We did some agency work Ad agency / sub contract) in NYC. I said to the agency we will deliver HTML/CSS/JS and its $12,500 for the site / pages. They came back with NO our budget is $25k and we will pay that. Im like ok wire be the bread, here is my ACH ( They did) I delivered the HTML/CSS/JS. They came back with but who is gonna do the API work with our back end guy. Seems they could not make a distinction connecting the front end to the back end. I can only do HTML/CSS i can't do the API stuff and i told them in writing very clearly. they had a back end guy we delivered the work to. I got played too many times NOT to get my money upfront and send a bill when I use up the time. They said sorry for the confusion , ok so how much for the api and will cut you a check from accounting. Accounting has no clue what marketing is buying.
I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page
131–140 of 458 posts
Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page
#132I know someone working as a contractor for a big company. 1 year contract. 6 months have gone by and they've done ... nothing. Their boss keeps saying "Don't worry we'll get to you, we're just swamped right now, you're good." They're already talking about extending the contract.
Big companies (rather, people at big companies) WANT to spend money on this kind of stuff for all sorts of reasons. -A team might have use-it-or-lose-it budget, so they have to spend it on something, and a contractor might be the lucky recipient! -Tax purposes! -Spending a lot on a contractor gives them someone to "fire" when they need to explain why something wasn't getting done or something went poorly! The list go…
Get going for a few of these simultaneously and you are set.
Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've worked at pretty big companies and the only way I've ever gotten away with not producing any code was because I was going through onboarding hell. At the worst 2 weeks to get onboarded.
Were you an employee? I think the situation being described here is almost always with contractors and freelancers.
I was a contractor - as a general rule I find companies expect contractors to be productive really quickly because they are paying more for them then they are for employees.
Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page
#134I worked for a large company who wanted their public website re done to be "mobile friendly" (in 2015).
It's Drupal, with a custom theme. Everything that was actually "tricky" was de-scoped, so it wound up being something my university buddies and I would have charged $5k for back in the day, probably would have charged $30k these days.
That project cost well over $1mil. For a Drupal site with a custom "Mobile friendly" theme.
Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page
#135I know someone working as a contractor for a big company. 1 year contract. 6 months have gone by and they've done ... nothing. Their boss keeps saying "Don't worry we'll get to you, we're just swamped right now, you're good." They're already talking about extending the contract.
Big companies (rather, people at big companies) WANT to spend money on this kind of stuff for all sorts of reasons. -A team might have use-it-or-lose-it budget, so they have to spend it on something, and a contractor might be the lucky recipient! -Tax purposes! -Spending a lot on a contractor gives them someone to "fire" when they need to explain why something wasn't getting done or something went poorly! The list go…
I remember growing up and going to work with my Dad. There was like a 3 hour period where he had no work for me to do. He told me I'd only get half wages for the day (I was like 12) since the last few hours I did nothing. I felt betrayed. He empathized with me, saying 'It sometimes feels like more work to not have any work to do'. I completely agree.
In my current role, there is no real roadmap or trajectory for what I should be doing or how I should report on it, etc. I have felt at times that I was just collecting a check, and that felt really scary. I expected I would love to have a job where I could kind of just do whatever I wanted on my own time table. But I have learned it's actually very stressful, and at best very boring. Luckily I got a roadmap created and prioritized, so I feel better. But it is an odd experience.
Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page
#136You should try working in an investment bank as a contractor. You need to find the right team, but a lot of them are massive collections of people doing virtually nothing but getting paid great daily rates. The trick is to look busy and wrap your team/yourself in a perceived sense of enigma and complexity. If you play your cards right, you can end up in a situation where no one will ask questions as long as you fire…
I have a theory that in most large companies the 80/20 rule applies. 20% of the engineers do 80% of the work.
Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page
#137I worked for a large company who wanted their public website re done to be "mobile friendly" (in 2015). It's Drupal, with a custom theme. Everything that was actually "tricky" was de-scoped, so it wound up being something my university buddies and I would have charged $5k for back in the day, probably would have charged $30k these days. That project cost well over $1mil. For a Drupal site with a custom "Mobile friend…
When I worked for a non-profit they paid like a quarter million dollars for a Drupal site with some slight modifications that never even got completed. I had to trudge through months of debugging and solving problems, and ultimately I couldn't be bothered with Drupal Core so we brought in some contractors to solve the biggest issues while I worked on rebuilding the whole stack. Drupal knowledge seems to pay well, they were able to charge us $150 an hour at their non-profit discount.
Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page
#138You should try working in an investment bank as a contractor. You need to find the right team, but a lot of them are massive collections of people doing virtually nothing but getting paid great daily rates. The trick is to look busy and wrap your team/yourself in a perceived sense of enigma and complexity. If you play your cards right, you can end up in a situation where no one will ask questions as long as you fire…
The George Costanza way of doing business. The more I grow less young (I’m close to 40 now) the more I realize that the Costanza character is one of the closest approximations of daily life in a society like ours. Dilbert or “The Office” TV series are also very good fits but George Costanza is in a world of his own.
Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page
#139Great illustration of why hourly billing makes no sense, for either side. In this case, as usual, the amount of hours "spent" on the project has little to do with actual value provided. From the contractor's side, he's excited about getting 12x the original quote, instead of realizing he's been severely undercharging for his work and could've been earning 10x or more all this time. I wonder if the author will start c…
One of the first web systems I ever put into production (still in use other than modernization I went 5 years without a bug report which still astounds me) after I jumped from desktop to web I charged £1500 for (it was about 20 hours actual work the rest was spent learning the right way to do things), did the job over 6 weeks.
Client let slip they'd been quoted £11,000 for it and 3mths.
Next job they asked me to do was £5,000 and I said 3mths (it took less than a month and I was working full time).
I learnt that lesson fast, don't charge what it's worth to you, charge what its worth to them.
Or as an ex-boss pithily put it "serious people charge serious money".
Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have to spend X anyway, because the money is pre-tax or non-taxable, you can spend 1.5X-2X, so the extra money is 'free'.
I'm with peteradio, I also never understand this line of reasoning. Let's say the company has earned 1,000$ and the tax rate is 50%. Your expenses X are 100$. So 1,000$ - 100$ = 900$. Of which 50% (450$) are tax and 50% (450$) are profit. Now double X to 200$: Then 1,000$ - 200$ = 800$. Of which 50% (400$) are tax and 50% (400$) are profit. That means your profit is 50$ lower (400$ instead of 450$) then if you hadn't…
If you can "invest" the 1K into something that you don't get taxed, and, can give you some return then it is a win.
I remember being mentioned that the whole reason General Electrics bought a division of Alstom was to not bring the money back to US and get taxed, let's say it was 1 billion dollars and 50% tax.
Instead of getting net 500 million back to US they can keep that money abroad and invest 1 billion in another company that can net more than 500 million in the long term.
Above is likely the way of thinking for those sort of occasions.