Site Re-Design / Management

Theres a couple of local small/medium business around my area and I just got the idea of creating/redesigning some of these companies websites. Some are just horrendous and I'm sure they'd be satisfied with a design even made by me.

My question is how much do I charge for website management? Some might include fixing up some coding errors or constantly updating news on their website. What kind of payment plan should I go on? Hourly or monthly?

I know what I'm going to charge for the design / coding.

I suggest that you have them pay you every two weeks like a regular job does. For Price of doing it, i suggest doing it per update/change. Cause if for some reason one month they only need you twice, you may run out of cash the next month which can cause problems with car gas (depending on prices for where you live), food, etc.. but a general price range i'm not quite sure. Anyways good luck.

Originally Posted by OzoneBlog Cause if for some reason one month they only need you twice, you may run out of cash the next month which can cause problems with car gas

Very specific lol. personal experience?

I don't want to be 'employed' as their website manager cause I want to do it with multiple businesses. Unless I was 'employed' multiple times.

Any who, I'm focusing on one company for now. If they don't need constant updates or much managing, I'll move on to different companies.

Also, would I need to register myself as a business?

Since it's not really going to be a freelance thing, more of a sole proprietorship.

If I thought of myself as a freelancer, I don't have to do any of that non-sense stuff right?

And then tax issues.. augh

Are you a resident in the UK or US, in the UK I dont think tax is necessary, i will stand corrected though. I think you can just do it as a 'service' therefore you can agree terms and then deliver their site to them, no tax involved. If you want to set up a contract with them, search the forum for contract, theres hundreds of threads discussing it.

Alex.

I'm in the U.S. and thy government loves to suck up a good chunk of any earnings you make.

I think I'll go under a contract because it will protect both the client and myself.

Originally Posted by majorglory I'm in the U.S. and thy government loves to suck up a good chunk of any earnings you make.

You'd be surprised how other countries handle taxes. The U.S. really isn't that bad considering the rewards.

If you're talking about maintenance and updates, you need to have a contract for that specifically. And, more importantly, define what maintenance/updates are. Some clients will take advantage of you if you do not clearly define it and have you, basically, re-design a site one piece at a time. Maintenance is text/copy changes, image changes, or updating links.

Also, you'll be fine with a sole propietorship. You can simply do business with your name and have checks written to you. I recommend, however, for tax purposes, that you open a checking account for just the business. Keep 25%-30% of your earnings in the account for taxes. If it becomes a good and steady income, hire an accountant. You'll probably need to pay your taxes quarterly, which the accountant will help you with.

In regards to maintenance billing and contract set up, I suggest you determine how you want to do it, hourly or per update. I do it hourly and have 3 plans: pay by the hour, 5-hour plan, 10-hour plan. Wit the 5-hour and 10-hour plans, you keep a tab on the hours you've put into maintenance, that can be in a month or several months. Once the hours are up, the client has the choice to renew the contract, change plans, or not renew.

I don't suggest you simply leave a client when there are no more updates required. You don't want to burn bridges. Keep as many of your clients happy because word-of-mouth advertising can help make your business successful or take you down quickly. When you're talking about maintenance and updates, customer service is key.

=) Thanks for the advice chaka.