The Dark Art of Accurate Project Pricing
2008
Is it me or is accurate project pricing a bit of a dark art?
When I price a job, I base it on how long I *expect* the job to take, adding in variables which I may forsee and then multiply that by my base rate and voila!
I have to be honest, 90% of the time, it works out pretty well with jobs completing on or near budget – however, that 10% of the time always ends up costing me money/time not accounted for.
I’m sure I’m not alone.
I’ve tried to break down where the problems could lie and came up with the following:
- Client Misunderstanding
- Lack of Technical Documentation (API’s etc)
- Lack of Client Support
How do other people deal with pricing? Do you price the 90% of the jobs a little higher to compensate for the 10% that take longer than expected? Or do you take it on the chin and try to minimise those 10% clients?
Neither option seems fair and will inevitably end up costing someone.
I’d be interested to hear how other people handle this.
Comment