Video, et al -- I've been an independent SysAdmin for about seven years, but have only been doing independent programming for a couple, so others will certainly have more coding guidance and experience than I. All I can definitely say is that I'm still working on the knack of properly estimating my time! :-/
What I can say, though, is that if for any reason you're not comfortable with the folks with/for whom you will work then it's probably better to not or at least best to get it in writing and get as much as you can up front. Take the extra time to work out a contract that covers the sorts of services you'll provide (I would say that it shouldn't bother to include specifics of a particular bid; submit that separately as a quote or estimate instead), how and when payments are due (by check or other and terms like net 15, net 30, upon recepit) and what happens if they aren't (grace period, late fees, interest, ...), perhaps what happens if you can't complete your end, and who owns the finished product (unless that's declared to be specified in each quote). Unfortunately, it's generally true that if you can trust your partners (or clients) then you don't need a contract and if you can't then even the best one won't help you, so that gets you back to the "get it up front" part. For small jobs I require the full payment up front; for large jobs I do half up front and half upon completion. For hourly estimate jobs (or long-term hourly jobs like a 4-month one I did late this summer) I submit semiweekly invoices as well as, if desired, time sheets outlining what I did when and sometimes require a starter payment up front. All of my invoices have been net 15 but I'm trying to move to upon receipt :-) and have done so for any sys admin calls that I make. So that brings us to your licensing questions. Some of them may be alleviated by their not being able to do anything with the PHP code because they are not coders; they'd have to call you to make any changes for another site anyway. But otherwise it should be covered in your quote (which will clearly outline everything you're to do -- which is, by the way, just like a contract, for the benefit of both both at the beginning and the end), and you can reasonably argue that code written to be suitable for reuse takes more time and costs more. And, finally, down to pricing... I estimate my time based on the plan that I'd write everything from scratch, since some if it will be and other parts of it might still require some modification. That then gives me a number that I can perhaps adjust to come up with a quote. If you're working on a straight hourly basis, then you might be able to either bill for some or all of the hours it WOULD take you to write the module you'll pull out of your toolbox or bill a higher rate for implementing these library modules of yours. I tend to lean toward the former, and it's been OK so far (but, admittedly, I don't have much of a library!). Another thing that helps is to figure out your client's budget and how they'll like to spend it -- not so much for the purposes of sucking it dry :-) but to see things from their point of view. An example from the SA world is a client that wanted a hundred machines updated and expected to pay someone about $5k to someone who could do one per hour, or about $50/hr. The guy who got the job confirmed that they were happy with paying $50 per *machine* and quoted the job -- and then invested about 20 hours of his own time in building and testing a distribution server which he then used to rebuild the 100 machines in another 20 hours. He did the work in less time (and vastly less from the client's perspective) and everyone was happy even though he got paid a higher rate :-) Just what sort of "job opportunity" is this? Will you be an hourly employee who does whatever he is told, or a completely independent contractor implementing something to a set of general specs, or something in between? That goes a long way, too, toward your determination of who should own and control what. What's a proper pay? Those spending nearly always think it's lower than those receiving :-) As a general rule, if this isn't either a permanent job or a long-term contract (in which case you shouldn't be worrying about code ownership, IMHO), you need to bill for about half of the year to make your desired annual target because the other half will be spent on training, practicing, and hunting. Whether you apply that on a code licensing basis or an hourly work rate basis, make sure that you'll make enough to be around later! HTH & HAND & best of luck! :-D -- David T-G * There is too much animal courage in (play) [EMAIL PROTECTED] * society and not sufficient moral courage. (work) [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Mary Baker Eddy, "Science and Health" http://justpickone.org/davidtg/ Shpx gur Pbzzhavpngvbaf Qrprapl Npg!
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