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It's probably just semantics but to me, that's not a "fixed price bid". It's time and materials mascarading as fixed price.
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Well, I think it's a Third Way (he said, with his best Bill Clinton smirk). I guess what the advice that I would offer Michael is this: many clients want to avoid time/material bids, but they might be open to a range -- in other words, "I anticipate that this will take from 10-15 hours of my time. What I would like to do is charge an hourly rate, with a guarantee that the price will fall within that range." In particular, I have found smaller clients very open to this approach. That might (or might not) be the case here.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. - Bertrand Russell