AppleScript + Consulting = Profit?

January 22, 2006 3:46 PM

I was laid off recently and want to use my knowledge of AppleScript to do some consulting. I have a meeting this week about automating tasks for a local newspaper, but am uncertain how to bill such a project.

How does one determine rates? Should it be by the hour or for the entire project? Is the source code typically given as well?

posted by the biscuit man to Work & Money (1 answer total)

Your rates just have to be locally competitive with those of other amateur programmers (not meant to be disparaging, I mean as compared to programmers with enterprise software-development experience). If there's an Apple users group in your area you might ask them what AppleScript contractors are getting.

Then, here's what I'd do in the meeting: try to come to enough of an understanding of the work to be done to estimate the number of hours it will take you, and then offer them a flat bid for the entire project at 20% over that. Do this openly, explaining that it caps their costs and protects them from overruns, and incents you to get the job done quickly. If they ask what prevents you from cutting corners to get done and paid, the answer is: you want them to come back to you for future projects.

(If the project is too large to get to a work-time estimate in the meeting, offer a time-and-materials estimate for an initial requirements-analysis phase, at the end of which they'll pay for your work to date and you'll give them a flat bid for completion and the requirements documentation which they can bid out if they don't like your number.)

Try to get a phased payout of the bid amount: say 50% up front + 50% on delivery or acceptance. They'll probably want to negotiate that, which is fine, but don't give it up completely - it's good precedent for larger later projects.

Offer the client an unlimited license to modify or reuse the source code, while retaining your ability to do the same. This is part of your pitch for the flat fee: they can hire someone else to maintain the code if they don't like your performance.

You can also try for an ongoing maintenance contract - some minimal monthly fee that guarantees your availability for support, bugfixes, and minor feature adds.
posted by nicwolff at 4:26 PM on January 22, 2006