Website Build Quote Excessive?

steve1980

Idiophreak wrote: »

Neither seem particularly excessive to me. I was thinking about making some money on the side by sellings simple, cookie-cutter CMS sites to small businesses...and really, when I thought about it, by the time you take out taxes, hosting, hardwear, certificates, etc and deal with a certain amount of specification and support, I really wouldn't bother starting a side at all for less than £500 - and that would be a completely static "here's who we are, here's our phone number" page. I'd have thought that something with secure payment etc would be another £250 or £500, so £1000 for the lot sounds about right to me, without knowing much about the particular details.

Of course, I could sit down and write the thing in a day, but actually writing the site's a fraction of the total work involved - and for 3 or 4 days' work, you're not going to make your millions if you're charging £400 as steve suggests...

Maybe not, but a newly formed business can't instantly charge £1000 for a website.

paulwf

OP could I suggest that if you are going to have an online business you learn as much as you can about how websites work? I'm not suggest you do everything yourself - there is nothing wrong with paying for a professional site - but the more you can do yourself the faster and more flexible your updates will be plus you will know exactly what you want out of a developer.

Why not get yourself a free site such as blogger or wordpress or whatever and just have a play and see what you learn? When I wanted to build a site (going back 10 years so a bit different now) I sat down with a good book and learned html from scratch. There are now lots of tools to make life easier and it is worth seeing how much you can master yourself.

zackary71

paulwf wrote: »

OP could I suggest that if you are going to have an online business you learn as much as you can about how websites work? I'm not suggest you do everything yourself - there is nothing wrong with paying for a professional site - but the more you can do yourself the faster and more flexible your updates will be plus you will know exactly what you want out of a developer.

Why not get yourself a free site such as blogger or wordpress or whatever and just have a play and see what you learn? When I wanted to build a site (going back 10 years so a bit different now) I sat down with a good book and learned html from scratch. There are now lots of tools to make life easier and it is worth seeing how much you can master yourself.

Really good advice Paul. To be honest, it's all the IT side that scares me...I'm old enough that computers were only just being introduced at schools when I left. The business side I'm ok with and I'll be using HMRC workshops to get up to speed there.
I'm an Admin on a Wordpress site (football supporters club branch) so can get a bit more to grips from there. I think I'm going to have close look at CS Cart, OpenCart and EKM + the company in Bath. Once I've got a little more knowledge, I'll be in better position to take things forward.

texranger

Ive used http://www.totalcreation.co.uk/ for several projects and can recommend these

texranger

rdchick wrote: »

SSL certs can be between £99.99 to £499.99.

where did you pluck these figures from

a dedicated IP is needed this will cost anywhere upto £20 a year
a SSL cert will cost anywhere from $10 (£6.20) to $500 (£310) a year

pitkin2020

steve1980 wrote: »

Maybe not, but a newly formed business can't instantly charge £1000 for a website.

LOL its comments like this that always make me chuckle. Just because you are a new business doesn't mean you can't charge the market rate for your work. Yes you will have to work harder for it but its not rocket science.

If your a web designer you would design several sites as examples for your portfolio, if the quality is there the price should be there!!

If you start changing low prices because your new, working from home and have low over heads you will struggle to raise your price and retain the client base you have when your over heads triple and need to move to new premises.

It also depends on your target market, if you can achieve the top end in terms of quality new or not aim for that end of the market!!

paddyrg

Back to the original post, those rates are perfectly reasonable, assuming the company has some track record and isn't trying to teach themselves on your job. Find 3 sites you like the look and feel of and ask an experienced company for something similar with so many product categories, lines, etc. And paypal integration with a particular account name, etc.

terra_ferma

zackary71 wrote: »

Really good advice Paul. To be honest, it's all the IT side that scares me...I'm old enough that computers were only just being introduced at schools when I left. The business side I'm ok with and I'll be using HMRC workshops to get up to speed there.
I'm an Admin on a Wordpress site (football supporters club branch) so can get a bit more to grips from there. I think I'm going to have close look at CS Cart, OpenCart and EKM + the company in Bath. Once I've got a little more knowledge, I'll be in better position to take things forward.

I'm looking for a shopping cart too. I've been doing a lot of research, so I can share some information with you

If you are familiar with WP, it's worth looking at their ecommerce plugins, so that you can build a website using a platform you are already familiar with.
This has good reviews: http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/

EKM is overpriced as it is, big on hype and small on delivery. It's supposed to be very simple to use, no programming required, and charging £700 seems excessive to me.


Some have a free trial: Freewebstore have a free option altogether, although very limited it can give you a feel for it. Create.net have a 30-day free trial. EKM have a 30-day money back guarantee, so you can try them out and see what you think.

Personally I think paying for EKM is not a good idea, as it's meant to be used by the end-user and therefore limited. If you want to go down the route of paying a designer I would suggest you get someone who uses a proper cart, without monthly fees (except hosting).

Also make sure you own the domain, don't transfer it, just use it to point to your shop.

HTH

pitkin2020

terra_ferma wrote: »

EKM is overpriced as it is, big on hype and small on delivery. It's supposed to be very simple to use, no programming required, and charging £700 seems excessive to me.

It may be excessive if the op is providing everything, but if they are designing the theme, creating the the logo, creating all the T&C's, editing all the initial pictures etc its a very fair rate. There is so much more to a website than just plonking a shop on the webspace and away you go. There will also be a fair amount of time going back to the client confirming details making changes etc.

The OP could do it himself if he took the time, but he may not have the time or the inclination to do himself. Whilst it isn't that hard anymore to get a shop up and running, couple of clicks and you really can be up and running. Doesn't mean anyone will use it though if it looks like a DIY job, your asking people to share payment details with you so your site has to look professional.

terra_ferma

pitkin2020 wrote: »

It may be excessive if the op is providing everything, but if they are designing the theme, creating the the logo, creating all the T&C's, editing all the initial pictures etc its a very fair rate. There is so much more to a website than just plonking a shop on the webspace and away you go. There will also be a fair amount of time going back to the client confirming details making changes etc.

The OP could do it himself if he took the time, but he may not have the time or the inclination to do himself. Whilst it isn't that hard anymore to get a shop up and running, couple of clicks and you really can be up and running. Doesn't mean anyone will use it though if it looks like a DIY job, your asking people to share payment details with you so your site has to look professional.

I don't disagree with the quote (I actually got quotes from £250 to £1500 for designing my website). Personally if my webstore takes off I will want to get professional advice (I have a business to run, no time to be a designer/programmer/SEO expert/marketeer etc etc).
What I'm saying is that if I got someone to do it for me I would want them to use a proper cart, maybe Magento, as with EKM you have to pay a monthly fee, and their features are very limited. It would still be a half-baked attempt.

I believe the cheap/free all in one packages are a great place to start for a new business, to test the water when then don't have a lot of cash, if it works and they want to take it to the next level they would need to call in the professionals.