Charging for research time
benklocek (7 pencils) | Thu, 2009-01-08 21:55I've been a freelancer for years, but I've always felt that time for me to learn something new in order to do something for a client should not be charged to them. I've always thought of it as an investment in myself, and have not charged for it, or have charged less for that time.
On another similar situation, I feel guilty charging a client to fix a bug that I put into place in the course of coding.
Question to the great creativebits members: Do you charge anytime you are doing "anything" for a project (except maybe thinking about it when your in line at the store, or in the shower)?
Commenting on this Forum topic is closed.
If you offer that you know how to do something and don't and have to research how, that's non billable time. If you are doing research to complete a project, such as photosearches or iterations, definitely bill for that time.
Your clients are paying for your time as well as your overhead when you are a freelancer. They are even paying for the jobs you are passing up to do theirs. Read more here, it's a great article explaining what to charge for and how:
http://slash7.com/articles/2009/1/7/pricing-your-consulting-you-re-doing-it-wrong
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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"
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Dirt and Rust
Learning something is non-billable. Researching something is different.
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Thanks Natobasso for that link, I have always loved Amy's writing.
I love that "opportunity charge". What I find happening is I have long term clients who come to me for webdev, and advice. Sometimes I know it off the top of my head, sometimes I don't. For example, a client wanted to route his mail through gmail and back to use it's spam filter. I had to figure out how to get Outlook to work with the multiple addresses that gmail can do, and it took a while on the phone and online to figure it out.
Another client wanted me to work with his back-end, which uses Template Toolkit, with which I am unfamiliar. I took a week (paid) to get up to speed, but I still sometimes need to look up stuff.
Do I charge for all that time, or only actual work on the project? I think it's more of an ethical dilemma I have. I feel like since I don't know it, I shouldn't charge for it, but I'm often asked questions for which I have to do research, and can't afford not to.
./ben
i think that, in situations like the 2nd example (template toolkit), it sounds like they didn't expect you to know everything up front, so it would make sense that you should be able to bill them if you're looking info up.
and generally, i would say that's ok for most stuff. if you have to do something that you don't commonly do and you may have to spend a little time figuring it out, i would charge that time. especially if it's not something you really ought to know at the rate you're charging. i.e., if you're billing yourself as an expert at template toolkit, constantly billing time to look up things you ought to know, that might be a bit much. but if you didn't bill yourself as an expert and there are lesser-used features that you have to do a little up-front research to make sure you're doing them properly, that seems reasonable to charge for.
in the first example, i would say as long as you're reasonably up front with them about it, i.e., they asked you to do something like that and you say, "i can do that, just need to do a little research to make sure it's set up right" instead of "oh sure, i know how to do that easily," then you should be able to charge for that time because some research time would be expected.
Don't confuse knowing with doing. These people pay you for your time because you're good and you get the job done, not because you know everything.
In business, as long as there's agreement and it's legal, you can charge for it!
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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"
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Dirt and Rust
Thanks again Natobasso,
I think you solved my dilemma! I've always felt that "I can't know everything" how can I still get paid for the time I put in... It's because I'm doing things for them. I'm good at what I do, so when I don't know something I can learn it quickly, or have the wisdom to know I can't, and subcontract.
Thank you all. What a great community!
./ben
Hey cool! Glad CB has helped you!
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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"
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Dirt and Rust