Re: FLASH: OT: Rates . . "billable" hours

[Daniel Votino]

on billable hours:


The work we have begun here in Flash is considered to be 70% billable.


(please note, those who are senitive to rate quoting, I do not quote the

rate.  if someone would like a rate they simply need to inquire as any

normal person does in every day life)


The seventy percent is not based upon the fact that I or someone here will

tweak it all to hell really.

It is for two reasons.  You cannot bill a client for 100 percent of an eight

hour day unless your sole task in the company is to Flash for eight hours a

day, in which case, the client, believing in your ability to provide him

with his design work, judges whether your estimate in total hours is what he

can afford.


Chances are, if you work for yourself you will tweak it all to hell and put

twice the hours you quoted.  If you are in a firm, you will remain in the

firm so long as you remain on time and within budget.  Othewise the firm

cannot afford you.  IOW, you'll do the same as above.  If we really billed

for our hours, no one could afford us anyway!!!  Therefore, billing hourly

and making clear to the client that only 70% of what you've quoted will be

billed for is1)  a releif to the client who wondering if there is a break in

there anywhere and 2)realistic if you work one job at a time but still have

other things to do with your time.


The question as to percentage comes down to this.  How much of your work

hours will you spend on their project?  Now, quote the project for how many

weeks, days, months whatever at how many hours you work a day, subtract that

percentage and there's your billable hours.  In the end, around here anyway,

it comes down to one thing and that is not the hours.  We look at a project

and determine if all are working to the standard level of potential our

company has set, it will take "this" much time with this many designers

working on this project.  We tell the client it may take more but in our

professional opinion, it "should" only take "this" long.  We add the hours

of "this" not the other, subtract the percentage and there we have it.  They

decide if its in their budget.


Any firm or individual who sells themselves short on flash programming will

be doing it for a long time (selling themselves short and never getting

where they want, flashing the bog boyz).  Do not sell your comapnies or

yourselve's short!  We all know what that guy who knows how to replace a two

dollar part on our car charges.  Flash is the same thing but a whole lot

different!  It requires tools that most people dont know how to use.  I can

change a radiator on my car.  I have a wrench and a monkey can figure out

how to use it.  Still that monkey would make 38 per half hour in the real

world (not implying auto mechanics are monkeys at all)  Do you think that

monkey woudl know how to use the toolz in a Flash programmers toolbox?  Does

he understand "streaming" technologies how to properly implement them over

various tranfer rate connections?  Does he know HTML, JavaScript, VBScript,

who taught him Photoshop and various image compressions, does he know audio

and its various aspects over the web . . can he create it from nothing . . .

implement files on servers, check MIME settings by editing Server Registries

without crahing the whole server . . . can he troubleshoot . . . pay

attention to processing varaibles, level setting, and on and on and on?

Does he spend ALL of his time doing it, learning it, perfecting it,

expanding upon it?  IOW, If it is your trade, your expertise and you know it

better than anyone in your arena than you ought to paid what the best get

paid.  Any client can price shop, and will if they are smart.  The question

is, can the other guys "do" what you can do?  Will they bill for straight

"time" or will they bill for how long it "should" take to complete it at a

"billable hourly" rate?  Ok . . . im rambling . . time to go home and go to

bed.


night . . .


~daniel owt!



PS, "hey let's all charge a million dollars an hour, whatta ya say?"

<-----just in case, thats a joke



Love & Rockets,     Daniel Votino

Project Manager, The Flash Brothers Design Group

510 E. Francis Ave. Level0 Suite# DESCRY, Spokane, WA 99207

509.755.9904 / 509.484.8466 / FAX: 509.484.8461

www.flashbrothers.com

-----Original Message-----

From: Erik [gearik] Mattheis <

gourmandizergourmandizer [dot] com

>

To:

flashershocker [dot] com

 <

flashershocker [dot] com

>

Date: Wednesday, February 10, 1999 2:06 AM

Subject: Re: FLASH: OT: Rates



>Hey, I've a great idea ... let's form a UNION!

>

>The issue of whether we can discuss rates seems pointless to me ... we're

>all in uncharted waters here as the demand for Flash is a very recent

>phenomenon ... there are in general very few people competent enought to

>even charge an hourly rate ... we want to be fair to ourselves and clients

>... this is a totally different thing than competitors having a pact to

>raise their prices 10% per year.

>

>A year or so ago, I read that the rate for Flash stuff was 25-50% over

>"regular" site design rates ... when setting my rate I considered that

>Flash content is at least twice as in demand now as back then, so I figured

>the "percentage over" should be at least twice as great ... and Wayne's

>response to my question was that an experienced Flash designer should get

>$75-90/hr agreed with that.

>

>My big thought on the matter now is: what constitutes a "billable hour?"

>Flash is different than html/JavaScript/other languages - which either work

>or don't and it is very clear when you're "debugging."

>

>But Flash ... what if you spend an hour nudging and tweeking three

>different tweened symbols to get them all to synch up right? Is that hour

>billable, or should it be considered non-billable because you're spending

>your time getting it wrong?

>

>There's intrinsically a lot of trial and error involved with making

>anything but the most basic Flash animations ...

>

>Thoughts?

>__________________________

>Erik [gearik] Mattheis

><http://www.gourmandizer.com>

>__________________________

>

>

>------------------------------------------------------------------------

>To UNSUBSCRIBE send: unsubscribe flasher in the body of an

>

email to list-managershocker [dot] com. Problems to: ownershocker [dot] com

>N.B. Email address must be the same as the one you used to subscribe.

>

For info on digest mode send: info flasher to list-managershocker [dot] com

------------------------------------------------------------------------

To UNSUBSCRIBE send: unsubscribe flasher in the body of an

email to

list-managershocker [dot] com

.  Problems to:

ownershocker [dot] com

N.B. Email address must be the same as the one you used to subscribe.

For info on digest mode send: info flasher to

list-managershocker [dot] com