How do I invoice for good planning?
December 12th, 2006
I’ve been reading lately (The Parable of the Two Programmers, and in Info World) that good planning can be more important than the implementation of the plans. I think there’s a lot of truth to that. The better the plans, the easier the implementation. If the plans are hair-brained, it’ll take a genius to make the plans work. Generally, does an increase of time spent planning result in a decrease of time spent implementing? Probably so, to a point. And it most likely also results in a higher quality result.
So, now to my main issue. Most clients only like to pay for you do DO something, not to THINK about doing something. If you create a better solution, you should be paid better, right? Even if it takes less implementation time, but more planning time? It might be one thing in a full-time environment, but it seems more difficult to work effectively in a freelance position. In order to accomplish a challenging goal, a process must be observed. There must be the discovery of needs; research regarding environment, resources, standard methods; planning how to fit together existing tools and create custom results. Only after that can you start the “real” work of creating/implementing the produced thing. And the better you did in phase one (preparation), the easier phase two (implementation) will be.
I’m speaking mainly from the background of programming and web development, but I think this could apply in many cases.
I’ve read that freelancers should sell value rather than time. I’d sure like to collect the thoughts of others on this. I tried googling “how to bill for good planning” but that didn’t turn up anything useful.
March 7th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Billing has proven to very difficult for me as well. I am a very methodical person, and somtimes I can “pre-design” a layout in my head. So when I actually design it it is a snap. I don’t think that you should be punished for being efficient.
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:48 am
I’ve found that it is useful to work to an acceptable model and charge for the different phases in that model. For example, if you use the bog standard ADDIE and break down your project into these phases, you can then charge for both A and D (which are both planning) and then for the D and I (the actual doing part). The E part should probably be done by the client, but you could also provide the client with suitable rubrics to evaluate their site by.
June 26th, 2007 at 4:57 am
Well, I really share these ideas. Often thinking decreases development time (and price) for several times. But clients are still not willing to pay for thinking because they just do not see you thinking. Thay only want to pay for something they can really try. May be if client already knows you (or me, or John Smith) as a trusted developer, may be than they can invest something into design.
Well, thanks for these ideas. It is nice not to feel lonely and know that someone shares my thoughts
June 26th, 2007 at 10:57 am
This will always be a challenge. As better ways of doing things are worked out, they will be used more often, and you won’t have to do the hard thinking as frequently.
Another idea is to agree with your client on a price for what you actually deliver. So a big part of that is to determine what it is that you will deliver. Which is the “analysis” part of ADDIE which Derek mensions, above.
I think that still, the easy way out, is to invoice for time spent planning, researching, and developing. Or at least PART of the planning time.