Charging for program

[manavo11]

Quick question

To make a simple kind of program that has as input of several teams, split in groups, save to db. Select 2 teams, get data from a mysql db, alter the data a bit and then write the new stuff back. How much could someone charge for something like that? Simple stuff, nothing fancy

Thanks

[RobDog888]

[Dr.Evil]$1,000,000.00[/Dr.Evil]

You need to estimate the number of reasonable hours it will take to write the app. Then factor in the value to the client. You can not charge more then what it would be worth to the client. If you were to write a calculator program in 1 hour for $50 then it wouldnt be even worth doing since you can buy one for just a coupe of bucks.

[manavo11]

Well this will be unique, custom made... He'll ask for more features that's for sure... Problem is how much do I charge per hour then? It's not like I have any papers certifying that I'm a genius j/k

[RobDog888]

What you could do is get a few quotes from some decent software companies to do the same work but dont give out any details of what company it is for. Pretent it is yours. Then see what they are going to charge for it and then you can come in a bit lower. If the company gets any other quotes tehn you will be sure yours is lower and in the market range.

For our clients we charge a minimum of $95 an hour if they are a good revenue producting client and a max of $140 and an hour for clients or new clients we havent done much work with.

[manavo11]

95-140? *cough* I definatelly wansn't thinking in that range! Thanks for the suggestion Rob

[RobDog888]

Maybe I should add that we have cities and government agencies as the meat of our revenue. Now for the commercial sector we dont go any lower then $85 and hour. Even our printer repair tech's are billed out at $85 an hour. Basically nothing lower then the 85, but for a contractor you could also see what the market rate is on the job listings like at monster.com, dice.com, etc.

[manavo11]

That's still higher than I was thinking...

Thanks again Rob

[RobDog888]

Hey, maybe soon you will be able to buy your owl a real gold chain.
Dont forget my 20% take of the gross sale of the project.

[manavo11]

Oh, yeah! A real gold chain? Not a yellow-created-in-paint-chain? Wow!

And it'll sell so much! It took me 3 hours and I did pretty much everything the guy wants (so far )...

[RobDog888]

Do you have a contract or P.O. with this guy to make sure he pays?

[manavo11]

No, I was just bored last night It's actually a friend of mine that is supposed to make the program and sell it (friend from uni) and he doesn't care that much about the money. He mostly wants this as motivation to read up on programming (in general) so he can learn... Sad part is, he got the job offer and barely knows programming, when I know programming and don't even know where to look to get a job

[RobDog888]

I dont know about over there but over here the job market is tough to get into, but when you have the working experience then there are no troubles.

How did he find the job? You should do what he did to find/get that job. Also make sure hes not playing you and pretending to not care. I dont know anyone that doesnt care about money.

[manavo11]

It's not that he's doing it for free... He said that maybe he'll give me part of the money and code it with him, showing him what I'm doing along the way... So much for that idea, I already made it

This guy organises soccer tournaments here and my friend participated in the tournament, got to know the guy, the guy happended to mention that it's hard for him to keep track of scores/points for everything, my friend offers to make him something... So to follow what my friend did means I have to... get luckier?