Price what you know · Module 3, Packages and projects · Read · 5 min

3.2 Pricing a project you’ve never done

Estimate the days, add the unknowns, quote one number.

1. Step 1

   Break it into parts.

   A kickoff, the research, two drafts, the final. Small parts are easier to guess.

2. Step 2

   Estimate each in days.

   Your best honest guess, not the hopeful one.

3. Step 3

   Add a share for the unknown.

   A quarter more for work you’ve done something like; a half more for work you haven’t.

4. Step 4

   Multiply by your day rate.

   Six billed hours at a floor of $134 is a day of about $850.

5. Step 5

   Quote one number.

   Not a range. A range is a negotiation the client will start at the bottom of.

6. Step 6

   Take half up front.

   It commits the client, and it pays you if the project stops halfway.

7. Step 7

   Write down what isn’t included.

   So the unknowns you didn’t price stay outside the quote.