Freelance pricing and the Dolgoy rule

I’ve begun grappling and stumbling my way back towards freelancing with different kinds of web and creative work, and I’m learning A LOT, fast.

For a couple of years, I’ve been spoiled with good rolling contracts with a company that values quality code, and provides me a nice safe environment in which to practice my trade.

Venturing out totally solo carries a lot of surprises and traps I don’t even know I’m setting for myself. For instance, last week, I took on a project to update a couple of menus on a web site, so it would no longer use Flash. (Flash isn’t read by Apple mobile devices, so for authors like me, it’s particularly important not to use it anywhere as essential as a menu, which would prevent happy fans from viewing my web site on a brand new iPad while contemplating buying my e-books– horror!)

“A couple of menus!” I thought to myself. “How long could that take?” So I quoted a low price, expecting the work to be snappy.

Imagine my surprise when I got access to the server, had a good look at the files and structure and realized that on top of using poorly formed, deprecated code (which I had already anticipated) the site did not use any includes.

An include is a line of code that tells a page to go get another chunk of code from a central storage space. For instance, JillMurray.com uses includes in the header, footer, and sidebars. This way, every time a new page is generated, I don’t have to copy and paste those common parts of the site– they’re automatically included. And if I need to update the header, I just have to update it in one place; it will be included in all the pages across my site.

Not so with this client’s site. One page at a time, I watched as my quick, snappy job turned into hours and then days of detailed, patient code embroidery, as I copied my changes over to every single one of the client’s pages, one at a time, in four places on every page. (I did briefly consider building the includes in myself, but there were other practical barriers.)

I have no one to blame but myself. Five years ago, when I was freelancing regularly, this would have been one of the first things I checked before giving a price quote. But today I find myself in the unusual position of having far more advanced coding skills than I used to, while also have forgotten the basics of freelancing.

That’s why, for the next little while, I’ll be applying the Dolgoy rule to incoming projects: “calculate how long each component will take, add them all together, add 40%… and double it.”

I think that even with this safety, I’ll probably still underestimate the time requirements of the next few projects… but at least I’ll have just enough change in my pocket to buy myself a cup of coffee while I think about how to do it better next time.

I hope prospective clients will read between the lines, and take note: right now is a GREAT time to book me for a flat fee; think how much extra work you might be getting for free! And I’m still feeling pretty chipper about it, too.