Whether you work as a freelancer or for a web development company there are several important points you should address with your clients before offering a price quote to fix their website. You want to land the job so it’s easy to say, “Sure I can do that. No problem.” Many times acting on blind ambition alone will wind up with you tossing out a low ball bid which results in loads of extra work.
A quick peek at the current website, a behind the scenes glance with the “View Source” option in the developers’ tools and/or hacking the style sheets isn’t always enough. You can’t possibly know how quick it will be to fix a site if you don’t know what they have in place prior to revamping the project. If everything was peachy and perfect they wouldn’t need you so it’s best to assume you’re being sent in to clean up a coding disaster of nuclear proportions.
Ask your clients to gather all of the following information before you sit down to meet with them:
- Hosting information
- FTP passwords
- Source codes (HTML, CSS, scripts, etc.)
- Original graphic and .swf files
If the response to your request is “Huh?” be prepared to start a scavenger hunt through the files of everyone who has ever worked on their website. Odds are you will wind up recreating certain graphic pieces and scrolling through pages of patchwork code so you’ll want to figure that time into your initial quote.
Like authors, web developers tend to have an original voice when writing code. Some have similar styles but even people who train in the same schools set their source code up in a way that is convenient for them. Reading through another developer’s code can be like borrowing a friend’s notes. All of the information is there; you just have to work a little harder to decipher their handwriting.
Sorting out another person’s system can be very easy or very difficult so make sure you have all the information you can collect before tossing out any numbers. There’s always a chance that you could give them a low price then open up their code and find that the entire website is Photoshop documents that have been sliced into several thousand pieces and no one knows where the original files are… true story.
In cases like that you might just have to cut your losses and rebuild a new site from scratch. Extreme action wouldn’t be necessary if you had seen what they had before rattling off that you could remove some links and update some text for a low fee just to get quick cash in your pocket. Don’t overestimate your ability or underestimate their previous designer’s lack of professionalism.
That’s one of the worst case scenarios though. Most clients have some grasp on their websites and where everything is stored. When they gather everything before the meeting it will set you up to succeed in meeting your deadline. This way you don’t tell them you can have the work completed in three weeks but it takes them two and a half weeks to find and deliver the files.
The bottom line is they will need to provide you with the documentation at some point anyway. Save yourself and your client from costly surprises by asking for complete access to their source files first. From there you can start to offer knowledgeable suggestions and multiple pricing options. It’s always easier to tell a client you finished faster than to ask for more time or money on top of your initial quote.
Image Source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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