ALTERNATE UNIVERSE DEV

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

Hasty Treat — Freelancing Hot Tips 🔥

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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Get Jonathan Stark's free 6 day email course on value based pricing for freelancers over at http://valuepricingbootcamp.com.

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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Episode source