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SkillShare - A place to discuss Web Standards and Web Design topics
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I know that an important part of completing a project successfully involves a lot of collaboration and input from your client. However I also know that meetings take up a lot of important time that could be spent on doing something useful and usually, the client could have just sent me an e-mail with the relevant information.
Sometimes, clients just like talking and take up hours at a time and go off on tangents. So I guess part of it means that I need to have more controlled, structured meetings and reign in the clients when they look like they're about to go off on one.
However, I've just recently spoken to a graphic designer with 40+ years of experience and learned that he charges £50 per hour for meetings! I was shocked, I'd never even considered charging for my time like that, but I guess it somehow makes sense.
How about everyone else? Do you charge for things like meetings and administration time? -
Of course. At Acopic and every other place I've worked (even as a freelancer) I always include a project management fee in my quotation. This usually equates to about 10-15% of the overall price. Producing schedules, attending meetings, producing weekly reports - these all take up your time but are necessary to the project so you've got to bill for them.
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It all comes down to opportunity cost -- what is the cost of managing the project? Most would say that your "company" should be growing at a profit of 25%, so for every $1 you put in your project, your business should be keeping 25cents.
So, to do this you figure out your hourly value, say $100/hour for simplicity -- then your billable rate should be roughly $125/hour. Now some will take PM off the profit (operating cost of running your business) and others will inflate their rate an additional 10% or so to cover the PM costs -- so now your rate has jumped to $135/hour.
In theory every second you spend with the client after you closed the deal should be billable. If you are working on a project rate as opposed to a straight hourly one, this becomes more challenging. If you are doing project rate then I say add a new line item that accounts for in-house client meetings.
You should be compensated for all time you spend on a client project -- whether it is in a meeting and even driving to their office. It is for you to determine how to best get compensated. If you are having a hard time getting clients at $100/hour, it is going to be that much hard to get them at $135/hour. So maybe you eat the cost as a loss and consider it an investment in growing your business.
I'd be really curious how others handle this topic.... anyone?
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