Recently my brother had a skate ramp built in our back yard, and the company who did it, dXc Ramp Builders, did a great job on it. It’s sturdy, pretty big and put together well. My brother loves it. To check out pictures of it, you can go here.
To contact dXc Ramp Builders, you can call 845-692-9589 or check out the MySpace. Tell them Phil Casabona sent you. Later
To follow up on a mini-series I started here, I guess the first thing I should write about is what to charge. When I was first starting out, as a HS Sophomore with not to much experience past Microsoft Frontpage, I really did not know what to charge. I also had a small problem with asking for money. My first client site I got a cool $200 for which, at the time, I thought was pretty great. I set my prices pretty low though. $10/hr for for a site, and at the time I wasn’t developing anything ground breaking.
So how did I know to charge more? Well, honestly, I owe that to a mentor of mine, someone who knows business. He told me I needed to be confident in my work, and that I needed to charge more. This really, is for a couple of reason. Most people looking for a web site now-a-days want something good. I didn’t understand why people weren’t coming to me even though i was the ‘most affordable’. The cheapest. And that is exactly why. If people are going to pay good money for a site, they want to hire someone who knows they can do a good job. That is reflected in how much you charge. At $10/hr, I lacked confidence, and clients. Two- the time I put into it is usually more than what I charge. In web development, it’s tough to gage just how long you will work on a project, and if you tell a client one price, you better stay close to it. I have been phasing in a new way of charging, where it is more of a flat rate, based on what they want. This price comes from me charging $25-35/hr and estimating how much time it will take. I can estimate now, after doing it for a few years.
I feel at about $30/hr, it is worth my time to develop a nice site. This price will raise steadily over the next year most likely, as I grow closer and closer to graduation. Soon I will need to charge enough to support myself, especially if I want to be a freelancer/business owner. But of-course, I better be able to offer the products people want if I decide im going to charge over $35/hr for a web site. Later.
I seldom write about JLC Web Design on this site. Really, it’s only when I am doing a write up on a client site. I never really had much to write about. I guess now that it’s starting to take off, along with the fact that (even though it’s only been a week,) I am now working a desk job as a web developer, I see things in a different light.
I have always known owning a business was right for me. Since I was about 10 I have wanted to, I just never knew in what. In high school I did some computer related work that kind of got me started, then my parish came to me for a website and I had my first web design client.
Getting started I didn’t really know too much, just the thought that ‘Wow, people will pay me money to do what I love.’ I didn’t know why other firms were charging so much when there was virtually no cost to actually develop a site. I of-course learned in time other web technologies and skills that were a little harder, and that people were willing to pay for someone with that knowledge. Now I see, as I am approaching my senior year in college, that if I do want to run my own business and support myself, I have to charge a certain amount, even if I work from home and have no employees. I have also come to learn that I might want to try to develop a sort of side project for extra income.
Throughout the summer, I am going to try to talk about some of the trials and tribulations I have experienced being a young man trying to start my web design business on the side. That is on the side of school, summer jobs, extra curriculars. Making time for clients and work while trying to learn the newest stuff, as well as learning what I have to in the class room. Learning that if I want to land a job, sometimes I have to take a hit in the price of the site to get my name out there. I hope that I can pursue this mini-series, and that people will read it and take my advice, as well as offer me some, as I am still a budding entrepreneur. Later.
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