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Thread: Tony Novak of 2A... Help is greatly appreciated.

  1. #1
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    This message is for T Novak, I hope you find this,

    I while back I read a post to which you wrote a reply. In this reply you gave some factors involved when pricing a proposal. I am currently trying to create a custom questionnaire for my clients to guide me in creating proposals. I ran into trouble coming up with the appropriate questions.

    In your reply you wrote the following:

    There are SO many factors that influence and dictate pricing:

    -Is it a Fixed bid job or Time and Materials?
    -When do you need delivery by?
    -New Project, Facelift Project, or Major Overhaul?
    -How many pages of content are we talking about?
    -Any dynamic content feeds? Database? XML Streams?
    -Do you need our staff onsite at your facilities?
    -Hybrid of Flash and HTML, only HTML, or only Flash?
    -Flash Navigation, or the ability to switch between both?
    -Administrative tools for performing updates?
    -How many graphics?
    -Do you have your own graphics?
    -Do you want to license Stone images or Comstock images?
    -Who is responsible for integration?
    -Is your content written, or do you need a copywriter?
    -Is this site going to be in English only, or do we need International translations?
    -Who's building the back-end?
    -Is our company producing the solution, or will we be working in concert with your team?
    ...
    (etc, etc, etc.)

    Every single question above and over 100+ others must be answered in order to effectively determine "price". Skill of the firm, customer demand, production efficencies, and related will help you determine an hourly rate. But at the end of the day you don't ask the right questions you may determine that you can do the project in 20 hours and it will end up taking 100 hours. By my calculations that $50 per hour just worked out to be $10 per hour (much less after taxes).

    Could you recommend other variables that play a vital role in pricing web/multimedia projects, or perhaps some literature on this subject.

    Everyone's advise is greatly appriciated.

  2. #2
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    Moved from the CL. This is most likely where the conversation took place.

  3. #3
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    do you actually buy the images for 29 dollars or do you use the comping versions of them?

    cheers

  4. #4
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    First of all, half those questions you asked, a client will just look at you and go "Huh?"

    "Stone, Comstock? Who are they?"

    "What's time and materials?"

    "What's a hybrid of Flash and HTML mean?"

    There are certain questions you need to answer, after speaking to and forming a relationship with the client. There are only a reletively few "standard questions" that can be asked of a client, the rest you need to use your experience and work out the best solution to their bottom line requirement yourself.

    You're supposed to lead the client, not the other way around.

    Cheers
    Dave



  5. #5
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    Originally posted by k7m7t
    do you actually buy the images for 29 dollars or do you use the comping versions of them?

    cheers
    if you only saw my comstock purchased images account!!

  6. #6
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    Originally posted by TheOriginalFlashDavo
    First of all, half those questions you asked, a client will just look at you and go "Huh?"

    "Stone, Comstock? Who are they?"
    "What's a hybrid of Flash and HTML mean?"

    Stone and Comstock are companies that sell copyright free and copyright protected images.
    A hybrid site incorporates some flash elements like a navigation and some other elements along with a dynamic html.

  7. #7
    An Inconvenient Serving Size hurricaneone's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Sybersnake
    Originally posted by TheOriginalFlashDavo
    First of all, half those questions you asked, a client will just look at you and go "Huh?"

    "Stone, Comstock? Who are they?"
    "What's a hybrid of Flash and HTML mean?"

    Stone and Comstock are companies that sell copyright free and copyright protected images.
    A hybrid site incorporates some flash elements like a navigation and some other elements along with a dynamic html.
    Hi - I think the explanation of Stone and Comstock is appreciated (I'd never heard of those particular retailers, for example), but I'm pretty sure that Davo was posing both those as customer questions, not actualy asking what those things are for his own edification.

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    Thanks hurricane, good to see not everyone's sleeping around here...


  9. #9
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    Originally posted by hurricaneone
    Originally posted by Sybersnake
    Originally posted by TheOriginalFlashDavo
    First of all, half those questions you asked, a client will just look at you and go "Huh?"

    "Stone, Comstock? Who are they?"
    "What's a hybrid of Flash and HTML mean?"

    Stone and Comstock are companies that sell copyright free and copyright protected images.
    A hybrid site incorporates some flash elements like a navigation and some other elements along with a dynamic html.
    Hi - I think the explanation of Stone and Comstock is appreciated (I'd never heard of those particular retailers, for example), but I'm pretty sure that Davo was posing both those as customer questions, not actualy asking what those things are for his own edification.
    well, ya never know who is browsing these threads! There might be someone who might find great use for that information.

  10. #10
    Slinky Designs slinky2000's Avatar
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    what has the subject line got to do with this thread?

  11. #11
    An Inconvenient Serving Size hurricaneone's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Sybersnake
    Originally posted by hurricaneone
    Originally posted by Sybersnake
    Originally posted by TheOriginalFlashDavo
    First of all, half those questions you asked, a client will just look at you and go "Huh?"

    "Stone, Comstock? Who are they?"
    "What's a hybrid of Flash and HTML mean?"

    Stone and Comstock are companies that sell copyright free and copyright protected images.
    A hybrid site incorporates some flash elements like a navigation and some other elements along with a dynamic html.
    Hi - I think the explanation of Stone and Comstock is appreciated (I'd never heard of those particular retailers, for example), but I'm pretty sure that Davo was posing both those as customer questions, not actualy asking what those things are for his own edification.
    well, ya never know who is browsing these threads! There might be someone who might find great use for that information.
    Hmmm, maybe...

    - no worries Davo, BTW. I try to keep at least one eye open (and one synapse functioning) when I'm checking up on the big Fk.

  12. #12
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    [QUOTE]Originally posted by Sybersnake
    well, ya never know who is browsing these threads! There might be someone who might find great use for that information.
    I'm sure there might be, but the point was that the question wasn't asked by me, that's all.

    Now, if we get back an track about what should and should not be in a proposal...


  13. #13
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    As I am sure TP Novak will tell you -
    Those questions would be better asked in person where you could explain what exactly 'flash' vs. 'html' is.

    There is nothing like answering:

    'Well here, lets log on to the net, and I will show you.'

    I am not so sure this would go over well in a questionaire type of document. Just my opinion anyway.


  14. #14
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    Sorry, I'm coming along a little late here... I've been up in San Jose at the FlashKit Conference and just got back.

    In response to Davo's first post, I'm afraid you are taking my comments much to literally here. Perhaps I should add the caveat that you need to qualify each question for understanding as you ask it?

    However, the point was more focused along making sure that you cover the many many issues/considerations that will inevitably affect your pricing estimate. The difference between Stone and Comstock is more important when you are considering the difference between a $29 photo and a $375 photo...

    Myself, I've tried the checklist idea in the past. The problem is that when you are done, you typically have a 4-5 page (or more) document, that no client wants to fill out. My suggestion is that you keep it for yourself. That way, you can cover the questions which are actually Applicable to a specific project, cover them thoroughly, and you are then providing a more personal service.

    Given that no two client engagements are ever exactly the same, my suggestion would be to break down your list according to the anatomy of the various solutions you could potentially provide. Use your best judgement and always be thorough. Ask yourself what you would need to know? It's a bummer when you think the client wants something in Java for example and in the end they tell you they want the back-end coded in ASP.

    In the end, the idea is to be 100% familiar with the clients requirements, while at the same time evaluating your abilities to deliver the project to specification and expectations.



  15. #15
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    Originally posted by tpnovak

    In response to Davo's first post, I'm afraid you are taking my comments much to literally here. Perhaps I should add the caveat that you need to qualify each question for understanding as you ask it?
    Huh? You hadn't posted any comments for me to take too literally????

    Besides that confusing sentence, the rest backs up what I and others were saying - some things you just work out for yourself by knowing the client and their requirements.

    Cheers
    Dave

  16. #16
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    I think Novak meant the post starter, not OFDavo..

  17. #17
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    i want to know why novak has a picture when he has only 111 posts.. I was cheated!

    And yes, i think he was talking to the thread starter.

  18. #18
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    nearly everything stone has is rightsprotected images. Meaning you can use it only once.(per purchase) Which sucks.

  19. #19
    An Inconvenient Serving Size hurricaneone's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Sybersnake
    i want to know why novak has a picture when he has only 111 posts.. I was cheated!

    And yes, i think he was talking to the thread starter.
    I saw the other day, included in a thread over in the CL, that some moderators do not have a bunch of posts - their related experience and not their post counts give them the title straight off, which is fair enough. I'm sure that TN's been around the block more times than I can imagine, and trusting the powers-that-be here at FK, I'm sure he is worthy of the title. That said, even though he is worthy as a moderator, he should still only get the title, not an avatar.

  20. #20
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    yeah, we all had to work for our avatars.

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