This winter I finally had the chance to revamp my kitchen. It’s a project I’ve been looking forward to doing for over three years, pretty much since I moved into my flat.
I thought I’d planned it pretty well. I had arranged for a kitchen fitter to come in over a weekend to do all the bits my dad and I couldn’t. I’d ordered everything I needed and done multiple trips to various DIY stores to buy tiles, flooring, a new light fitting, paint etc.
And it all started well. We prepped the kitchen for the kitchen fitter - removed the tiles, got rid of the old washing machine, cleared all the clutter from the sides, removed things from cupboards. In fact, the kitchen fitter did his job in just a day, which was amazing.
In my naivety I thought dad and I would be able to do the tiling and flooring in a day too. Then it would just be one more day to finish stuff off and I’d only have a messy kitchen for about a week.
I forget how time consuming DIY can be. Of course the tiling took about a day, and the flooring about the same. Then there was the grouting of the tiles, fitting the trim to the floor, and replacing the light took longer than I’d anticipated (and I still need to gloss paint my skirting boards); not to mention at least two more trips to B&Q to get things I’d forgotten.
There were also extra little jobs I’d not thought about. For example, we took my kitchen door off to lay the floor, but as we’d laid laminate over the existing tiles, that meant it was now higher and that we needed to cut a small bit off the bottom of my door so that it would still hang and close. Luckily my dad had thought about those, but it added time to the process that I’d not accounted for.
The upshot of all that is that what I’d originally thought would take about a week has taken closer to two. I don’t mind. I love my new kitchen and even though there are still a few jobs to do, they’re minor and not as disruptive. So what does this have to do with quoting for freelance jobs?
It just reminded me how easy it is to forget about how long things can take and some of the extra things that can crop up - especially when you’re working with a new client.
I’m terrible for underestimating how long jobs will take me. I learned the hard way that I need to allow more time than I think for a writing project. And that I also need to remember to allow time for amends - and build all of that into my quote, and then hope that whoever I’m quoting for is happy.
And I’m pretty sure that my process isn’t perfect. I try to be as fair as I can be when I’m quoting - I’m not in the business of ripping people off - and I definitely feel like I’ve got a better balance now than I did when I first started out, in terms of more accurately assessing the amount of time a job will take me and therefore quoting a fair price for the work, for me and the client. But that doesn’t mean it’s not difficult sometimes.
Just like with my kitchen, there can be hidden variables or even little jobs you forget about. I’ve learned to be clear about what work my quote covers (and what it doesn’t) so that if a job becomes more complex than I’d anticipated that I’m able to charge more for it.
It can be hard to strike the right balance and to keep everyone happy. What I have to remind myself is that the process has to keep me happy too. One of the best pieces of advice I received when I started out on my own was to only work for a price I’d be happy with - whatever that may be. The danger of under-quoting is that you resent the work and don’t do such a good job on it because you’re trying to rush the process.
Do any other freelancers have any tips or advice on how to make sure your quotes are fair (almost) every time?
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