Freelancing and estimating deadlines

Hello, fellow blackhatters. This is a question from someone who's new to freelancing.
How did you estimate deadlines for jobs that you didn't really have experience with or require searching for a problem?
I look at most of my potential coding jobs and realize that I actually am not sure at all how fast would I be able to complete them. I am not sure if I should just study for a bit or if most jobs are going to have that element of uncertainty and I should just bite the bullet.

uxx0utt said:

Hello, fellow blackhatters. This is a question from someone who's new to freelancing.
How did you estimate deadlines for jobs that you didn't really have experience with or require searching for a problem?
I look at most of my potential coding jobs and realize that I actually am not sure at all how fast would I be able to complete them. I am not sure if I should just study for a bit or if most jobs are going to have that element of uncertainty and I should just bite the bullet.

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That's not good, you need to have a deadline to estimate if 'job' is going to be profitable for you. If it takes too long and you took too little money it won't be profitable, you might get in trouble and get into debt even though you're working your ass off. Be careful.

If you're not mastering the languages you work with then you can't give precise deadlines.

I would take the projects but add to delivery time just in case.

The main thing is divided into two main groups ;

# Earnings / Hours

#
Monetization
Managing Money
Making a purchase with money

If you draw your plan and project according to two main elements such as above, you will be more successful.

If I speak for my own profession; For me, if the amount I earn per time makes me say that it is better even if I do not do that job, I should start and bid.

Quality is no coincidence; The Apple company gives a certain amount of money to the hardware of its device, but the main gain is from the brand value.

in case like this, i think it's always best to under promise and over deliver.
example say you can do it in 4 weeks so when you finish in 1 week, the customer will be super happy you are done early.
eventually with enough work you will have better way to estimate how long a project will take.
otherwise search some polite ways to tell the customer project has been delayed. but better to give yourself that longer runway.
breaking the project down into milestones is a good strategy too should you consider it.

uncutu said:

in case like this, i think it's always best to under promise and over deliver.
example say you can do it in 4 weeks so when you finish in 1 week, the customer will be super happy you are done early.
eventually with enough work you will have better way to estimate how long a project will take.
otherwise search some polite ways to tell the customer project has been delayed. but better to give yourself that longer runway.
breaking the project down into milestones is a good strategy too should you consider it.

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However, if they over estimate how long it'll take won't it also increase the chances of the customer going to someone else?

Justin Storm said:

However, if they over estimate how long it'll take won't it also increase the chances of the customer going to someone else?

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you can always decide to be one of those people who tell customer you can complete it in very short timespan. then say oops project just got extended. don't forget to clear the 50% down payment.