “make the path as you go” This is a project I now start regret taking, because of all the red flags, but I fear I’m in too deep.
Nice to see your article based on true experiences. It could be handy for many freelance developers and designers who are not well at fixing prices and strategies for the project. It’s a nice learning experience for all those who are at the beginning stages.
Good points. In my experience customers want more features without paying for it. Everything you discuss must be on paper.
Thank you for this! This is a great resource for anyone who is putting there salary in the hands of others through freelance work. People who teach based off experience are very exciting to listen to. This is a wonderful article.
There is some great value in this article for a starter like me.
Specially the “red flag” and stick to your price part is great.
Most customers do not want to pay, but want the whole deal.
Nice article Sam! Hourly rate is indeed better than project-based pricing. Most of my online workers prefer this setup.
That sounds just about great. Until your stiff-necked approach starts to lose you clients. Until clients, search for web-design services and find pages upon pages filled with them. Until you realise that a client in your list is worth 10 in the wild.
Create value before money. Web design is not like companies that are all selling the same identical brand new BMW. Its more like companies selling BMWs with different mileage and stages of wear and tear. Face it, if we all had a “Its cash up-front for USD1000 and below” attitude, we would lose 95% of our clients. Most consumers are always urged NOT to pay full upfront for services rendered – after all, what do they get to hold on to if your work is un-acceptable at the very end. So, create value before money. 
I always start negotiating a price with a client by over-shooting by at least 25% and then allow the client to negotiate themselves back to the proper original price or if they don’t, I offer a discount which makes them feel special.
Very good post. I have learnt a lot of things from here.
Great Post! I’ve started freelancing very recently and I’m doing a website for my debut customer. I’ve been looking on the internet and asking everyone about how to charge for small projects and I’m very happy that I stumbled across this post. A great write-up. Learned some excellent tips. Thanks.
I am a web developer based in India, and also a freelancer. Your post helped me a lot in getting me fix a price for the projects I develop here. It was very helpful to me, and will be helpful to others as well.
Keep up the god work. Cherers!!!
Fantastic article, we will be definitely tweeting this link to help others.
Developers and designers are being asked to do much more these days, with reduced time limits and budgets, but increase in expectancy and user experience.
great pricing and user guidelines that would be workable for most small businesses it always helps when dealing with customers to have a clear boundaries and a outline before you start working together.Nat Rev Cancer. 2010 Dec;10(12):825-41. doi: 10.1038/nrc2964. Epub 2010 Nov 24.
Lens SM1, Voest EE, Medema RH.
Large numbers of inhibitors for polo-like kinases and aurora kinases are currently being evaluated as anticancer drugs. Interest in these drugs is fuelled by the idea that these kinases have unique functions in mitosis. Within the polo-like kinase family, the emphasis for targeted therapies has been on polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1), and in the aurora kinase family drugs have been developed to specifically target aurora kinase A (AURKA; also known as STK6) and/or aurora kinase B (AURKB; also known as STK12). Information on the selectivity of these compounds in vivo is limited, but it is likely that off-target effects within the same kinase families will affect efficacy and toxicity profiles. In addition, it is becoming clear that interplay between polo-like kinases and aurora kinases is much more extensive than initially anticipated, and that both kinase families are important factors in the response to classical chemotherapeutics that damage the genome or the mitotic spindle. In this Review we discuss the implications of these novel insights on the clinical applicability of polo-like kinase and aurora kinase inhibitors.
OBJECTIVE: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) hyperintensity has been described on fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) imaging in anesthetized patients who underwent MR imaging without apparent subarachnoid abnormality. The purpose of our study was to delineate likely causes for this hyperintensity. Specifically, we sought to determine whether a high inspired oxygen fraction given as part of the anesthetic was responsible for the CSF hyperintensity seen on FLAIR imaging.
 Information about inspired oxygen fraction, oxygen saturation, and type of anesthetic agents preceding the FLAIR sequence was obtained from the anesthetic record. A pediatric neuroradiologist who was unaware of the inspired oxygen fraction and anesthetic agent ascertained the presence of CSF hyperintensity in the basilar cisterns and cerebral sulcal subarachnoid space.
RESULTS: Twenty-one patients received an inspired oxygen fraction less than or equal to 0.60, and 49 received an inspired oxygen fraction greater than 0.60. Inspired oxygen fraction greater than 0.60 was significantly associated with the presence of CSF hyperintensity in the basilar cisterns (p < 0.001) and in the cerebral sulcal subarachnoid space (p = 0.03). The type of anesthetic agent, patient's sex, or status (based on the American Society of Anesthesiology physical status and classification system), and presence of cardiopulmonary disease or seizure disorder were not associated with CSF hyperintensity.
CONCLUSION: High inspired oxygen fraction during anesthesia is associated with CSF hyperintensity in the basilar cisterns and the cerebral sulcal subarachnoid space on FLAIR imaging in children and young adults. Physicians should be aware of this finding to avoid misinterpreting this artifact as an