Lately I’ve been trying to transition to a quoting model for my work. It’s been somewhat difficult mainly because I am tenative with deciding on quoted prices. I want to make sure I’m going to be able to be profitable doing it. I have 3 projects in the works right now, all with approved quotes.
Project 1 is a revamp of code to make an update routine for Access isolated from multiple users utilizing the app tables that need to be updated. I know this is very important for the client so it is high value. I have already spent some time considering how I will do it so I believe I can do the work within a price the client is willing to pay.
Project 2 is a small starter project to create a new database app with forms for data entry the user wants to use to do some reports and calculations. The customer actually requested a small quote for only an initial phase where the data will be entered only and not actually used yet. This will pave the way for more quotes. This is actually ideal. I like how the customer wants to do this project because smaller projects allow for quicker change in direction and quicker prototypes to get to the end user who can help us pivot as we discover more.
Project 3 is off to a bad start. I quoted fixing an import routine, but discovered after the quote was approved and I started working on it that the import routine wasn’t the problem. Now the customer wants to discuss a much broader and larger change to the system. I was hoping to simply change what we were doing to quickly address the problem the end users had reported (which occurs because they need to manually change a field). So I’m working to navigate that with the customer and trying to decide whether to just charge the original quote now and then do another quote. I’m going to wait until our meeting to discuss this with him further as well as advocate for the fix that will address the original reported complaint. I have a long term and good working relationship with this customer, so I’m not worried about it, but I’m not sure how it’s going to pan out. It should be interesting to see how it evolves.
As a quick note, I’ve turned off commenting on my email archive. I had never really meant to use the site as a blog per se, I wanted to be able to have more personal one on one conversations via email. So please don’t be offended. If you want to discuss something or respond, please subscribe to the list and ask me via email. It may likely spawn more emails for me to share.