Jordan
Ah yes, the old "I gave them a bid, it took 250% of the hours I'd projected and they won't pay the difference!" problem.
Take heart: this happens to just about everyone when they start out, but if you're going to run a "real" business you will learn to do it pretty quickly. And there will be times even in a mature business when you discover you've under-estimated.
Funny, isn't it, that nobody ever worries about consistently over-charging clients? ;^)
Seeing someone else's bids probably isn't going to tell you anything helpful about the way
you work though it might make you less nervous about your practices.
The best way to learn to price accurately is:
- practice. As you do more work you'll become more comfortable judging how long things take.
- keep track of everything. This is incredibly tedious, I know, but the only way you'll learn how long on average it takes [ital]you[/ital] to write a bid is to write a bid. The only way you'll learn how long it takes you on average to do any part of a job is to time it.
- use what you know and what you learn. I can't tell you how often I encounter people who collect data about everything but never bother to analyze the information. But even if you can't stand to keep formal records, think back to how long things take you--in days, maybe if not hours--as you're drawing up your next bid.