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Thread: Freelance payments UK

  1. #1
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    I have just made a deal with a company to do all their Flash movies and bits of HTML and stuff.....

    This is pretty much the first paid stuff ive done and need to know what to charge....

    The stuff I will be doing is just small animations, banners, menu's, logo's and maybe the odd small site.
    Now take into consideration im a graduate and am just happy to have got some work. The company is small and charge bout £60-100 per page....

    some of the work i will be doin can be done in hours, some a day, some a week....

    Should i predict how long each project will take and then charge by the hour? or set a overall price for each.

    Thanks all

  2. #2
    Modding with Class JabezStone's Avatar
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    You've made a deal with this company and haven't discussed pricing with them yet? You should already have been past this point before you signed a contract or made a "deal".
    I would suggest that you sit down with them and discuss how much they are willing to pay for your work, and then you can counter with your own offer. But in the future, I would recommend not finalizing your deal until after all the facts about the project are known.

  3. #3
    FK M.D. pheck's Avatar
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    you might consider going hourly if possible, since you don't have much to go on as of yet as to how long stuff takes you. once you start doing paid work you'll keep track of your hours a lot closer than ever before, and you'll probably be a bit surprised by how quickly things add up!

  4. #4
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    sorry jabezstone. i didnt word my explanation correctly. Its just a verbal agreement i have with the m.d. that i will do some work for them. no contract have been signed but that brings up other problems i have:
    1. what type of contract do freelancers use
    2. Do you use invoices?
    3. what about paying tax on your earnings?

    any ideas or advice?

  5. #5
    FK M.D. pheck's Avatar
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  6. #6

  7. #7
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    cheers for that pheck

    just out of interest how much would you charge a one off fee for this:

    http://www.pd012b0218.pwp.blueyonder...t/jigsaw2.html

    this is the type of crap im doin but dont know how much to charge for. It took me about 5 hours, but was gonna call it a day if charged by hour

    what do you think?

  8. #8
    FK M.D. pheck's Avatar
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    i think it looks good. general policy is not to discuss hourly rates, but there are many threads on how to come to your own conclusion basing it on some important factors. a quick look-thru the board room and you will see many of these threads.

    in general, what i have learned to do is figure out how long it's going to take me, hourly rate i feel comfortable with, add overhead, and then multiply times 3 (this accounts for admin time, paperwork, design, thinking about it, thinking about thinking about it, you get the idea). the actual development of it is usu the minority of the work.

  9. #9
    Monkey Wrangler monsterfx's Avatar
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    Here's an article on setting rates (may be helpful):

    http://www.hwg.org/resources/faqs/ratesFAQ.html.

    And I know it's been beat to death in other threads, but it really is illegal (or at least too close to illegal for comfort) to discuss exact pricing among professionals in the same business. See following URL for more info:

    http://www.hwg.org/resources/faqs/priceFAQ.html

    -monster.


  10. #10
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    im not interested in how much other people charge. just how they work their freelancing fee out.

    soz if ive trod on anyones toes. just a simple guy trying to make a living!!!

  11. #11
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    You will have to register with the Tax office as a Sole Trader here in the UK so you can pay your National Insurance stamps. They will help you out with what you need to do and send you leaflets etc and a business pack. Then you will be legit to do business.

    You pay tax at the end of the tax year, how much depends on your earnings of course. So think up a company name (or sue your own name) and phone the tax office first. Get a business account setup with your bank with the same details.

    You can then invoice clients, MS word comes with some templates to use. I'm not VAT registered myself as I dont earn a lot (yet) this means I dont put the 17.5% VAT breakdown part on my invoices. You can VAT register yourself if you want, some clients like to see this as they can claim VAT back.

    I'm just starting out myself so I may not be correct on everything here, but thats what I've done according to the tax office information booklets and such.

    As for pricing, it depends. Its hard to know what to charge until you've had enough experiance to know how long a job has taken you. I usually do it by the hour although sometimes I know it will take a week and just charge a flat fee.

    On contracts, luckily all my jobs are via word-of-mouth and friends so I've never had to use a contract, if the clients requires it or you feel you need one then use something like scottmanning's I suppose.

    Hope this helps in some way.

  12. #12
    Monkey Wrangler monsterfx's Avatar
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    Gaz - no toes trod upon, just wanted to make sure everyone in the thread was aware of that. It's been a pretty big topic of discussion lately.

    -monster.

  13. #13
    Senior Member RazoRmedia's Avatar
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    Gaz,

    I have been in a similar situation with a company doing a website, some video work and a number of flash animations for use on a cd-rom etc. I found that instead of charging per hour, I charged per 'section' or per movie. As the work is continued, I could balance money to make sure I was getting payed fairly. For instance, I quoted them a streaming video at £500 as I thought I would just have to run their existing 80meg video through cleaner and make it smaller. It turned out it needed subtitles and a few more bits and pieces doing to it, therefore I went well over budget. So for the next few pieces of work I did, I added on £100 here, £100 there to make it up.

    Charging per hour can be easier to keep track of but I think it always looks bad to write on an invoice

    3 hours @ £60 per hour = £180
    Anyway, good luck Gaz, just remember, with a situation like this, keeping the client happy can sometimes prove more fruitful than an immediate lump sum.

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