RE: FN-FORUM: Is this fair? I cant decide...

date posted 1st August 2007 19:08

Fiaz Khan wrote:
> I got a call today from someone starting out in web development. It
> was a typical networking type call, just trying to get his name out
> there.
>
> I did in fact, this morning, get a small piece of work that i wasnt
> going to have time to do so i asked him to quote for it. He came back
> with rates that you would expect from a developer with years of
> experience and a fairly substantial portfolio, neither of which he
> had.
>
> It got me thinking, is it fair for people starting out to be charging
> rates that more experienced developers charge? My gut feeling is to
> say no, its not fair, its taken me a long time and a lot of hard
> graft/late nights to get to a point where i can charge such rates, so
> to have someone just "start up" charge the same seems unfair.. or am
> i being a grumpy old git?

Hmm, tricky when you consider that a frequent (and justified IMHO) moan on
here is that clients won't pay experienced prfessionals appropriate rates
because there are always kids in their bedrooms (approx= startup developers)
who will do it for peanuts.

I would say on a project pricing basis he would be right to charge industry
appropriate project rates but would then have to ensure appropriate delivery
quality and if that took him five times as long then the hourly rate sorts
itself out. If he fundamentally can't deliver the same quality however long
he takes (and arguably that could be the case) then he should possibly be
charging less but to do so would not necessarily be good marketing.

For hourly rate work he should certainly be charging a lower rate, no
start-up developer can deliver the same output (quality and/or quantity) as
a skilled experienced developer IMHO.

Regards,

Dai