In this Hasty Treat (Short episode) we answer your questions about Freelancing - how to charge more, building a portfolio, finding clients and our thoughts on using pre-made WordPress themes.

Get Jonathan Stark's free 6 day email course on value based pricing for freelancers over at valuepricingbootcamp.com.

Jonathan Stark is the author of Hourly Billing is Nuts and has worked with companies such as Staples, Time and T-Mobile. These days he routinely commands an effective hourly rate of $2000+ per hour, so I'd say you should check his course out.

Show Notes

1:00

Our first episode on Freelancing - how to slam dunk freelancing

4:00

Q: Ideas on building a portfolio and landing those first customers
Your portfolio doesn't really matter as a web developer
Your reputation and referrals is key
Reputation in the community is important
Put yourself out there!
You have to tell people what you do
You have to ask people if they need work
Good communication is key

8:00

Q: What are some strategies for budging and quoting?
Understanding what a website is worth to a client
Talking to your client ablut pricing
Asking how much they have available to spend
Chunking the project into multiple bits so they can build on it

14:00

Q: How do you tell your existing clients that you need to charge more?
Clean Scope / Scope Creep
Quote in Features and pieces, not entire projects
Fixed Pricing
Becoming a better/faster developer
Getting more expensive as you move
Don't charge hourly
Taking big Ls

18:30

Q: What is your opinion on value based pricing?
We're huge proponents
Clients don't like hourly billing
The client should know what you are paying and what you are getting

22:00

Q: When is it okay to use WordPress and pre-made themes? Is that cheating?
The beauty of open source
The business Wes answer
The developer Wes answer
Building your own starter files
Undoing other developer's work

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