Put Yourself Out There and Opportunity Presents Itself(need advise)

[tafy]

he question is would i be doing my client a disservice by trying to tackle this project without the confidence i can pull it off... or just coming clean now and saying that i feel overwhelmed by this.

Upon further review of the design spec I feel that the budget needs to be increased substantially to 5 figure sum, this is because of this and this. Lets talk about how we can cut costs by reducing this and that or some other things.... etc.

Dont take on the job if your not confident, unless it pays enough for you to outsource some expert help.

 

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[luniac]

Upon further review of the design spec I feel that the budget needs to be increased substantially to 5 figure sum, this is because of this and this. Lets talk about how we can cut costs by reducing this and that or some other things.... etc.

Dont take on the job if your not confident, unless it pays enough for you to outsource some expert help.

The initial budget set is almost an insult. its like 2k or so for a game with tons of little details, artwork, various features. The client is having trouble simplifying his idea even after i mentioned how game apps are arguably the most complex apps to make, with skyrocketing costs.

 

[tafy]

Dont take the job then

Give him your price, show him your past work and let him decide

 

[luniac]

Dont take the job then

Give him your price, show him your past work and let him decide

right.

 

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[luniac]

It's over, relationship with client severed.
I couldn't split myself between my app business, my sport, my day job AND the client's job.
I was overwhelmed, now I feel relieved.

 

[beatgoezon]

It's over, relationship with client severed.
I couldn't split myself between my app business, my sport, my day job AND the client's job.
I was overwhelmed, now I feel relieved.

Hey Luniac, I think it's good you let it go, I mean having too much on your plate is going to make you burnout or worse, leave you with a scattered focus for your own business. I'm sure you're more relieved

 

[splok]

The initial budget set is almost an insult. its like 2k or so for a game with tons of little details, artwork, various features. The client is having trouble simplifying his idea even after i mentioned how game apps are arguably the most complex apps to make, with skyrocketing costs.

I know it's over, but for future reference or for anyone else reading this thread, never ever rely on the client to design the game/app for you (even if they think they want to... ESPECIALLY if they think they want to). You take all the info that you can get from them, prodding as much as possible about priorities, then you turn that into a basic design yourself with realistic cost estimates. If you think the price will shock them (it almost always will), work up what you think would be the minimal effective design with a pricetag, then add a pricetag to each of the additional features and prioritize them in terms of effectiveness or value. That can work wonders to get people to abandon "utterly essential" features.

You're the development expert, so you shouldn't be afraid to guide them. They likely have no concept about what one feature would cost to implement relative to another, nor how effective each feature would be, nor how their desired featureset would work together, etc. etc. They've very likely just brainstormed some stuff they thought would be useful. Much of what they're paying you for is to take their braindump and turn it into something useful (even if they don't realize it).

Also, keep in mind that this can be a lot of work itself, so depending on how much you want to chase the work, it's fair to charge them for the work you do getting to this point. To make it easier to swallow (lots of people think design should be free for some reason), tell them that they're welcome to take your finished design and shop it around to other devs afterwards.

 

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[akbigdog]

Luniac, glad to see that you passed on this. I absolutely would have, too. For future reference, I have often on through a scoping process that the client pays me for. I'll charge $1500-$2000 to create wireframes and a complete website/app map to document all of the features and content that they're looking for. It really helps us all to get on the same page. I sell it by telling them they could take it to any web or app developer as part of their RFP process. In every case, they have always gone with me as the developer because of the relationship we develop and the time they have already invested in me with the project. It's a great way to cover your time while forging the relationship with the client, and almost always results in actually getting the development job itself. [HASHTAG]#latereply[/HASHTAG]


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