>>>Now I have a new client who wanted a fixed price bid.>/i> >>> >>>The only way that you can successfully do a fixed bid project is to have specs that are written in stone and make sure that the client knows up front that any changes in requirements must be paid for at your hoursly rate. Otherwise, you may wind up working for minimum wage. >> >>I am not very experienced with this, but I would expect that you would have to do a lot of requirements gathering and design documents up front - how do you charge for these? What if you spend significant time completing these documents and have the client back out before any agreements? > >You charge to write the spec. The spec becomes the property of the client and if they decide they don't like your price for the job outlined in the spec they can shop it elsewhere.
That was my assumption. Thanks for verifying. I would like to branch out into the consulting world someday, but I just don't have enough regular clients right now.