How much should I charge?

[ArmoredMedia]

So I wanted to offer a website to sell to a local car company that has roughly $1mil worth of cars on there lot. Their website is very basic, not useful (IMO), and it uses a very basic navbar with default colors. They use Blue and Black and it looks horrible. You can't even find out what cars they have on them through the site!

I wanted to create a better looking website with more user friendly functions to increase sales for them.

The thing is, how much should I charge them? I have never charged anyone for a website before, and especially a car dealership. I was also thinking of offering for $100 a month managing there Facebook/Blog integration on the website so like lets say they have a new car on the lot, I go to the dealership, right my own w/e on it and post it on the Blog/Facebook page with specifications and images.

 

[juliandesigns]

So have they asked you for a quote? What type of site is it, html, database? How many pages? What type of functionality?
You can't really ask how much to charge without any more info

 

[designerhani]

The quote should be based on clients requirements.It depends upon the design, the number of pages, the functions client need etc..

 

[Birdz]

Maybe you can also offer them that you would take a percentage of cars sold on the website? Just a idea

 

[starsky]

Maybe you can also offer them that you would take a percentage of cars sold on the website? Just a idea

this is a nice idea. Very cool I think.

 

[Faith]

A percentage would be a big no no for me.
If I was the dealer, I wouldn't take your offer if it was a percentage.

Anyway better off with a monthly payment and show them a sample. Customize it for them with the name of the shop so that they will see you're serious

 

[ibilalx]

Show them before and after comparison of the website. Make sure u have a nice welcome page and then you include the car selection with a couple sentences about each car. Then say you will maintain hosting for around 10-15$ a month or even more and say that it cost so much because it's loaded with your awesome stuff. Just make it user friendly because you describe that it is not. Website should go anywhere from 300-600$ or even more. Include everything you are doing. Then if he/she agrees up sell social media management Check out some offline discussion on the forums. Will help you out

 

[infoking1]

Nowadays, its not about selling website, its about partnership. Tell them i will bring leads and you pay me monthly fees for leads and website maintenance. A small but regular income will be great in long run for you and for a 1 million worth product car dealer $250 to $500 per month won't be big deal

 

[WPcrew]

If you're just starting to charge your services, and you're good in what you do, for a simple site like that price of $500-$600 is solid.
When you start improving your quality and expanding your user base, increase your price for $100 - $150 per project.
About forming the price for maintaining Facebook page, it should be calculated by your hours, and your real expenses which you have: gas for car for going to photographing and so on....

 

[sikkepit3]

What I would do is offer them a 'discount' for creating the site
if they host it with you. Then just get a shared hosting for like 10 dollars a month
and ask them for around 100 a month and tell them you manage their FB page as well.

Your excuse would be that you manage the server, site, updates and stuff like that.

 

[djsamzazi]

i would offer theme promo or discount first

 

[twist13]

This is a good read:
http://css-tricks.com/how-much-should-you-charge-for-a-website/

Also yes, if they agree you to take care of the website's hosting, give them a discount. They will most likely accept it.

 

[bartosimpsonio]

Quote = The number of hours you think you would work on the site * A rate per hour

That's how all consultancy works. If you get the number of hours wrong on the first job, you tune it for the second job and with experience you start getting it right and being more profitable.